Member postings for Spyro Manzuffa

Hello i stumbled upon this thread while looking on the internet.

As a new member and owner of a mini lathe (the vario ones those with the double V groove one for the carriage and one for the tailstock)

Aside from the myriad of serious problems it has (its been almost 3 months since i bought it and still haven't been able to run it properly) i got into parting and been having problems serious troubles with it since.

The only blade that has been working for me are those indexable SPB blades with the 2mm inserts. They require water or oil but they have been the only parting tool to work. HSS sharpened/unsharpened won't work for me.

To the bit about rigidity i have been trying to figure out what the ''problem'' was: after countless measurements with the dial indicator, scraping in the saddle, stiffening the compound (another serious issue there, too shallow of a dovetail meant the compound rocked ) etc i settled on the fact that the spindle was flexing.
I have the super cool 38mm through hole, that means 3mm spindle wall thickness.
With the dial and a rod chucked up you could flex the spindle flange between 15 to 25 houndredths of a mm.
Not much force is needed, add that with the 10 houndredths of the compound and tool hoolder + the who knows saddle / cross slide play and flex....
So **** out of luck, i may have to turn a new spindle.......

Fast forward and i was still measuring the flex with the dial indicator, but this time i started measuring between the bed and the headstock and there i saw it: it isnt the spindle but the headstock itself.

The lathe bed beneath the headstock is an open C section to house the motor and it flexed like a ********************

By chance i ended up turning a steel rod, 1 mm pass: stop cutting, the rod and cutter start to ring as per normal behavior; but i need to just press with my thumb (firmly but gently) on the headstock to remove the ring.

With just the thumb you can flex the headstock up to 3/4 houndredths, if you press with the palm of the hand you end up with 15/20.

So there you have it.

Edited By JasonB on 17/12/2020 17:34:34