adventures with my new toy, the first 48 hours

[jack404]

G'day folks

Its been a funny old week so far

Got my new mini Lathe and was happy to be getting the home workshop finally together,

started yesterday afternoon stripping the lathe down as it was a bit stiff with I thought the smelly oil the chinese folks use and hit a few "UH OH's"

the finish on this lathe was ok in general but when i took the tool head and compound slide ( which where stiffer than alvin purple) off to clean i freaked

the gibs where shocking (POS i think is the US slang) i made a new one for it straight away and then sat down to figure what to do with the edges of the compound slide mounts, there was a 12 mm splinter in the middle

see second pic ( first pic is of other smaller nicks and dents)

i found that at 9pm last night so a very early trip this morning (5 am) to the big shop to grab the grinding unit from my big lathe and the mount post

i mounted the short post directly in the chuck and started the grinding process
( luckily i was at home today waiting for a delivery)

by 8am i had taken off an even 1mm of the slide and the big splinter was gone

then i took off a 0.5 mm off the top of the screw heads to ensure they did not hit the slide

after this i inserted the new gib ( 0.5 mm thicker than it should be but to allow the screws to still stay central)

mounted the compound slide and woohoo it was as smooth as a babies bum

i grabbed a bit of 1 1/4" stainless, as stainless shows inperfections and only using the compound slide started
a fine cut

despite the not so great tool that came with the lathe the cut was nice and smooth

new tools arrive next week and the rest i'll make as i go

I must admit i was sooooo ticked off when i saw how bad the finish was on this important peice on the machine but i am also sooooo happy i was able to bodgey it in my usual fashion

it was not a show stopper in my books and i realise for what i paid it is a cheap machine, however which way you cut it and not worth sending it back

I am mainly glad it wasn't on the cross slide where the oiler is located as retapping that and counter sinking it 1mm further down would have screwed me in a big way, and it would have gone back.

well my delivery arrived about 12:30 so i'll chuck the bird in its cage and go do some paying work

but do inspect any new purchase thoughly!! as soon as you get it eh!!

it pays

cheers all

jack

 

[Philjoe5]

Good luck with the new lathe Jack. I'm sure you'll get to enjoy it. I went through a similar "adventure" with my new X3 mill last year. The initial fire of excitement of having a new, in your words, "important" machine were quickly doused when I discovered I had an R8 spindle of strange dimensions . I had to fiddle with that for some time to get my R8 tooling to fit. Some of it still doesn't, but I've been able to work around the limitations. I'm not complaining mind you, but I would have gladly paid 10% more for the machine if it had a standard in-spec R8 spindle. In every other respect I really like that X3 mill.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[bentprop]

Congrats,Jack.Any lathe is better than NO lathe.I had the same problem with gibs on my zay45 mill-drill.
Rougher than a bear's a*#e.Once they were attended too,I was home 'n dry. With the money you saved over a clapped out myford,you can buy more tooling ;D.
Hans.

 

[baldrocker]

Oy! Some people view clapped out old Myfords as a fulfilling challenge.
BR

 

[compound driver 2]

Why didnt you sling the lathe back at the dealer? Id have had it back to him with a huge description of my thoughts. I certainly wouldnt repair a machine id just bought.

Clapped out Myford! Mines almost as old as me and is used most days for some thing or other and its still as good as it was when new.

Im glad I have access to cheap second hand English machines.

 

[jack404]

Why didnt you sling the lathe back at the dealer? Id have had it back to him with a huge description of my thoughts. I certainly wouldnt repair a machine id just bought.

Fair enough question

Titan is a great dealer i have bought a fair few machines from him over the time and never had a issue but these baby machines , well he does not inspect these, normally with a machine from him i dont have to deal with the chinese oil that stinks as he's cleaned them tested them and does the good deed all the way.

my mill was trammed and cleaned when i got it the previous lathe i got from him too and the one before that.

The OZ $ has dropped a heap , over 30% the past few weeks and as such everything has gone up
but he charged me the old price, even though i know this was brought in and paid for AFTER the fall in
value ( and rise in cost)

if it had been a part like the cross slide it would have gone back but theres a lot of "meat" in the compound slide mounts and the thought i waiting another few weeks had a LOT to do with my reaction.

they sell C2 lathes in lots of places most with 250 W mpotors and no accessories
my deal was i got everything, 450W motor, 3&4 jaw chuck, 5" plate, slides, live and live pipe centres, steadies,
woblers to fit and the cheapo tools that most ones have and theres a few peices of 1/4" HSS as well ( toolholders are coming by mail as they did not make the boat) and $50 cheaper than the cheapest ( no accessories) i have seen one anywhere here for.

he has always done right by me and never shirked on service

if it was a real show stopper i'da called him up but as it is i thought bugger it i got a great deal and the 6 hours it held me up just gave me more chance to play "Mr fixit" and i learned a lot about it

but again, do inspect these things chinese quality control still aint where it should be

as for old

my main production lathe was made during WW2 and its great but too hard to do close up work on
the gun drill also WW2 vintage rebuilt during Korea ( early 50's)
the rifleing lathe is indeterminate age i think the bed is 1930's the tools head is 1950's and bitza for the rest

old dont mean bad

i bought a thomas lathe ( the yellow one in the pics of the shop) brand new and its a POS only new lathe i have bought not from Titan and its a dead set dud, so now its been modded to do other jobs as there IS no warrenty from many dealers here with small lathes

i wish i could afford my mates myford as they can do most anything but like most things its horses for courses and my budget for a "hobby" aint much and a half decent myford would cost more than the mini mill and mini lathe combined

besides i have ( almost except for a few peices) a functional workshop for model building and such

NOW!!! TODAY!!! (insert evil laugh) even a rocking chair and coffee maker!!

cheers all

jack

PS if the aussies just heard a big girly scream it was me

I CAN metric thread internally!!!

2 passes and it fitted the 24mm x 2mm thread bolt beeeeeeeutifully

time to knock off and have a beer or 3 and think happy thoughts about the weekend

cheers

 

[compound driver 2]

My old Colchester was built in the 50's and does a cracking job. To my mind theres a lot of money spent in industry on new machines that could be better spent on other things, the same could be said for the hobby side of things. I like old machines for work and hobby, I always get the feeling they will do the job and be about a lot longer than me.

The repair you did makes sense when you lay it out like that.

A few beers! i should be so lucky I aint had ad rink in 15 years.

Oh well im off to knock the skin off a Mclaren cylinder casting.

 

[rake60]

As I've said before, In my opinion when you buy a China import machine, you are actually buying a KIT.

The design and parts are very good!
The final assembly fair, and the protection for shipping is very poor.

The first thing you need to do it strip it down and look for shipping damage.
You WILL find something! Repair it and reassemble the machine to an operating state.
What you end up with is a very good little machine at a percentage of the cost of the alternative.

I've worked for several large machine shops in my years.
I've seen new machines come into those shop that cost $250,000.00
EVERY ONE of them required months of debugging before they could be called reliable.
If a $500 machine takes a week to bring it up to expectations, I'd see that as a PLUS!

Rick

 

[jack404]

My thoughts too Rick

just I could see this was a factory booboo from when they dovetail cut the edges

which is disappointing but its going very well now

i gave it a real test this morning with some 0.10 mm threading

normaly i thread in imperial as my machines are of that age and thread fine stuff by hand to ensure accuracy but this machine has surprised me a heap



the metal took 4 passes to thread as this is ANSI 4135 tube instead of the 1020 i did last night (same as a mauser receiver houseing) very hard metal

but the thread was beutiful and so now i have enough tube for 5 collars

i was paying $23:50 each plus tax for these before, now i can make them myself from offcuts

sorry for the lousy camera its my phone camera and i've not worked out how to convert my digi cam to web video yet.. another job for later

cheers

jack

 

[Brass_Machine]

Nice shop you got going there.

I have the small C2... 7x10 and even thought it is tiny and required several days of tweaking, I make a mean motorcycle kickstand of off it. So much so, I have built and sold about 50 of them. Just a matter of learning how to use the machine to it's potential. And it looks like you already have! :bow:

BTW, what mill is that?

Eric

 

[ksouers]

Jack,
Nice shop. I bit too "sterile", but I see you are working on getting some chips thrown about and some oil splashed on the walls ;D

I have a C2 as well, long bed version. As stated, I've found it to be a kit of barely finished parts. It does need some fiddling to get it right.

Looks like you have the Real Bull version of the C2. I haven't seen one in person, but from the pictures I've seen they seem to be finished better than the Seig versions. The major differences between them, RB has the oil ports Seig does not. The Seig has an H-shaped saddle whereas the RB has straight sides. I think you will find it easier to add a saddle lock than it would be on a Seig.

 

[bentprop]

My apologies to all myford owners,I wasn't inferring they were a bad machine.I do think most of the ones we see on the market here are well past their best,yet seem to command ludicrous prices.
For the same money you can buy an asian machine brand new,and a fair bit of tooling besides.
That was the intention of my post.Sack cloth and ashes duly donned ;D.
In the end,like I said,any lathe is better than no lathe at all.