Well actually it's an Optimum Maschinen rebranded as an Impala. A German company manufacturing machinery in China.
It came with a sheet metal stand, but I built a propper stand for it which has an inbuilt bed levelling system and a coolant sem. Had it 10 years now, no plans to get rid of it as it does everything I require of it. Small, only a 280 swing and 600mm bed length, but I couldn't fit anything larger in my small workshop, it's too crowded a it is.
The stand was made in two sections, the top section is made in a H shape from heavyish angle iron to mount the lathe on, and attached to the ower sction by a fine thread bolt in each corner, the bolt ocate through four holes in the ower section which are used to evel the bed with itself. I use an engineers evel and the system is accurate down to 0.02mm. probably better, but that's the imit of my engineer level.
Works much better than shims and take about 10 minutes to get the bed straight.
The coolant system consit of a $20 ebay, 12 volt, centrifugal pump mounted in the ower part of the cabinet. It's plumbed to a 10 litre plastic fuel container, now mounted on the side, for coolant. The pump pumps coolant up through a 13mm hose, then into a 25mm hose returning exce coolant to the tank. The 12mm hose is interupted by a take off adapter with small hose leading to two flexible nozzle up top, Presure to the two nozzles is provided by a tap beeen the adapter and the return hose to the tank. the swarf tray has two drains which are connected to the 25 return hose. It i a sealed system, so, no smell, no wate and the coolant stay clean due to the constant flow for anything up to 12 months. It's been in operation since I bought the athe 10 years ago, I've changed the coolant probably around 4 or five times.
I've made a ball turner for it, along with a scissor knurler, some tangential tool holders along, standard holders, drilsharpening jig, belt tensioner and so on.
It came with a sheet metal stand, but I built a propper stand for it which has an inbuilt bed levelling system and a coolant sem. Had it 10 years now, no plans to get rid of it as it does everything I require of it. Small, only a 280 swing and 600mm bed length, but I couldn't fit anything larger in my small workshop, it's too crowded a it is.
The stand was made in two sections, the top section is made in a H shape from heavyish angle iron to mount the lathe on, and attached to the ower sction by a fine thread bolt in each corner, the bolt ocate through four holes in the ower section which are used to evel the bed with itself. I use an engineers evel and the system is accurate down to 0.02mm. probably better, but that's the imit of my engineer level.
Works much better than shims and take about 10 minutes to get the bed straight.
The coolant system consit of a $20 ebay, 12 volt, centrifugal pump mounted in the ower part of the cabinet. It's plumbed to a 10 litre plastic fuel container, now mounted on the side, for coolant. The pump pumps coolant up through a 13mm hose, then into a 25mm hose returning exce coolant to the tank. The 12mm hose is interupted by a take off adapter with small hose leading to two flexible nozzle up top, Presure to the two nozzles is provided by a tap beeen the adapter and the return hose to the tank. the swarf tray has two drains which are connected to the 25 return hose. It i a sealed system, so, no smell, no wate and the coolant stay clean due to the constant flow for anything up to 12 months. It's been in operation since I bought the athe 10 years ago, I've changed the coolant probably around 4 or five times.
I've made a ball turner for it, along with a scissor knurler, some tangential tool holders along, standard holders, drilsharpening jig, belt tensioner and so on.
