Thread: New Chinese Lathe

Hi Mark and welcome,
Many of us that have Chinese machines have had the thrill of getting free casting sand in the gearboxes, headstocks and coolant tanks. You also get the luck over there of having an orange machine, ours are mostly blue and white. Personally i'm an old machine addict but your new lathe should serve you well. Look forward to see some more pics.

A hearty welcome mark. It looks like a handy machine. I am beginning to think the casting sand should be offered as an accessory instead of a mandatory component.

Phil

A little more progress today.

I mounted the control box in the new position and started rewiring the controls.

I've added some pics-

The first shows the back of the headstock where the control box was mounted, next the new position for the control box, then a shot of the headstock gearbox (note the crud around the oil gallery around the top inside edge of the box and the muddy oil in the bottom), lastly a shot of a poorly measured spacer on the back gears so the gears don't quite line up. Other than the crud in the headstock gearbox it seems in good shape.

Hopefully I can finish the wiring tomorrow and then move it into position.

Hi Mark,
I would like to join the rest of the mob in wishing you are hearty welcome.
Your lathe appears to be the 2011/12 version of mine (circa 2007 ).

You have, by the agents pic,a coolant system and a foot brake. Your hand wheel for the longitudinal traverse is on the left whereas mine is on the left.

Did you also get the optional extra of swarf left over from boring the bearing /shaft holes. Don't worry it will be there under the muddy oil.That can be flushed .
I used some non detergent oil mixed with a bit of diesel and spun it over for 30 secs or so and then drained it. Its had Castrol Hyspin in it ever since.

Seriously though,look for the extruded sealant crud in the main shaft bearing galleries.I ran a stiff wire down the gallery holes to check they were clear. I scraped that all off and fitted a cork gasket. The speed and feed levers may also be an issue as the arrows and numbers indicators, don't line up where there supposed to with the detent ball and holes.

There will be other little bits and pieces but those were the faults I found.
Best of luck with your new toy

Grahame Collins

Hi Grahame.

Thanks for the heads up on the issues you found. Yes this lathe comes with foot brake, light and coolant system

It's a bit of laugh really that the machine requires so much checking and remedial work before I've even fired the motor up but it'll be worth it to, hopefully, have no issues after all that is done.

My plan for the gearboxes is to protect the bearings with rags then wash them out with an air powered kero gun. I plan to put a drain pipe on the headstock as the plug is in a very awkward place. I'll run-in the headstock in as per the Grizzly manuals.

I've done a bit of research on lubrication and it seems like Mobil DTE 25/Castrol Hyspin AW 46 for the gearboxes and Mobil Vactra 2/Castrol Magna 68 for the slides.

I'd dread to have to make a warranty claim so all this seems like good insurance.

At the end of this process I think I'll have a good little lathe.

I hope yours is working well for you.

I'll keep putting up pics of my progress as I found seeing what others are doing makes the story more interesting and you generally learn more.

Cheers

Mark

I've posted in this thread my design and build for a workbench.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f44/workbench-160321/

Cheers

Mark

Hi Mark,

Welcome buddy! I too have a Chinese 12x36 lathe circa 2006 model. It is virtually identical to yours but my saddle wheel is the same as Grahams on the RHS and my feed box is a total loss system and not the nice sealed oil system like yours.

I'm happy to hear that you are taking the time to set your lathe up and give it a good clean before putting it into use. I have grown to love my lathe but not before putting a fair amount of time into stripping and cleaning it. If you want your Chinese bearings to last a reasonable amount of time then you really need to be a little more fussy than the machine manufacturer was when they put it together! Personally I think these machines get better with age! Or, perhaps it's my skills getting better. Dunno!

I like your idea of moving the control box. I have my lathe up against the garage wall too and it's a PITA if ever I need to access this.

Cheers,

Simon

Hi Mark,
Welcome.
With your change gears, make sure its not the clamp bolt of the quadrant twisting things out of line when you do it up. Thats what was happening on my lathe. I made a pair of concave/convex washers to stop it happening.

Stuart

Thanks Simon. That control box reposition has been an expensive and time consuming process but I'm almost finished. Just a few more connections then double check then fire up the motor (drive belts off) to see if I've got it sorted.

Stustoys, thanks . I'll check out the quadrant for misalignment.

Today I picked up 18 litres of Castrol Rando HD 46 (has replaced Hyspin 46 apparently) and managed to get 4 litres of Waylube 68 from one of the oil suppliers customers who buys it in 200 litre drums. 4 litres will last me years.

Found a big hunk of casting in the mud at the bottom of the headstock That would have polished up the tapered rollers in the headstock bearing nicely

Hi Mark,

Welcome to the forum! I've also got a similar looking 12x36 lathe, mine's a green paint job, none of this flashy orange..

Regards
Ray

Originally Posted by RayG

Hi Mark,

Welcome to the forum! I've also got a similar looking 12x36 lathe, mine's a green paint job, none of this flashy orange..

Regards
Ray

Mark is OHWS conscious...hi viz

a big welcome to you Mark

Hi All

I finally have my lathe bolted down in its final position, all gearboxes cleaned and run in and oil changed.

It seems the factories in China are slow to change their practices. I found the same problems people have been reporting for several years...poor fitting generally and plenty of free swarf and crap in the gearboxes. The quick change box wasn't too bad but the carriage apron box made up for it with swarf, sand, paint and other bits of China. The second photo shows the crap glittering in the bottom of the apron box and the next two show how much got flushed out. I raked it all up and it would fill a matchbox. I put 5 litres of diesel through the headstock, quick change box and apron box, either through an air cleaning gun or just flushing out!

Other problems were the brake pedal being mis-drilled in the wrong position and the rear guard which had a cut out for the chuck guard mounting being cut in the wrong place so the guard wasn't level.

All fixed now.

I have checked the lathe for geometric trueness and it's not too bad. Only 0.001" bed twist over the length (which is about 1 metre long) and 0.001" out of level horizontally. I spent a bit of time making and levelling the channel base that the lathe sits on and this seems to have paid off. The main spindle has virtually no runout, axial or backlash. The tailstock is spot on in the horizontal plane but 0.002 out in the vertical over its 4" extension which may account for the 0.002" taper turned on a 6" shaft. All in all not too bad for a cheap jobbing lathe.

Hopefully I'll have some projects to show in the next few weeks.

Cheers

Nice looking lathe.

The Chinese certainly put out some well designed and very compact units these days, both big and small.

If only they could lift their QC a bit - but that's how they keep their costs down I suppose.

At least it WILL be accurate - Asian lathes are good in that department.

Cheers

Rob