Thread: Hafco Lathe - Problems with chuck spinning off when stopping lathe

H&F Tech came today and I now have a much improved and very much safer Hafco WL-14V. Somewhat complicated new system to get it between forward and reverse but so much safer now. The lathe can't go into reverse unless it is completely stopped and it is impossible to have it change direction by accident. The lathe now gently spins down to a stop and I may not need anything to secure the chuck or insert. I'll see how I go in the coming weeks. Took the guy a couple of hours and changed out of virtually the whole EVS control system.

Originally Posted by doragus

H&F Tech came today and I now have a much improved and very much safer Hafco WL-14V. Somewhat complicated new system to get it between forward and reverse but so much safer now. The lathe can't go into reverse unless it is completely stopped and it is impossible to have it change direction by accident. The lathe now gently spins down to a stop and I may not need anything to secure the chuck or insert. I'll see how I go in the coming weeks. Took the guy a couple of hours and changed out of virtually the whole EVS control system.

Somewhat complicated? On my two week old unit you just hold the direction change button down until the lathe stops and changes direction. If you're turning fast you need to slow down a bit first but that's it.

That's how the lathe was before the fix. The real issue was that it stopped dead when you pusheed the off button. No slow down, just STOP! That is what was causing work to spin off the lathe and that is the dangerous bit that H&F had to address. It's possible your lathe doesn't have the update control system. Does it stop dead when you push the stop button? if so you will find it is a problem as you mount heavier work and you should get in touch with H&F about the update.

Doragus

I don't believe my lathe is stopping instantly, either when hitting the off switch or the reverse button but i have only done a couple of middle sized pieces (at least that's how they started, my pieces always seem to end up much smaller than they started...). I shall investigate this weekend.

It has been suggested recently sold units would allready have the fix. Mine did come with an addenda to the instructions specifically talking about not changing directionswhile running at high speed.

Cheers
Redbeard

H&F Tech came today and I now have a much improved and very much safer Hafco WL-14V. Somewhat complicated new system to get it between forward and reverse but so much safer now. The lathe can't go into reverse unless it is completely stopped and it is impossible to have it change direction by accident. The lathe now gently spins down to a stop and I may not need anything to secure the chuck or insert. I'll see how I go in the coming weeks. Took the guy a couple of hours and changed out of virtually the whole EVS control system.

Good, may it continue to work like that. If you have not done so, cleaning the threads and mating surfaces, and lightly oiling, then snugging up tight as I advised above would be good. The snugging to be a bit more sure about the chuck not unwinding, and the cleaning and oiling to make everything run true and so you can get the chuck off a year from now.

It is good to remove, clean, and oil chuck, faceplate, drive and tail centers once or twice a year to keep them from getting stuck. There are quite a few tales of woe here about stuck chucks and centers.