Is it my turn? Anything to do with lathes, mills and other shop tools

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Truck finally showed up with my new toy. Spent the last few hours assembling, inspecting and cleaning. According to the Ewe Toob videos, most of these Chinese lathes need a lot of tweaking and adjusting to run well. The most egregious problems noted in the videos are slop in the cross feed and compound and the belt drive not tracking true.

As far as I can tell, none of these things are an issue with mine, at least so far. Crossfeed and compound are tight with no detectable slop found via the "grab it and wiggle" test. Belt walks around a little but runs in the center of the pulley. Travel on the crossfeed is a little stiff, but I probably don't have all the cosmoline out from under the ways yet.

Fired it up and the chuck appears to run true with no noticeable vibration. Once I finish cleaning up, I'll indicate it for runout to be sure. Also need to check the tailstock with a dead center and see where it lands.

Of course it ships with squat for tooling, so I'm about to hit Amazon and beat the crap out of my VISA card. :confused:
 
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my new toy...

Is that the G8688, 7" x 12"?

...Crossfeed and compound are tight with no detectable slop found via the "grab it and wiggle" test...

How about "backlash"?

...Of course it ships with squat for tooling, so I'm about to hit Amazon and beat the crap out of my VISA card...

More temptations:

https://littlemachineshop.com
http://www.cdcotools.com
http://www.gadgetbuilder.com/index.html
http://www.micro-machine-shop.com
 
That looks like a nice little unit DE - congrats!

On tooling - my lathe mill uses a certain Morse taper (MT3 I think) and so anything with that taper can fit. I found a fair bit of stuff used here and there.

Perhaps if you can determine the tooling geometry of yours, you’ll find some good stuff too.
 
That looks like a nice little unit DE - congrats!

On tooling - my lathe mill uses a certain Morse taper (MT3 I think) and so anything with that taper can fit. I found a fair bit of stuff used here and there.

Perhaps if you can determine the tooling geometry of yours, you’ll find some good stuff too.

Yup, tailstock is MT2. I've ordered a Jacobs chuck for it, among other things. Thinking about ordering a spring collet holder and a set of collets. Need to put some miles on it first. Also need to order various cutting fluids (Tap Magic, A9 for aluminum, some Kool Mist or the like for steel). As noted earlier, the lathe itself was probably the cheapest related purchase...
 
As noted earlier, the lathe itself was probably the cheapest related purchase...

Indeed - sort of like “the barn find was the cheapest part about getting this old bike going...”.

I’m sure I’ve spent far more on Lucille AFTER I got her than she cost to bring home in the first place. Still, it has been worth it in my view.
 
You're a bit light on shop equipment there Jim :) :lmao:

Could I ask what portable DIY /Hobbist TIG you guys would recommend ?
I need something to weld butt weld 1mm -1.6mm steel panels . i have a Mig but its difficult to spot and seam weld 1mm steel sheet with a Mig and not get distortion and blow through

Is It My Turn?
Heh... I see what you did there Gary;)
Well, there's the 10" Atlas. 1940 ish. Has plain babbet bearings and oil cups in the headstock. It came to me in cardboard boxes.


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First thing I made on it was this....

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There's the homemade torch rig....

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Yes, those really are XS650 pullbacks for the handle... I like to re-purpose stuff:)

And the Alpha TIG 200

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The Plasma Cutter...

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And the 20+ yr old Hobart wire machine. Don't let the Craftsman badge fool ya, it's a Hobart through and through.

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A 30" blasting cabinet

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A 20 ton press...

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An 8" disc/belt sander... great for steel or aluminum

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A floor drill press with laser crosshairs

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And I think there's a partridge in a pear tree around here somewhere....
 
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I turned a chunk of aluminum last night. after some head scratching .
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Decided this showing basically 0 deflection wasn't telling me anything. So got the caliper and came up with about a .014" larger diameter at the tailstock end. To go with that the tailstock appears to have the cross adjustment way out of whack. The good news is the adjustment is pretty straightforward. I'm going to want to check comparative height as well.
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I am third owner and now suspect I can trust nothing. guess lathe PO's aren't much different than motorcycle PO's
One of these days I'll tell a story about picking up this lathe. :confused: :cautious: :eek:

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thank you Jim. Unfortunately I cannot justify that kind of money now that I'm retired. I'm looking for a solution at around half that price if its possible.
I've been looking at the small portable DC inverters but I'm not sure which can be used with the small torches like this one
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Some of those little scratch start tigs work fine. I have one now but need to make a threaded adapter for the gas inlet, it has an oddball thread.

nightmare !... why the industry cannot agree some standardization is beyond me. I think we spend more time researching compatibility of equipment accessories and connectors than we do the actual equipment.

I have this mini inverter which is amazingly good. It will weld 5mm with good penetration but I don't think I can use that type of torch with it can I ?
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Peanut,
this TIG welder can be had for a little over 200 bucks. It's dual voltage and takes your 50hz lectricity'. I suspect that by the time you buy all the stuff you need for your inverter, you'll be around that cost anyway.
I've never used a Zeny TIGger, but I do have the Zeny plasma cutter and it's good quality.... for Chinese stuff anyway.
 
Peanut,
this TIG welder can be had for a little over 200 bucks. It's dual voltage and takes your 50hz lectricity'. I suspect that by the time you buy all the stuff you need for your inverter, you'll be around that cost anyway.
I've never used a Zeny TIGger, but I do have the Zeny plasma cutter and it's good quality.... for Chinese stuff anyway.

thats more like it Jim ;)

Its probably only going to get maybe a few hours use a year so its not worth spending £600-£700 +
I have a lot to learn about Tig welders MMA, HF , Lift arc , AC ,DC, :umm:
 
Just out of curiosity, would this little TIG be something that wold work for welding stuff like fabricating exhaust or other thin steel like that work? Will it run on say a 20 amp house outlet?

I do have a little Lincoln 120 volt MIG with the gas kit on it that I play with once in a while. What woould be the advantage of the TIG over a MIG? Sorry to be asking such basic questions, but one has to start some where!
 
Will it run on say a 20 amp house outlet?
Yes it will. As to advantages, that would be too long a reply for here. Main reason is better control of the power which translates to better heat control on your workpiece. Yes, it works great for exhaust tubing. Google TIG vs. MIG. All will be revealed;)
 
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