Websterz,
So mate hows your new lathe? 

DaveH

After a week I have a few observations.
For a gear head lathe this machine is pretty quiet. It's no 7x12 as far as noise level goes but it is not bad at all.
9 speeds are enough as long as you have the right ones.
The tailstock, although smooth as butter, has one huge issue. There are 2 adjusting setscrews and 1 locking setscrew, and that is all that holds it together. I had the taper adjusted almost completely out a few days ago and when I rechecked everything today it was out by almost .010"

I am going to disassemble it, flip it upside down on the mill, and mill a couple of slots perpendicular to the direction of travel. Then I am going to drill and tap the base for a couple of lockdown bolts. That will still allow me to adjust the offset, and also lock the thing down solid. It should have had that done at the factory. They are learning slowly...but they ARE getting better.
I have a slight oil leak somewhere in the apron. I will try and locate it tomorrow when I do the first oil change.
And finally the saddle lock uses a really shallow headed cap screw instead of the traditional square headed bolt. It is so shallow that you can't leave an allen wrench in it, it just falls out. I am going to have to do something about that because I use the lock a lot.
That's about it for now.
