WOOHOO!!! Just ordered my new lathe!!

[WillieL]

I love it when a plan comes together.   

[Davo J]

Good to hear all is well. 
Another test you can do for the head stock is to machine a larger piece of pipe with a decent wall thickness, say 3-4 inch diameter, to see how well the head stock is aligned now you have it leveled. Not sure if you know about marking the chucks in there best running position to the spindle, but I used the letter V out of my punch set to mark mine.



Also when you machine the face plate to clean it up, mark it in the position it was machined. I then took mine to the mill and checked it for flatness to see how the lathe was facing, I found mine was pretty well spot on with only a little concave. They should really turn slightly concave.

Have fun with your new lathe.

Dave

[DaveH]

Websterz,

So mate hows your new lathe? 
 
DaveH

[websterz]

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. 

[Davo J]

Hi,
All lathes have the tail stock set up like this, if you add bolts underneath how are you going to do them up? You will have to take off the tail stock and then it may move. Also if you move it to another part of the bed it may need adjust differently, so you will have to take it off again.

The tail stock base is aligned by the V way, then the tail stock itself is located buy a tongue and groove onto the base. The adjusting grub screws will adjust sideways movement and also lock it in place once both a nipped up. The tail stock has nothing pulling it up so gravity holds it down while the lock is loose. Once you do up the lock it will pull the base down on the way and lock it in place. I am no sure about your tail stock, but mine needs to be pried away from the base the tongue and groove is that tight.

I would just pull it apart and give it a good clean, that should fix it.

For the lock on the carriage, Make a new one up with a handle like I did in the picture below. You can either machine it up and thread it to suit, or do as I did and plug weld a turned and drilled piece of scrap on the end of the bolt for the handle to screw into.

Dave

[websterz]

I don't plan to put the bolts underneath. The adjusting slots will go in the tailstock and the base will be drilled and tapped. I use the tailstock a lot but rarely (as in maybe once a year) offset it to cut a taper. What I need is that it be centered and stay that way. The tongue and groove on mine isn't as snug as your's but it is tight enough to align to the base. When I opened the crate the tailstock was in pieces and it got a good cleaning before reassembly.

[DaveH]

Websterz,

So mate, you have had plenty of time to admire your new lathe, 

What you made on it?  I hope you are not still polishing it 

 
DaveH

[HS93]

Just a quick question , is that a grizzly mill in the picture of your workshop ,and do you suffer overheating on high speed.?

sorry for going off topic , Nice big  Lath though, how did you lift it on the bench?

peter

[websterz]

That is indeed a Grizzly...a G0704. I have not had any real heat issues with it yet. I push it pretty hard and the motor does get hot, but it hasn't caused any problems. I did notice that the Z axis digital readout doesn't like it when the spindle bearings start heating up. The display gets erratic and is useless until things cool down. Wierd.

As for the lathe I have not really done a lot with it. The first real part I made was a bushing for the mill drawbar. I replaced the original bar with a long 7/16-20 bolt but it was pretty wonky and didn't center itself in the spindle very well. This caused a lot of vibration at high speed. To cure it I made an aluminum bushing to fit the ID of the spindle and OD of the bolt, with a little flange around the top. No more vibration as the new drawbar stays centered.

As for getting the machine on the bench I used a 2 ton cherry picker (engine hoist). Moved it with ease all by myself. 

[75Plus]

On you G0704, how do you lock the spindle when tightening or loosening the drawbar?

Joe