Shawn
Another thing you could do is search a thread on the hobby-machinist forum and see what is there for answers, or start a thread, Matt does occasionally pop up on there and has helped solve issues that pop up with his machines
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/forums/precision-matthews-quality-machine-tools.172/
Wayne
Matt actually responded to one of my emails when I was trying to get the credit issued (remember the price went up between my quote and the actual purchase...? they honoured the quote but it took a few emails and Matt finalized it) And, as you point to, Precision Matthews has a whole forum dedicated to their machines. I posted there regarding spacing on the cast iron bases and got some good responses. One guy there was receiving the same lathe from the same shipment.
I kind of think this (clashing issue) is user error or new equipment familiarization stuff. It would be nice if the user could just throw the gear in but I don't expect that. After reading the comments here, I went back out to experiment a bit more. I found that there is an indent in the right position, but it is very subtle. And then it is possible to go beyond it into the gear rubbing zone..
which I was doing.. So, as a new user, I was going past it. LIke my wife,.... I blame me........
..........................
. As I get to know the machine, I will learn to detect the indent. I had no problem today switching it into the correct position. Interesting, the lathe shut off if I started it while the feed screw was in the "noisy" position but was ok to start with the power feed in the proper position...sooo, some switch is properly set somewhere, I think.
I would like to tweak it so I cannot overshoot, but honestly, now that I know what I am doing, it won't be an issue.
Cheers,
Shawn