How do you like your Craftex 10x22 DPitmann? I am curious what did they sell for 10 y/ago? Did you have any issues with the vfd speed controller?
My 10x22 is like my minivan in alot of ways.
A minivan isn't what I wanted. A minivan was what I could afford. A minivan would accomplish all I needed to do. I used to poke fun at the poor family man that had to run a minivan (until I became a poor family man also, lol). I figured there must good reasons why so many other people chose minivans.
My 10x22 isn't really the lathe of my dreams either but it was what I could afford, both initially and for tooling. It also was one of the few bench lathes that could fit in my space.
How do you like your Craftex 10x22 DPitmann?
If someone stole my lathe off my bench today I'd purchase another brand new one to replace it.
My lathe does not have a vfd per se but rather it is a variable speed dc motor drive. The controller board has given me no trouble and I understand that the brand name (KB Electronics) board in my Craftex lathe is very good and reliable.
I have replaced motor brushes a couple of times. I also had a bad fuse wiring connection that gave a whack of trouble in diagnosing and pin pointing the problem but once I did the fix was very simple and lasting.
I have also replaced the potentiometer but again that was a pretty easy and cheap fix.
The newer 10x22 lathes now have a larger spindle hole than my tiny 21mm spindle. I paid $1600 for my lathe and the newest Craftex 10x22 lathes now are at $3000.
FWIW.
My minivan now has 280000kms on it I hope and expect to get at least that many more out of it. I still love to hate the thing and hate to love it, but damn it, it just works!
If you do have a crash, I wouldn't count on the supplier, any supplier, to be much help. Sorry, but that is just the ways things are for inexpensive machines from the far east. Besides, if you have a lathe, you're a metal worker. So just work some metal to fix the problem. (See, it is an opportunity--not a problem!)
