# Anyone own a GH1440W lathe from Modern Tools or a PM1440HD from Precision Matthews?



## John Conroy (Jan 30, 2019)

I'm considering purchasing a new lathe before I retire in June and this one is on my short list. I think someone on the forum must own on these machines, the Modern Tools version and the PM one are very similar. I'd like to hear your impressions if you have one. This machine is also sold by Jet as model GH1440W. I don't really have a good reason to buy a new lathe other than this will be my last opportunity to buy NEW.


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## DPittman (Jan 30, 2019)

Ooo those all look nice. Congratulations on the upcoming retirement and your retirement gift to yourself LOL.  That sounds like a great way to start your retirement!


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## Dabbler (Jan 31, 2019)

I was looking at that lathe yesterday as well...  Very nice but too spendy for me.


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## John Conroy (Feb 12, 2019)

Well since my CanTek lathe is sold I now have a hole in my shop where a lathe should be. I sent Dahl at Modern a bunch of money and they are going to deliver a new GH1440W to my garage next week. As they say, you only live once.


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## Tom O (Feb 13, 2019)

Congrats that lathe should keep you quite happy!


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## DPittman (Feb 13, 2019)

Just interested in the main reason you upgraded your lathe?  Features or size or just new retirement gift?


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## John Conroy (Feb 13, 2019)

Well I think I would put the order like this. Retirement gift (last chance for a major purchase before the regular paychecks stop). Next the weight is more than double that of my old lathe and it's a much more solid machine. When I  upsized my mill with one that weighed three times as much I was  much happier with it's  performance.Third, it has features like a footbrake that couldn't be retofitted to my old lathe plus a DRO, and it's brand new. I hope I  enjoy it as much as I think I  will. Two more weeks until my work schedule will allow me to have it delivered to my garage. Being without a lathe for that long is tough!


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## PeterT (Feb 13, 2019)

And a taper attachment and wider selection of speeds & feeds and wider bed and higher wattage motor and a beefier tail stock and I think flood coolant?... There is a lot to like in this package. 
Sadly the only thing its lacking is the J.C. "Zamboni oiler bar upgrade" so he will have to make due with their standard lube bath LOL
I hope the move goes smooth & look forward to the post honeymoon report.


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## John Conroy (Feb 14, 2019)

Thanks Peter, you're right. I was being lazy and didnt feel like typing all my reasons but its 3 am and I can't  sleep so here goes. I'm looking forward to learning how to use the taper attachment which will be fun. The extra rigidity that comes with a 10 inch wide bed (instead of 7") will be cool. That extra width and the added mass of the tailstock will be welcome.
Plus there will be no need for the "Zamboni oiler" (lol) system because the GH1440W has a fully enclosed feed and threading gearbox instead of the Norton style gearbox on my old machine.
The fact that it's made in mainland China was off-putting at first but after close examination the quality appears to be at least as good as my 1999 Taiwanese lathe. 
Peter and I looked at some "built in Taiwan" new lathes at Modern on our visit and they are still many times nicer in the fit and finish then the mainland made machines. The Taiwan built lathe we looked at with Meehanite castings was a thing of beauty. The castings are so smooth there is no need for filler before painting. There are 2 big reasons I'm  not buying a Taiwan built lathe though. Modern doesn't carry any in the size suitable for me, and the price if roughly double for a similar sized Taiwanese lathe compared to a mainland China built one. Size does matter too! I was looking hard at the C6241 16" by 40" lathe (so was dabbler) but it had a 7.5hp 3 phase motor and powering it would have added a lot of money and hassle. The C6241 is a beauty and is only about $1000 more than the GH1440W but I was quoted $4000 to $5000 by 2 different sources to install a VFD. I know i could do it myself but bare minimum cost would probably be $2500. That and the fact that my electrical panel in my house is already full was a deal breaker. The GH1440W has a 3hp (the old lathe was 1.5hp) single phase motor and will run on the current electical service in my garage. Big picture is that I don't  need something with a D1-6 spindle, the weight of the chucks would require some sort of hoist to change them. The GH1440W has a D1-4 spindle so my existing chucks wil fit as well as all my BXA tooling for the quick change toolpost. To change over from the 5/8" tooling to 1" would be expensive. A larger spindle bore (both my old lathe and the new one are 1.5") would be nice but that would come with a D1-5 or 6 spindle that I don't really want.
I put a lot of thought into the purchase before made it and there were compromises made but I think I made the best choice for me.


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## Dabbler (Feb 14, 2019)

Your thinking process is very similar to mine. 

The 16X40 comes with a CXA tool post, for which the holders are very very spendy.  That being said, I have several 2HP and 3HP 3 phase motors that I can swap to and use my existing VFD on (Yes I move my VDF- I'm too cheap to buy more than one!)

For me the decision is moot:  I'd have to look for another contract to afford the purchase, and I just bought a used C636 - which should do me fine once it gets going... ( I also have access to a 15X60 and an 18X60 any time I need it if the 636 is too small for the work)...

FYI: Dal quoted me 5K uplift from the 1440 to the 1640 - he was giving you a deal!


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## John Conroy (Feb 23, 2019)

Well the GH1440 will be here next week and I've  been getting my garage ready for it. I needed to upgrade the electrical service. The old lathe was 1.5hp and the new one is 3hp, both single phase. I was powering the old lathe with a #12 awg extension cord from the 40 amp plug I installed to power my welder. To bring everything up to code and to meet the electrical specs given to me by Modern's electrical technician, I installed a new box to house the welders plug and from there  I ran new #10awg wire through metal conduit to 2 new 20 amp plugs. One plug for the lathe and another for the mill. I have a new male plug ready to install on the new lathe so I can get it running quickly when it arrives at it's  new home. I'll be sure to take pictures of the unloading process when it arrives.


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## PeterT (Feb 23, 2019)

Looks good. Just curious, what did the official FLA (full load amps) and peak/starting amp spec work out to on the GH1440 motor?


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## PeterT (Feb 23, 2019)

Potential prep consideration. I suspect it will be delivered with short cord coming out of the CSA box which Modern installs to make it compliant, no plug. On my (15A) lathe & mill, I just stripped the leads back & connected to plug pins using the typical 3 wire hold-down screws. That style of plug separates so you can do that.

But what I didn't contemplate on my 40A 935 mill is many of those big amp residential oven range type plugs are sold as an all-in-one sealed plug with integral wire extension harness. The plug itself doesn't come apart to allow re-wiring like that. So we removed the modern harness & tied the plug harness wires into the CSA box terminals. Thank God for Dabbler. Not sure if all these big amp industrial plugs are like this or just the one we selected.

Now I'm curious, what do you guys do on welders when you have to integrate your particular plug standard.  Do you make a 'cord connection' or tie it into the welder terminals or?


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## John Conroy (Feb 23, 2019)

Unfortunately no actual current numbers were given. This is the information Jamie sent me.

"Use #10 cabtire/tech cable.
Upsize it to 20Amps breaker.
This is due to high inrush current of single phase motor.

It is customer’s choice to hard wire or use a plug because of remote location or permanent spot of the machine.

I would prefer plug type male and female (wall mount) ... in case of future changes "


I did my own research and found generic current specs for single phase motors. Recommended breaker size listed as  25 amps and full load current listed as 17 amps.
The recommended wire size given is #12awg but to be safe I went with 10.

I found it quite annoying that Jamie couldn't be bothered to give me all the info I asked for but I'm not going to make a big deal of it.

I'll  measure the start up current when I get it running


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## kevin.decelles (Feb 23, 2019)

The lathe I had delivered (14x40 but the step down from John's)  from Modern in March came exactly as Peter described,  cord with no plug end.  I had 220v 15amp plugs on both sides of the shop, so wired it for that plug.  It has a 3hp motor, no issues thus far.  My wire is in-wall, as is the panel (flush mount) so i'm guessing at the wire gauge, suspect I just have 12 gauge.

I should probably run some 10g and put the 20amp breaker in........... someday


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## John Conroy (Feb 23, 2019)

I was using the standard welder plug that both my Miller and Everlast welders came with. The new plugs will be CSA standard 250 volt 20 amp plugs. Same configuration with 2 horizontal flat pins above the ground pin but the welder plug is rated for 50 amps.


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## PeterT (Feb 23, 2019)

kevin.decelles said:


> It has a 3hp motor, no issues thus far.


Does your motor have a spec plate on it that states its amps? I'm curious what equates to that particular 3hp motor. That's kind of the goofy thing with these offshore machines, sometimes they just state KW (power), sometimes generic 'amps', sometimes FLA 'full load amps'. It's apparently not straightforward to divide watts by wall voltage to yield max current. Above my pay grade as to the specifics of why, but apparently not that simple. Some people advise that your breaker/wire should have X % headroom times FLA to allow for the initial higher current draw, otherwise potential start capacitor issues. I see some TIG welders make this distinction quite specifically, max in-rush amps vs running amps, but for some reason many motors are lacking.


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## PeterT (Feb 23, 2019)

John Conroy said:


> I'll  measure the start up current when I get it running


I was wondering how I would do this on my mill. I never did, but maybe you can confirm. Do you expose the cables behind the sheath protection & put a clamp meter around one of the wires somewhere along the power harness before it enters the motor?


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## John Conroy (Feb 23, 2019)

I'll use my Fluke 87 digital meter with a clamp style current pick up. It has a  "peak min-max" feature that will capture the peak current in a sample time as small as 1 millisecond. I also have a newer Fluke 87-V which has a sample time of 250 microseconds and I plan to compare both meter readings. Although this may not be completely accurate, by taking several samples i should get a good idea. Of course the inrush current will be different based on how much mass is in the chuck and what speed range the lathe starts in. A very heavy item in a large chuck starting at the lathe's highest speed will create a much higher start up current spike than a light item in a small chuck starting at a low speed setting. A more accurate way of measuring this would be with a clamp style amperage pickup and a high speed oscilloscope. I have access to a Picoscope at work and may try that as well and compare the readings from the Fluke 87.


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## John Conroy (Feb 23, 2019)

I haven't worried about inrush current on my mill as it is running on a VFD and ramps the motor current up over a set time (3 seconds is what I have mine set at). So there is much less of a spike at start up. Also the mill never has to start with a large mass in the chuck should make this less of an issue with a mill.


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## kevin.decelles (Feb 23, 2019)

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## PeterT (Feb 23, 2019)

John Conroy said:


> I haven't worried about inrush current on my mill as it is running on a VFD and ramps the motor current up over a set time (3 seconds is what I have mine set at). So there is much less of a spike at start up. Also the mill never has to start with a large mass in the chuck should make this less of an issue with a mill.



Those are good points. I was just using my mill motor as an example because that's where my underrated wire/breaker issue reared its head. Curious, almost seems like single phase 240v mill motors draw more current than lathe motors for the same wattage, or maybe that's just limited or selective data on my part.


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## Dabbler (Feb 23, 2019)

Over the last 25 years at this location, I've run the gammut of the electrical specs.  My lathe and old mill were on 30 A twist lock connectors, my welder is 50A stove type, my bandsaw is 15A 220V, and I also have a plug with 20A 220V that isn't used any more.

It gets expensive if you don't plan ahead!


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## John Conroy (Feb 24, 2019)

kevin.decelles said:


> The lathe I had delivered (14x40 but the step down from John's)  from Modern in March came exactly as Peter described,  cord with no plug end.  I had 220v 15amp plugs on both sides of the shop, so wired it for that plug.  It has a 3hp motor, no issues thus far.  My wire is in-wall, as is the panel (flush mount) so i'm guessing at the wire gauge, suspect I just have 12 gauge.
> 
> I should probably run some 10g and put the 20amp breaker in........... someday



Im not really convinced 10 gauge wire is necessary. The schematic shows the main circuits coming into the machine are 2.5 sq/mm which is equivalent to AWG #12 so 10 may be overkill. I only went with 10 because i was running wire for new wall plugs anyway.


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## John Conroy (Feb 24, 2019)

PeterT said:


> Those are good points. I was just using my mill motor as an example because that's where my underrated wire/breaker issue reared its head. Curious, almost seems like single phase 240v mill motors draw more current than lathe motors for the same wattage, or maybe that's just limited or selective data on my part.



There are no motor specs in any of the manuals I have. I downloaded the Jet and the Precision Matthews as well as the one from Modern. Maybe they just install what ever 3hp motors are available at time of manufacturing. I'll  get pics of the motor tag when it arrives.


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## kevin.decelles (Feb 24, 2019)

Modern swapped out the motor on my lathe due to some failures they had on the stock motor in that batch. Rather than do them piece meal on service calls I guess they got preemptive

The motor they did use (see picture ) is a bit of an odd ball and has a metric bore (28mm)

It works though. And you are correct , the cord wiring was 12 gauge. If I were to wire w/conduit right now I'd put in 10g as well




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## John Conroy (Feb 28, 2019)

Well Modern delivered the new lathe on Wednesday afternoon. I have a couple of days off work to play with my new toy. Having it put on the floor of my garage with a crane made the installation painless. It came with levelling screws and steel pads and I added hockey pucks to them for vibration damping. My floor is so far from level that I had to use a puck and a half on the headstock end to get it level. Lots of work to do cleaning all the packing grease off. When I removed the tailstock to clean it I found what looks to be signs of scraping of the way surfaces. I wonder if it is just decorative or if someone actually hand sraped it. It came with a quick change tool post but it is a button style instead of the wedge style I had on my old lathe. I don't  know if it will be a nice as my old one but I'll try it for a while. The chucks look pretty decent. I checked the runout on the 3 jaw and it's right at .001" with a 1/2" drill rod in it, better than I expected. The 4 jaw looks like it has a lot of grinding debris in it so I  plan to disassemble both chucks for a thorough cleaning and lubing.

Joe, the delivery guy is a skilled hand with the crane and set it down gently far enough inside the garage to get the door closed. I had to move it about 15 feet and used 4 pieces of 1.375" bar stock as rollers. I went slowly and it took a couple of hours to get it to it's  final resting place. I put it about 8 inches from the wall so it will need to be moved out if i need to get to any electrical stuff on the back. I just don't have enough room to allow walk around space behind it. Here are some pictures.


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## DPittman (Feb 28, 2019)

Looks exciting and it sounds like you will be pleased with quality, nice to hear.

The lathe looks like it's a good colour match to your band saw.  How fashionable! Lol!


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## Tom O (Feb 28, 2019)

Nice enjoy!


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## kevin.decelles (Feb 28, 2019)

Great pics! Made me remember my delivery day from modern, very professional driver and very sweet when they put it right in the shop!


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## PeterT (Feb 28, 2019)

Awesome! I agree, the tail stock looks like it has seen some legitimate scraping from the pic as opposed to oil frosting. If that's the case hopefully same for carriage saddle underside.
- So is there an exposed motor plate to show amp duty? 
- On your final roll back to the wall, do you wedge up the machine to get the roller bars out the way (as shown) re position new bars 90-deg in order to roll machine the other way?


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## John Conroy (Mar 1, 2019)

Thanks guys. The motor tag shows only the generic info pretty much the same as Kevin's. I forgot to take current measurements before putting it against the wall so I'll  have to make up a circuit splitter so I can measure it at the plug end. You're  right Peter, I moved it the lenght of the garage by placing the rollers as shown in the picture and turned the rollers 90 degrees to roll it to the wall. It's  amazing how easily it rolls. Any slope in the floor will allow gravity to move it so wedges must be used to prevent it from rolling when you don't want it to. Each time I re-positioned the rollers I used pieces of plywood under the outside corner jacking screws to raise the machine. When backing the last jacking screw off to put it back on the rollers it would start rolling on it's own where the floor had any little slope. Scared the crap out of me the first time it happened. Joe and I discussed how I was going to move it and he offered to stay and help but he still had a 4 hour drive ahead of him so I told him I would cautiously do it on my own. He told me a story of a customer who tried to balance a 20 ton press break on 2 toe jacks and tipped it over on its front while moving it. The machine was destroyed and the floor of the shop was badly damaged. They were very lucky no one got hurt or killed. I kept that in mind the whole time to keep me from getting impatient. I was especially cautious when the rollers were in line with the lenght of the machine to back it up to the wall, keeping the 2 rollers on each end at least a foot apart and keeping a piece of wood under the leading edge of the machine on both ends so if it did start to tip it couldn't tip far before touching something solid and stopping. I raised and lowered it with the jacking screws about 20 times to move it 5 feet in that direction. Even though it wasn't really hard work my knees and back are sore from kneeling to standing so many times. I have to say those little 12mm jacking screws and the steel discs they sit on are very tough material. All that jacking and lowering didn't  leave a mark on them and the threads in the machine base are about .75" deep so they also handled it with no complaint.

The machine sits lower than my old one did on it's welded steel base frame and I'm  considering raising it a couple of inches. I'm  also planning to build some moving skates. It's  only a matter of time until it has to be moved away from the wall and I want to be prepared.


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## PeterT (Mar 1, 2019)

It looks great in your shop. Be interested to hear your comments & tweaks as you get familiar with the machine.

I notice Modern don't use what I think are the dedicated lifting holes with crossbar inserted in. Seem to recall a conversation with them in the past that they are actually more trouble in practical use because they don't match the CofG very well (vertically or horizontally). So you have to futz around or chain it a certain way... which I thought was the whole point of locating them in specific spots.

Well there are no pics of the lathe down the end of the block or in your neighbors kitchen so another successful delivery & install mission accomplished!


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## John Conroy (Mar 1, 2019)

Joe used an interesting purpose built tool for lifting lathes. It has 2 stout metal brackets that are joined together with a pivot pin in the center. Each of the brackets has a machined L shaped part at its bottom that fits against the inside and bottom edges of the ways. There is an eyelet at the top of each bracket that is used to lift with a common chain or cable so they get pulled toward each other when upward force is applied. As the top pieces are pulled together the pivot forces the bottom of the 2 brackets apart so they are pushed tightly outward under the inside of the ways. Joe said by lifting from one central position, once the balance point is determined, there is no chance of anything slipping  ďuring the lift. My  lathe just hung perfectly level with no drama or swaying. You could have balanced an open beer on the machine during the lift and not spilled a drop. Since to tool does not touch any painted parts there is no damage to the machine. The brackets lift on a section about a foot long on each way so the load is spread over a large area. That is how they lift even the heaviest lathes. Joe said mine is a baby lathe compared to most he usually moves. Smaller lathes where the way bed is too narrow can't  be lifted this way as the tool won't fit between the ways.
The tool made me nervous but those guys at Modern are pro's and know what they're doing.


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## historicalarms (Mar 1, 2019)

That is how I lift my Lath as well, I move the saddle, tail stock as far right as it will go, this makes the right end heavier than the headstock end when lifting from the first pocket between the bed-ways. then I use a small chain from the last bed pocket to the main lift chain as a "steadier" to prevent any over-centering in any direction when in the air. I leave the "steadier" chain a few links slacker than the lift chain so that the headstock end is off the ground a couple inches before the right end starts to lift. You can safely lift & move a 1440 sized lathe with an inexpensive Hyd. engine hoist.


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## RobinHood (Mar 1, 2019)

John Conroy said:


> I moved it the lenght of the garage by placing the rollers as shown in the picture and turned the rollers 90 degrees to roll it to the wall. It's amazing how easily it rolls.


Congrats on your new lathe, looks very good.

Good job in moving it into position safely. As you discovered, keeping things balanced and under control at all times is absolutely paramount. Turning the rollers 90* under the lathe is usually not necessary as it will slide laterally on the rollers themselves since you have metal - metal contact. Use a pry bar to push or a come-along to pull the machine on the rollers sideways. It keeps everything nice and stable and is no more risky than moving it longitudinally on the rollers.

Here are some ways that I place the rollers when I move machines:




Fig1 is the most common placement. The item moves longitudinally. If you have 4 rollers, then you place two under initially by jacking the machine up. As you roll ahead, the other two rollers are placed in sequence so the machine rolls on top of them and the original two become free to be placed ahead of the second pair, and so on. Machine can be moved quickly.

Fig 2 is the placement if you want to move the machine around an obstacle or change the alignment of the center line wrt a crane, or doorway, for example.

Place the rollers as in Fig 3 if you need to turn the machine around a corner or need to swap ends. The steeper the angle between the rollers, the tighter the turn.

Fig 4 shows what i’ve alluded to above; it allows you to move the machine  laterally on its rollers, ie, move it against a wall, for example.

Having a set of machinery skates helps a lot as well.


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## John Conroy (Mar 1, 2019)

I spent today puttering on the new lathe. I don't plan to ever use flood coolant so I stripped the plumbing and pump out of the base to make room for storage. 
















The bracket for the lamp and coolant nozzle looked like it was  installed by a blind person. The mounting holes were drilled in the wrong locations and the whole thing was an eyesore and in the way if using the taper attachment. I reloacted the lamp and got rid of the bracket to clean things up. I'll  have to just put screws in the extra holes where the bracket was. The cables for the dro scales were a mess also so I'm  working on a solution to clean that up too. I'll  post some pics of the finished product later. 

I disassembled both chucks and cleaned out all the grit and lubed them up with machine oil. These are both very nicely made chucks and operate realy smoothly once cleaned 





















I discovered today that the spindle wouldn't run in reverse. It turned out that the screws holding the switch had come loose so it was an easy fix. The mounting post for the qctp was a joke with a thin round disc slid into the compound. I made the first chips by installing the 4 way tool post turning the shinny little disc off and then welded the qctp post to the base from the 4 way. It turned out well. Pics later.


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## Janger (Mar 1, 2019)

PeterT said:


> It looks great in your shop. Be interested to hear your comments & tweaks as you get familiar with the machine.
> 
> I notice Modern don't use what I think are the dedicated lifting holes with crossbar inserted in. Seem to recall a conversation with them in the past that they are actually more trouble in practical use because they don't match the CofG very well (vertically or horizontally). So you have to futz around or chain it a certain way... which I thought was the whole point of locating them in specific spots.
> 
> Well there are no pics of the lathe down the end of the block or in your neighbors kitchen so another successful delivery & install mission accomplished!



Here is the cemetery crane crew lifting my 14x40 lathe. We used the lift holes and some 1" rebar. Note the snarl of chains and straps and crap. John C. made sure it was going to work. Glad it went ok. This went way better than when Alex and I and some guys moved my Mill. We nearly tipped it over down the hill into the alley. OMG. That bracket thing modern uses looks much better.


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## DPittman (Mar 1, 2019)

Tom O said:


> Nice enjoy!





John Conroy said:


> The bracket for the lamp and coolant nozzle looked like it was installed by a blind person. The mounting holes were drilled in the wrong


I'm laughing, not at you or your frustration, but at the absurdity that that sort of craftsmanship could happen when the manufacturer could have easily done a decent and quality job.  They seem to figure out how to cut costs that won't be quickly noticed to the new purchaser.  Damn frustrating.  Maybe the cost saving was because they did in fact hire a blind person to do that job in the factory!   If that's the case it's not so bad!
Hope any more quality control issues you discover are also fairly minor and easily fixed. It looks overall like its a good machine tho huh?


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## PeterT (Mar 2, 2019)

John, on the chuck inspect & rebuild, did you choose machine oil over grease for a specific reason? The bigger chucks I've taken apart have always been greased. I've never opened my Bison or purchased their grease. I've heard (aside from marketing & magical special properties I'm sure) has higher viscosity than regular grease. Then you hear all sorts of conflicting opinions on lubrication recommending high viscosity oil. On a small chuck I rebuilt it didn't look like grease so I wasn't sure if they forgot it or used oil, so I used small amount of high viscosity way oil. The action was nice & smooth & gripping was fine, but after some run time I noticed oil seepage through the tightening screws threaded annulus so I guess it was slowly flowing outward by centrifugal force. I was surprised because there was very little oil in there.

On my import (Gator) chucks, they were actually quite clean but on the 4-jaw where one jaw action seemed stiffer & kind of intermittent. I found edges of the pinions that were not de-burred, just machined & left that way. So it had these rough hangnail type bits that eventually come off. The slot width vs jaw grinding fit was actually quite nice, but again a razor sharp corner edge. They apparently don't know what deburring is or this is one of the corner cuts for cost. So I lightly stoned or Dremel chamfered all the edges nice & uniform, cleaned & re-lubed. The action was then completely smooth. There are lots of YouTube vids on this subject +/- lots of opinions, but 2 on Stefen Gotteswinters channel - chinese 3 jaw chuck & chinese 5c collet chuck teardown.


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## Dabbler (Mar 2, 2019)

If I can inject a thing on the grease issue.  Lipton used moly grease on one of his early chuck rebuilds:  I use what's handy....   Mind you I re-clean my chucks about every other year...


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## Janger (Mar 2, 2019)

John Conroy said:


> I spent today puttering on the new lathe. I don't plan to ever use flood coolant so I stripped the plumbing and pump out of the base to make room for storage.
> 
> View attachment 4531
> 
> ...



I like how you pulled the pump out and made storage. I might copy you on that...


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## John Conroy (Mar 2, 2019)

I've had 3 new chucks in the past year. All 3 were delivered after some knife sharpening wizard had his way with all the edges. It sounds like it doesn't matter where the chuck is made, they seem to forget the finishing details. I haven't taken the Atlas chuck I bought last year apart but it was super smooth out of the box. The machining on these is nice but they both had lots of grit. As far as the grease vs oil discussion, I like oil as it doesn't attract chips like grease does. I just let the lathe run for a while to allow the excess oil to fling off. There was absolutely no lube in either of these chucks so oil has got to be better than that, lol. I used only oil in the chucks on my last lathe and saw no ill effects. I'm thinking of trying some nlgi grade 0 or 1 grease.  They call for nlgi grade 1 with ep additives on the change gears on this lathe. I just used gear oil on my old one. I'm still looking for a product like that.


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## PeterT (Mar 2, 2019)

Like I said, seems like its the second most controversial subject... right behind lathe oil LOL. I have heard some people claim that certain exotic? grease lubricants can plate 'tool well' & cause issues where it doesn't clamp up or stay clamped properly. I haven't experienced that but I can see my Bison turds out a bit of grease on the inside bore & chips stick which I hate. I'm pretty sure it must be very full from other pics I've seen. Btw I used my universal wheel bearing grease. Cdn Tire, it must be Nascar approved premium stuff haha. I guess once the grit & any nasty bits are out, I'm assuming there shouldn't be a lot of wear like a constant friction gear train, unless you are a real busy Mutherchucker.

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/bison-chuck-grease-any-good-246488/
http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/threads/52239-Lathe-Chuck-Lubrication


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## Dabbler (Mar 3, 2019)

I  should have said that on my rebuilds I use oil, not grease.


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## John Conroy (Mar 3, 2019)

I got a few more details changed today to personalize the lathe. Some of my comments might seem harsh but are not meant to be and are delivered tongue in cheek.

I'm  sure the machine factory has an "accessories" department where they add the DRO and quick change tool post etc. after the skilled worker manufacture the base machine. Here they employ relatives of the factory owners who need jobs but have absolutely no hand skills, supervision or common sense. lol.
When the DRO was installed the cross slide scale was positioned over top of the locking screw so there was no access to lock the cross slide. That bothered me as I often used that on my old lathe. I removed the scale and machined some spacers to move the scale away from the cross slide .350" and machined an 8mm hex head bolt with a brass tip for the lock. There was just a short socket head set screw in the hole originally. There is also a rubber bumper mounted on a stud and fitted into a hole drilled in the cross slide that is meant to prevent the tailstock from hitting the DRO scale. I hade to shim the bumper out 2mm to make it functional.
















They had the DRO leads installed by an expert in knot tying so I untangled that mess and added some cable guides to prevent the taper attachment from hitting the cables. There is not enough lenght to reroute the cable for the chuck shield switch so I will probably rework that later.









Whoever did the machine work on the qctp must have been coming off a drinking binge weekend. The pistons were not the same lenghth and 1 was so long it would not retract enough to install a tool holder. The holes in the body and the shoes are all machined off center andnthe body had a bunch of dents and scars. It looked like someone had tossed it in a dumster (it should have stayed there) and then retrieved it. I took it apart and shortened the bad piston and draw filed all the divots flat but it really is an example of the worst kind of junk from China. It will be going back in the dumpster as soon as I order a new one. The work I did on it, and a clean and,lube job, have made it usable for now.
















The last 3 pictures show the rework I did on the mounting post.

It may seem like I'm  doing a lot of complaining but I'm really just making fun and having fun improving the new lathe.



Somehow that last pic got out of order but it shows the spacers for the dro and how I screwed then to the original bracket.


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## kevin.decelles (Mar 3, 2019)

Did you make the bolt with the brass tip or is that something you bought? 

Can you put up a pick showing the reinstalled scale with a wrench showing how you would lock to cross slide?

My modern lathe is afflicted with the same issues btw -- I'll be shoplifting your ideas and quickly ..... thx in advance



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## John Conroy (Mar 3, 2019)

Kevin I actually got the idea for the cross slide lock from an owners manual on the Precision Matthews site. They have had complaints and show this work around in the owners manual. I made up the brass tipped screw from a M8 X 25mm stainless hex head cap screw and some 3/16' brass rod. I made the length so only 2 threads are left exposed when the screw is tight so I could keep the spacers as thin as possible, just enough space for a 13 mm wrench. The brass end of the screw butts up against the gib to lock the cross slide.


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## kevin.decelles (Mar 3, 2019)

Perfect. Picture #1 was what I was after, I wanted to see the wrench clearance




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## PeterT (Mar 3, 2019)

Nice mods work. Good example of why some people have such varying results with offshore tool posts under closer inspection. Mine is older gen (KBC) piston but it holds very well. I was considering a wedge but I'm afraid to 'upgrade' it for that reason. The USA ones are damn spendy & they don't come up used very often.

Sketch shows what  was wondering about -if you could make a permanent dangle lever, Maybe there isn't enough room. 

One thing I dont get is the DRO cables sliding along the bed, is it a gap or a slit in the backsplash? If so how come swarf doesnt go down the gap? I'm thinking of making a plywood mockup for mine & cant get my head around this issue. Mind you Id like to attach it to the bevel on the bottom tray


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## DPittman (Mar 3, 2019)

John,
What do you use to put labels and arrows on your pictures?  I've never known how to do that.  It really adds to the picture.  I'm embarrassed to ask that as that is probably considered the most basic computer skill nowadays.  Maybe I should be asking my nine year old.


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## PeterT (Mar 3, 2019)

I use Snagit.  I got it on promo back when it was reasonable cost. There are others including freeware & I believe snipping tool inside your OS with less features if you just want the basics.  Google 'screen capture' for your OS, but just do some review checking & be aware of some crappy ones. Just because it does a job doesn't mean it also doesn't come with bloatware.


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## John Conroy (Mar 3, 2019)

I just use Paint that comes with Windows but I have to do them on my PC. I haven't done it on my tablet. Without a mouse it would be a challenge


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## John Conroy (Mar 3, 2019)

Never thought about a dangle lever Peter. I'll have to look at that. Here's some pics of the backsplash. The DRO cables drag on the sheet metal and I have to find some way to protect them but they'll be ok for now.







I played with the taper attachment today. The gibs were adjusted way too tight and it wouldn't slide without binding. I backed off the adjustments and worked it back and forth many times with some oil and got it loosened up so it slides. It still seems kind of stiff but I'm sure it will loosen up. Its hard to see the graduations the the units are inches of taper per foot. I set it at 1 inch and moved the carriage 10 inches and the DRO says .97 inches of cross slide movement so it's pretty close. Using this will take some practice. I need to replace all the fasteners, the originals are soft as cheese.


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## John Conroy (Mar 3, 2019)

I've  decided I like the shield over the chuck. It keeps the oil in a freshly lubed chuck from spraying all over the place. There's an interlock switch so the machine won't run unless the shield is down. That will take some getting used to.


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## Janger (Mar 3, 2019)

Nice posts John. On my modern 14x40 the taper adjustment angle screw is also intertwined with the locking mechanism. It's a poor design and prevents you from adjusting the angle to a fine level of precision. That is why I ended up using that plastic dial indicator holder on the compound instead. Is your taper adjustment on the new lathe better?


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## John Conroy (Mar 3, 2019)

I bought the wedge style QCTP for my old lathe from Precision Matthews and was really happy with it.  I'll check and see what their price is for just the tool post, they only have kits on eBay.

I got a package delivered by UPS from Modern on Friday from the company owner. A set of cutting tools and 4 holders, a very nice touch I think.


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## John Conroy (Mar 3, 2019)

Janger said:


> Nice posts John. On my modern 14x40 the taper adjustment angle screw is also intertwined with the locking mechanism. It's a poor design and prevents you from adjusting the angle to a fine level of precision. That is why I ended up using that plastic dial indicator holder on the compound instead. Is your taper adjustment on the new lathe better?



This is my first experience with a taper attachment. I don't think the setting are too precise but it seems repeatable. I ran it back and forth several timesmand the the same amount of cross slide travel in 10 inches every time. It would take some trial and error to the the setting perfect before aI actually cut anything. I'm anxious to try it though.

I'm  not familiar with the style your lathe has, can you elaborate?


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## John Conroy (Mar 7, 2019)

There are a few more detail items I feel need to be improved before I consider this lathe ready to go to work. The carriage lock was very sloppy, a 10mm bolt through an almost 11mm hole drilled in the carriage and threaded into an L shaped block that had about .040" clearance to the side of the machine way. You can see the 10mm socket head bolt at the bottom of this pic.




I took a page from PeterT's list of improvements on his lathe for the fix. I used a new 27/64" (.421) to clean up the hole to a consistant diameter for it's entire depth. I machined a stud .421" in diameter to be a sliding fit into the hole and added M10 threads to both ends. Then I flipped over the L shaped block and drilled and tapped it M10 (in the proper location unlike how it was done before) and added a hardened washer and stainless acorn nut to the top for a very snug fitting lock with no slop.















A pretty simple fix but its nice that the carriage doesn't move when the lock is applied anymore.

More to come on the rest of the upgrades later.


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## DPittman (Mar 7, 2019)

John Conroy said:


> There are a few more detail items I feel need to be improved before I consider this lathe ready to go to work. The carriage lock was very sloppy, a 10mm bolt through an almost 11mm hole drilled in the carriage and threaded into an L shaped block that had about .040" clearance to the side of the machine way. You can see the 10mm socket head bolt at the bottom of this pic.View attachment 4623
> 
> I took a page from PeterT's list of improvements on his lathe for the fix. I used a new 27/64" (.421) to clean up the hole to a consistant diameter for it's entire depth. I machined a stud .421" in diameter to be a sliding fit into the hole and added M10 threads to both ends. Then I flipped over the L shaped block and drilled and tapped it M10 (in the proper location unlike how it was done before) and added a hardened washer and stainless acorn nut to the top for a very snug fitting lock with no slop.
> 
> ...


Oh that looks good!  I will have to study that a bit closer when I have time to see if that can be done to my little lathe which has always had a piss-poor carriage lock.  Thanks for sharing your experience.


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## John Conroy (Mar 8, 2019)

Another accessory item that often causes complaints on Asian lathes is the "micrometer carriage stop". They all seem to have the fasteners attach from the bottom where they are hard to access. I've seen a lot of posts on other forums where people made better versions from aluminum etc. I wanted to improve mine but not build a new one. One of the design problems I saw with mine was the fasteners are so far from the clamping area that it was not really secure even with the bolts tight. There is room to put the fasteners through from top to bottom and not run into the micrometer thimble and that moves the bolts right up against the side of the V way, which improves the leverage they have for tighter clamping. By changing the shape of the bottom plate by adding a fulcrum at the outside edge even more leverage can be applied to clamp the assembly tighter.
I "drilled" the two 1/4" holes with a long 1/4" end mill since the bottom 1/2 of the holes are only partly supported by the cast iron body. I elongated the holes so the bottom plate and bolts can be moved right against the V way before tightening. I made a new bottom plate from 1/2" steel with a raised outside edge to serve as a fulcrum when tightening. Just for esthetics I milled both sides flat as they originally were very roughly machined. The threads for the micrometer part were very rough and hard to turn but they are M12 X 1.25mm and I have a tap that size so they cleaned up nicely. I wondered how they could have the mic graduations shown as .050" per revolution with metric threads. When I checked the threads with thread pitch gages 1.25mm thread is the same as 20TPI imperial. It turned out to work quite well.


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## John Conroy (Mar 8, 2019)

The drive gears on this machine are lubricated with grease, the manual specifies EP1 grease which means extreme pressure capacity and the 1 refers to the NLGI (National Grease and Lubricating Institute) rated thickness or viscosity of the grease. Most general use greases are NLGI 2 rated, thicker than what is needed here. I searched the Gregg Distributors catalog and found a few examples of EP grease and ordered a tube of Loctite brand EP grease and one made by Nemco in Canada specified as EP1. There is a noticeable difference in the thickness, the Loctite being much thicker so I used the Nemco Blue Max EP1. The grease that was in there from the factory was more like wax and I used WD40 and a rag to wipe most of it out then I removed the 3 transfer gears to wash them in Varsol. Behind the large idler gear, stuck in some grease was a key from a shaft, just sitting there waiting to cause a disaster if it had fallen between 2 gears. I took both the drive and driven gears off their shafts and checked that the keys were in place. This extra one must have been dropped and lost during assembly of the machine. Another disturbing thing I found was there was absolutely no backlash between any of the gears. The manual calls for .002"-.004" backlash at both driven and drive gears. I re-assembled the gear train with the backlash set to spec and added a healthy dollop of grease to the gears. It may be my imagination but the machine seems quieter now. I'm really glad I pulled it apart to do this or it could have been ugly if that key had fallen out at the wrong time. I sent an email to Modern to see what they recommend in regard to the extra key.


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## Everett (Mar 8, 2019)

John, did your machine actually come with the micrometer stop?  My King didn't, but it's been something I've wanted to make for a while.  Didn't know that some machines had them as part of the equipment.


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## Dabbler (Mar 8, 2019)

In the US, almost every lathe had a micrometer stop by default, used or not.  In Canada, they seem far rarer!


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## PeterT (Mar 8, 2019)

It's good that you are going through the machine methodically & finding these things, John. 
That was the case on certain aspects of my King lathe & mill - just because it 'runs' doesn't mean its set up correctly.


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## RobinHood (Mar 8, 2019)

John Conroy said:


> I'm really glad I pulled it apart to do this or it could have been ugly if that key had fallen out at the wrong time.


Makes one wonder what else “has fallen down”.... Like in the headstock, apron, etc.

As PeterT has suggested, good thing you are going through the machine in fine detail, it already is much better than new!


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## John Conroy (Mar 8, 2019)

Everett said:


> John, did your machine actually come with the micrometer stop?  My King didn't, but it's been something I've wanted to make for a while.  Didn't know that some machines had them as part of the equipment.


Yes it came with the lathe. Too bad they don't adopt those simple improvements at the factory.


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## John Conroy (Mar 8, 2019)

PeterT said:


> It's good that you are going through the machine methodically & finding these things, John.
> That was the case on certain aspects of my King lathe & mill - just because it 'runs' doesn't mean its set up correctly.



I haven't found anything really terrible yet. I got a call from Modern's service manager today and we discussed the extra key. Based on it's size, 5mm X 5mm X 14mm it is probably a key that was meant for the drive or driven gear since they are that size. We agreed that it probably got dropped and lost during assembly.
I do think it's worthwhile to pull the top cover off the headstock and have a look though. I'm going to try to get to that this weekend. Tomorrow is a write off, gotta bury a friend.


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## Dabbler (Mar 8, 2019)

John I am sorry for your loss. 

 I'm glad you have started this thread, as it is imperative that whenever we get a new machine (or new to us) we check out everything out thoroughly - as you have done.  My friend Bert bought a (brand) new LeBlond lathe a number of years ago, and spent 2 months full-time going over everything and fixing a lot of minor things before ever turning the power on.


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## Janger (Mar 8, 2019)

John Conroy said:


> Another accessory item that often causes complaints on Asian lathes is the "micrometer carriage stop". They all seem to have the fasteners attach from the bottom where they are hard to access. I've seen a lot of posts on other forums where people made better versions from aluminum etc. I wanted to improve mine but not build a new one. One of the design problems I saw with mine was the fasteners are so far from the clamping area that it was not really secure even with the bolts tight. There is room to put the fasteners through from top to bottom and not run into the micrometer thimble and that moves the bolts right up against the side of the V way, which improves the leverage they have for tighter clamping. By changing the shape of the bottom plate by adding a fulcrum at the outside edge even more leverage can be applied to clamp the assembly tighter.
> I "drilled" the two 1/4" holes with a long 1/4" end mill since the bottom 1/2 of the holes are only partly supported by the cast iron body. I elongated the holes so the bottom plate and bolts can be moved right against the V way before tightening. I made a new bottom plate from 1/2" steel with a raised outside edge to serve as a fulcrum when tightening. Just for esthetics I milled both sides flat as they originally were very roughly machined. The threads for the micrometer part were very rough and hard to turn but they are M12 X 1.25mm and I have a tap that size so they cleaned up nicely. I wondered how they could have the mic graduations shown as .050" per revolution with metric threads. When I checked the threads with thread pitch gages 1.25mm thread is the same as 20TPI imperial. It turned out to work quite well.
> 
> View attachment 4629View attachment 4630View attachment 4631View attachment 4632


nice mod John. I need to do the same. Did you use Allen key bolts and counter sink the hole on the stop on top? I can’t quite tell.


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## John Conroy (Mar 8, 2019)

Exactly right. A couple more pics.


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## John Conroy (Mar 8, 2019)

RobinHood said:


> Makes one wonder what else “has fallen down”.... Like in the headstock, apron, etc.
> 
> As PeterT has suggested, good thing you are going through the machine in fine detail, it already is much better than new!





Dabbler said:


> John I am sorry for your loss.
> 
> I'm glad you have started this thread, as it is imperative that whenever we get a new machine (or new to us) we check out everything out thoroughly - as you have done.  My friend Bert bought a (brand) new LeBlond lathe a number of years ago, and spent 2 months full-time going over everything and fixing a lot of minor things before ever turning the power on.


Thanks John, when my wife and I were young it seemed like we went to a friends wedding every weekend. Now it seems like it's a funeral every weekend.

If Bert thought all the work was worth doing on a LeBlond it's  worth doing on any machine.


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## John Conroy (Mar 11, 2019)

I have used the new lathe for about 6 hours now and I wanted to have a look inside the headstock gearbox. I've heard all kinds of horror stories about sand and other contaninants being left inside new lathes at the factories. I was surprised that the top cover is made of fiberglass, my old lathe had a metal cover. There is a nice gasket under the cover that is glued down to the headstock but had no glue on top so it came off easily after removing the bolts. It was pretty clean but there was some wear metal laying on the bottom of the gearbox so I drained the oil and wiped up everyting I could from the bottom. I'll check it again after another 30-40 hours. The oil drain plug is in the usual silly location and it was a little messy to drain it but the drain plug is 1/4" NPT so I installed a 2" nipple to make future oil changes easier.

You can see some sparkles from the wear metal in this pic.





You can see the brass nipple I installed in the drain hole here.






Cleaned up and ready to refill, it holds over 2 gallons of oil. I'll change the other 2 gearboxes oil this weekend.


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## kevin.decelles (Mar 12, 2019)

And the oils you are planning on using are........


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## PeterT (Mar 12, 2019)

I bought a Crappy tire syringe like you recommended & it worked well on my 14x40, just took multiple sucks to get the volume out. 5 litres I believe. But looks like you have even more volume. I did find some cheapo 12v pumps online that were 'oil' rated I'm sure would pump this viscosity oil in no time, but they were ebay/china items & I was impatient to get it done. I guess if you changed the oil real often might be worth it & never have to deal with the drain plug rigmarole. I figure I'll have other shop uses for the syringe around the shop, its impervious to hydrocarbon type liquids.


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## John Conroy (Mar 12, 2019)

kevin.decelles said:


> And the oils you are planning on using are........
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


The manual calls for Mobile DTE Heavy Medium. My research shows that is an ISO 68 hydraulic oil so I am using Pro Point ISO 68 hydraulic oil for now. Its about half the price of the Mobil product.


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## John Conroy (Mar 12, 2019)

PeterT said:


> I bought a Crappy tire syringe like you recommended & it worked well on my 14x40, just took multiple sucks to get the volume out. 5 litres I believe. But looks like you have even more volume. I did find some cheapo 12v pumps online that were 'oil' rated I'm sure would pump this viscosity oil in no time, but they were ebay/china items & I was impatient to get it done. I guess if you changed the oil real often might be worth it & never have to deal with the drain plug rigmarole. I figure I'll have other shop uses for the syringe around the shop, its impervious to hydrocarbon type liquids.



It will be really easy to change the oil next time with the extended drain plug.  No mess with that installed. It is much easier to fill from a 5 gallon pail with the top cover removed also.


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## John Conroy (Mar 20, 2019)

I used my very limited woodworking skills to make a tool storage tray for the top of the headstock. All these tools were  just laying on the top cover of the headstock on my old lathe. I wanted to keep things better organized with this one. Made from 1/2" plywood on the bottom and the side pieces were cut from 2 X 4's on my table saw. I really dis-like wood working due to the mess it creates but having that table saw sure does make it easy to cut things straight and square. It's also nice to be able to rip dimensional lumber pieces down to any size you want. Using a vacuum on the dust outlet of the saw helps but the garage is still covered in find sawdust. Anyway, enough whining, the tray is held in place by one of the M6 screws that hold the headstock cover on. I found that Tremclad light grey paint (brush on) matches the color of the lathe pretty well and also Tremclad medium blue is a good match to the lathe base.  I usually don't like Tremclad as it takes forever to dry, but it is pretty durable.


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## historicalarms (Mar 20, 2019)

Somehow I missed this tread for a few days and wish I'd of caught you when you had the cover off and I would have suggested you give those little Allen screws a "snugging -up" that hold the shift forks in place on the shaft's connecting to the shift levers. From the looks of the photo of the inside of the gear box , yours is the same as mine (whether sold by House of tools or Modern I think they came from the same factory) and the shafts don't have a flat spot on them to hold the screw from turning on the shaft and every once in a while one of them will "slip" a smidge when trying to change speeds, just enough to cause a poor gear engagement ( the gears aren't engaged when the shift lever is in it's detent position). Every time I have the cover off for a service I give those screws a little pressure.


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## John Conroy (Mar 20, 2019)

historicalarms said:


> Somehow I missed this tread for a few days and wish I'd of caught you when you had the cover off and I would have suggested you give those little Allen screws a "snugging -up" that hold the shift forks in place on the shaft's connecting to the shift levers. From the looks of the photo of the inside of the gear box , yours is the same as mine (whether sold by House of tools or Modern I think they came from the same factory) and the shafts don't have a flat spot on them to hold the screw from turning on the shaft and every once in a while one of them will "slip" a smidge when trying to change speeds, just enough to cause a poor gear engagement ( the gears aren't engaged when the shift lever is in it's detent position). Every time I have the cover off for a service I give those screws a little pressure.


Thanks for the heads up. I'll  check them next time I have the cover off


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## John Conroy (Mar 30, 2019)

I've noticed that the headstock on this lathe is taller from the centerline of the chuck to the top of the lid and adding the tool tray had made it taller still. The consequence of that is the chuck keys are too short so the T handles interfere with the tray. I have quite a bit of 1" cold rolled so I made up 2 new handles. Of course the 3 jaw and 4 jaw chucks take different sizes. I was able to improve the fit of the square end of the keys over the originals also.


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## PeterT (Mar 30, 2019)

Nice.
I have the same issue on one of my keys. Its on the to-do list. One feature I have come to like is the tommy bar has a slide fit so you can slide it to one side. Not so much for gronking but gives you a bit of leverage and its off to one side instead of interfering with the headstock if the nuts aren't quite upright. The commercial tommy bar has these rubber end caps to retain it. You could either use your new ball maker for the classic look. Or one simple trick I did on a similar handle is to machine a groove depression out near the end & install an O-ring so it stands slightly proud. Its very resilient & has a nice dampening effect if the bar slides down.


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## Dabbler (Mar 30, 2019)

Certainly the way to go.  One of the Youtubers made a special 'front Key' for doing 4 jaw work - it was around 10" reach...  On my old lathe, the 3&4 jaw chucks had different sized keys.  My new one uses the same key - go figure!


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## John Conroy (Mar 31, 2019)

As I mentioned previously, I'm not too happy with the piston style quick change tool post that came with the machine. I ordered a wedge style from All Industrial Tool on eBay. I chose this one as it looks very much like the one I had on my old lathe and the shipping was reasonable. It arrived yesterday and it looks pretty good. It uses Imperial threads (5/8" X 18 on the post) like my old one did and the machining is pretty nice. I had to mill the base to fit my compound and at the same time I disassembled the compound and cleaned and inspected it then drilled and tapped two m5 holes for set screws to hold the base from sliding in the compound.

The machine work on the compound is very nice. The more I use this new machine the more impressed I am with it.


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## PeterT (Mar 31, 2019)

Good job. 
Are there T-nuts to secure the compound after swivelling to new position kind of like your Cantek lathe or something better?


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## John Conroy (Mar 31, 2019)

It has T bolts instead of nuts. I think they work better, they don't seem to get caught when rotating the compound.


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## John Conroy (Apr 27, 2019)

I don't  like the bed mounted carriage stop so I made up an improved version of the one I made for my old lathe,  which is a copy of a Hardinge design. In the last pic you can see that the old carriage stop prevents the carriage from moving close to the headstock. The new one is much easier to use and is always mounted.


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## John Conroy (Apr 27, 2019)

The threads on the thimble are 7/16" 20 tpi so each revolution gives .050" of adjustment. I machined 10 grooves around the circumference of the thimble end, each long groove indicates .010" and the short ones are .005" increments.


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## ducdon (Apr 27, 2019)

I have the C0636A 14-40 from Modern Tool that I bought about 15 years ago. I have no complaints with the quality, but the gearbox does not cover a very wide range of speed and feeds nor thread pitches without changing the gear train.  Might be something you would want to check?


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## John Conroy (Apr 27, 2019)

I machined a spider for the left end of the spindle. It has 53mm X 1.5 threads so I single pointed the treads into a sleeve and then welded the new nut to another sleeve with an ID matching the ID of the spindle. It has a shoulder that butts against the end of the spindle and engages 4 threads. I drilled and tapped 4 M8 holes for the spider supports.


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## PeterT (Apr 27, 2019)

Nice. 

Dumb question but when you put extended stock in there & its gripped in your main chuck/collet, do you put a DTI on the part extending from the spider to dial it in with the 4 jaw screws? Or is it more just to stabilize from rattling around inside the spindle?

How was swapping the gears for metric threading, any drama?


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## John Conroy (Apr 28, 2019)

It really depends on how much precision I'm looking for. I work with 1/2" round stock alot and i like to leave the stock as long as possible to reduce waste. Most of the time I'm just looking to keep it from flopping around so I just eye ball it.
Installing the change gears for metric threads was no more of a pain than with my old lathe.
It is messy though as this machine calls for grease on the gears instead of oil like on my old lathe. Using the foot brake to stop the spindle and reverse direction while metric threading makes it so much easier than on my old lathe with no brake.


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## John Conroy (Apr 28, 2019)

To carve the indicator grooves in the thimble on my carriage stop I made an attachment for the end of the spider. It's just a hub that mounts into the end of the spider and can be set to any position and locked with the set screws. I mounted a degree wheel to the hub and made up a pointer. I wanted to carve a .5" long line at every .010" increment and a .250" long line 1/2 way between each of the long lines for .005" increments. So for 10 lines around the circumference I just needed to turn the spindle 36 degrees for each line. I was trying to figure a way to lock the spindle at each position but it turned out that I didn't need to. I just left the headstock gear box in neutral. Since the cutting force is straight in line with the spindle it doesn't try to turn during the cutting motion. For a cutter I used a HSS 60 degree threading tool turned on it's side and cut the lines .015" deep in three passes. I had to modify one of my tool holders so I could get the tool high enough to be on the center line of the spindle. I used 3/32"  stamps for the numbers


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## John Conroy (Jan 15, 2020)

It's been a year since I took delivery of the new lathe. I did another oil change on all 3 gear boxes and found no alarming wear metals. I took the cover off the head stock again and had a close look inside and checked all the set screws, all looks well in there. I put a round magnet from the back of a speaker in the bottom of the head stock gearbox to gather any ferrous metal wear particles and keep them in one place.

I finally got around to modifying my ball turning attachment so it matches the center height of this machine and bolts down to the cross slide. I had to mill a groove in the bottom of it to clear the 3 oil nipples on the cross slide. I also added a sheet metal shield to keep chips from getting under it as it leaves part of the opening for the compound exposed when it's mounted.



While I had the compound off I replaced the very cheesy soft studs with some high quality stainless ones. I could feel the old one stretch every time I tightened the nuts.


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## Dabbler (Jan 15, 2020)

Very nice piece of equipment!  My old friend Bert would disassemble each new machine and replace every fastener with grd 8 bolts and nuts.  For the specialty fasteners, he'd make heat treated 4140 facsimiles.  His view was that strong fasteners are less likely to make bad holes in cast iron, so there you go!

Very nice work.


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## DPittman (Jan 15, 2020)

I wish I could buy your lathe, it would be worth much more than new now with all your improvements and going through!  (I'm not really offering and I'm pretty sure your not selling anyhow, I just wanted to comment )


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## John Conroy (Jan 15, 2020)

Thanks guys, part of the fun in buying a new machine is making it a little bit better. I'm really happy with this lathe.


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## Hruul (Jan 15, 2020)

Very nice upgrades and information.  Congrats!!


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## PeterT (Jan 15, 2020)

Good to hear all is well internally John.

How do your compound bolts get into the T-slots? Through the top & then half turn to engage the lip? Or through that bottom hole somehow?


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## John Conroy (Jan 15, 2020)

If you crank the cross slide to the front as far as it will go they will come out that hole you.see.in the bottom


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## John Conroy (Jan 24, 2020)

When I was changing the oils last week I noticed that some of the grease from the geat train has been flung onto the belts. I've been noticing a little belt noise lately so I ordered a new matched pair of belts from Motion Canada today. There is a splash shield for the belts but for some reason it only covers the bottom of the gear train. Before I install the new belts I thought I should remedy that so bent up an extension for the shield and fastened to the original with pop rivets.
I think it will do the job nicely.


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## PeterT (Jan 24, 2020)

I think that's a good mod John. I've noticed I get a fine dust off my belt as it slowly wears. No issues there, but that plus lubrication on the gears makes a black mung. Personally I think my gears are happier with grease but a) black mung syndrome b) its still possible for some bit of swarf to find its way up in there, don't ask me how. I don't want to digest it on a gear tooth, so I give them a light coat of heavy gear oil. Seems to be the best compromise on this machine. But your guard makes chambers mitigate both those issues. 

Are Motion Canada belts better quality than typical generic X at Napa store?


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## John Conroy (Jan 25, 2020)

I just realized that you really cant see it in the picture but there are a pair of belts on the drive pulleys. I tried to order a matched pair of belts from Napa and they couldn't guarantee the same length. Due to manufacturing tolerances the length can vary over an inch for the same part number according to the guy at Napa. Back when I used to work on heavy trucks lots of alternators were driven by a pair of v belts and we could order matched pairs that were the same length within a very tight tolerance. V belts on vehicles are a thing of the past so I guess Napa doesn't offer them any more. V belts are still used in lots of Industrial applications and  it is common to have 2 or more belts on the same pair of pulleys. Motion Industries (used to be BC Bearing) is used to requests for matched belts and the sales guy didn't even flinch when I asked him about them. He gave me a link to info from Gates belts. They have a special matching program (the V80 program) that allows vendors to supply matched belts to very tight tolerance. I learned a lot about belts today.


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