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Today I thought I'd take a few minutes to get the lathe off of the crating and on it's bench. It had other ideas.
The first 3 bolts that were attaching the base to the crate came right out, the last one was a bit stiff and after about 5 turns snapped off.
So after several minutes of stripping it with a pair of vice grips and trying to grind flats to use another wrench to get it to come free, I resorted to welding a nut on.
After two more snap offs, it did come free, the last one I caught before it split off and was able to weld the split and finish getting the bolt out.
So after I got the final bolt out, I checked the threading and all was good, just had some bent up shipping bolts. So I went ahead and mounted the feet to the lathe.
I'll probably end up bolting it to the bench later, but was a bit cold today and just wanted to make some curls with it. I installed the quick change tool post and spent a little time cleaning things up.
Ready to go now, but I couldn't get the machine to run. Well after taking the cover off and doing a bunch of electrical tests I got no where. Then I noticed there were 3 sets of cables leaving the enclosure. I knew one was power, another was the motor, but wasn't sure about the last set. After a bit more investigation, it turns out the plastic shield over the chuck that flips up. has a cut-off switch.
Back in business, so I chucked up a small piece of aluminum and ran a face on it, which is all I had time left for.
First project is going to be some spinning knobs for my cross feed, the ones that came with it are horrible and come unscrewed as I work it. Will give me a chance to used the knurling tool on it.
The first 3 bolts that were attaching the base to the crate came right out, the last one was a bit stiff and after about 5 turns snapped off.
So after several minutes of stripping it with a pair of vice grips and trying to grind flats to use another wrench to get it to come free, I resorted to welding a nut on.
After two more snap offs, it did come free, the last one I caught before it split off and was able to weld the split and finish getting the bolt out.
So after I got the final bolt out, I checked the threading and all was good, just had some bent up shipping bolts. So I went ahead and mounted the feet to the lathe.
I'll probably end up bolting it to the bench later, but was a bit cold today and just wanted to make some curls with it. I installed the quick change tool post and spent a little time cleaning things up.
Ready to go now, but I couldn't get the machine to run. Well after taking the cover off and doing a bunch of electrical tests I got no where. Then I noticed there were 3 sets of cables leaving the enclosure. I knew one was power, another was the motor, but wasn't sure about the last set. After a bit more investigation, it turns out the plastic shield over the chuck that flips up. has a cut-off switch.
Back in business, so I chucked up a small piece of aluminum and ran a face on it, which is all I had time left for.
First project is going to be some spinning knobs for my cross feed, the ones that came with it are horrible and come unscrewed as I work it. Will give me a chance to used the knurling tool on it.