New lathe

[John Rudd]

has finally arrived......
Nice shade of blue

[John Rudd]

You'll probably recognise it as one of the generic Chinese offerings....
Some specs:
700 mm between centres
290mm swing
Variable speed ( but a dc motor..... )
Powered cross feed with separate shaft for feeding
Also has a Camloc spindle with a 38mm bore.....

[John Rudd]

Came with a stand, fixed and travelling steadies, 4 j indy chuck and faceplate.....

Got to be a candidate for modding......

1.1kw 3ph motor and vfd, qctp and whatever else I can think of.....

[vtsteam]

Congratulations, John! 

[awemawson]

Looks very nice John. 

Does the build quality stand up to close inspection?

[John Rudd]

Andrew,
The quality is pretty good on the whole.....
The ground finish on the ways in particular look good....but by contrast there are runs in the paintwork if you look......closely enough.....
The other sideways seem to be very smooth, with tapered gibs...
I'm quite impressed that it has a Camloc spindle nose, I expected either a flange mount or thread.....

[Spurry]

Nice one John.
Hope you have enough pennies left for a QC toolpost.
Is it a D1-3 fitting?
Pete

[awemawson]

That's good news then. It seems Chinese quality is improving all the time. Remember when Japanese goods were considered shoddy? Didn't take long for them to turn it round.

I'm slightly surprised that your surprised re: the spindle nose - surely that's quite a large factor in deciding which machine to buy 

[John Rudd]

Nice one John.
Hope you have enough pennies left for a QC toolpost.
Is it a D1-3 fitting?
Pete

Yup loads-a-money.......
Qctp on the list....

Fitting is either -3 or -4...... Not sure  yet...

Nice machine tho' 

[John Rudd]

Andrew,
It was a factor, in fact I dismissed the Crusader m/c from Chester on that basis.....but given this machine was £1700 versus the Crusader I'm not bothered now....There were some advantages that the Crusader had, gap bed, 800mm centres, 300mm centre height, but not enough to warrant spending another £1400.....