Re: LHT-25B - Small Turret Lathe

On 10/18/2021 6:37 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
(My server didn't save the contents of that old post)
Wow!  Its been a while.  I finally made a place for it, cleaned up a path, moved it, and jacked it down off the furniture movers its been sitting on all this time.  I hope I haven't used the place on the wall where I hang the furniture movers for something else.
It was a little bit of a chore.  I took out a barrel of chips so the furniture movers would roll.  Then I gathered up some blocks to crib it up and down.  When I had set the first set of blocks under the lathe I discovered it had leveling bolts.  They had just been screwed up flush. I screwed them down on the light end and set them on aluminum pads. When I started on the heavy end I found one of them was missing.  Of course 9/16-12 is not a common size I keep in my hardware supply.  I stuck a smaller bolt through the hole and put a nut on the bottom to make it adjustable.  I didn't want to leave it hanging on the toe jacks or setting on wood blocks.
After I got it set down on the bolts (on aluminum pads, I discovered two of them are stripped out.  It teetered back and forth on the other two like me after a long weekend when I was in my 20s.
During this I ordered some 9/16-12 bolts from McMaster, fortunately along with some nuts and heavy washers.
I also ordered a small cheap static (electronic) phase converter for it.   I'm going to try and run it just like it was designed.  If I don't like that I can always swap in a VFD at a later time.
Who knows Snag.  I might actually have to start looking for a chuck soon for that arbor I got from you.  I'll mostly run standard 5C collets, but having a chuck may save the day at some point.  The lathe did also come with an unused/uncut pie collet.  I'm not sure if I am looking forward to the day when that is the answer to a problem or not.
Made a place for it:  That was really kind of good/bad thing.  Some years back Grizzly had a sale on a 3 phase (internal VFD) vertical bandsaw.  They titled it (optimistically) as a wood and metal cutting saw.  Technically it would cut metal, like almost all wood working tools can cut aluminum.  It had nearly zero torque at steel cutting SFM. I did cut a couple pieces of steel with it, but it was torturous.  For the last few years I've done any vertical metal cutting by tipping up one of the horizontals.  I had the vertical bandsaw listed on Facebook market place off and on for years, and I really begrudged the space it was taking up.  Finally somebody offered me half what I paid for it, and I snapped it up.  I didn't really think of it at the time, but it turned out to probably be the best place in the shop for that turret lathe... a barrel and a half of chips later.  Thank goodness for scoop shovels.
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Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff
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