New Lathe Problems advice needed

Purchased a Chester DB10 10x22 lathe a few weeks ago and not had much time to play with it. What time I have spent on the machine has been problematic. There are a few problems the major one being bad chatter when facing and very bad when grooving/parting. After reading up on these type of Chinese machines I made a few mods to try to improve the situation,I made a solid 4 bolt compound clamp to strengthen the machine in that area and also a rear parting tool holder. These mods didnt help at all. The machine couldnt face more than about 0.25mm and parting was totally impossible. I ended up tightening the spindle bearings a little and it will face about 0.5mm now but parting still no hope.

I did some tests yesterday to look for spindle deflection and after much messing about I discovered the spindle was ok but the headstock is deflecting. If I put pressure on chuck or spindle I am getting about 0.04mm in both directions so adding that together its coming on for a tenth. I stripped it all down and took some pictures and am hoping someone can give me a some advice on how to proceed.

So I dont think there is any chance of this head stock bolting down to the bed in a solid fashion. This must be where my chatter problem is coming from but how am I going to fix it?? I could really use some advice here. I was thinking perhaps I could fly cut and the then shim the larger surface to correct it (thats if I can get it to fit in my small mill) but I have not got a clue what to do with the V section. Should I just leave that? It is quite rough but probably has a better contact area the other worse side.

I think I would be inclined to get Chester to come and take it away!

John

Don't mess about, demand a refund under the "sale of goods not fit for purpose"!

Andrew

Hate to say it,but I,ve been there too !

They may well say as you have taken it to pieces, so its your fault.

Re assemble carefully, state you test findings (only) and demand a refund as not fit for purpose.

Is it new, or just new to you?

If new, then your remedy has been suggested. Sale of goods act can be quoted if need-be.

If new to you and not new,new, then you have problems.

Regards

Richard.

I would blue up the section of bed where the head sits ( make sure there are no burrs around the mounting bolt holes ) and then place the head up on the bed and give it a rub back and forth to see what contact points you have .

The v slot is ok and although the flat side is not the best provided you can get contact points in each corner it will be usable . I feel your issue is more about the head rocking around on high spots in the middle of the v and flat section .

Once you have it sitting there without any rocking you can use an epoxy filler to fill the voids ( take a look at stefan gotteswinter youtube channel as he uses this to fix a column alignment issue on his mill ) it can be re machined but you need to make up a jig that fits in the spindle bearing housing so you can set it up to machine everything parralell to the spindle bore .

Looks like their man in China,needs to kick a few arses !

Too late for me,I,m afraid !.

My advice,next time shop around and believe nothing you are told,and I mean nothing !!

Thanks for all the replies and XD 351 for the epoxy idea, I think that is something I will look at doing. I have had the lathe about a month but due to being busy never had chance to really use it properly just got it on the bench and set up. Once I noticed the chatter I immediately presumed it was due to compound/saddle lack of rigidity so any spare time I had I made the mods to fix that on my old lathe and mill. I am just glad I never sold my old lathe. If it is fixable I would rather just do that and know its done and dusted. At the end of the day if i go through all the hassle of returning it for all I know the next one might have other issues and I will be back in same boat with a load of time wasted. It was a nightmare to get in my garage due to it being at bottom of a rough heavily sloped drive and then onto the bench, dont really wont to be bothered with all that again. Anyway I have learned a lesson I should have found the time to travel to various dealers and seen what they had to offer but something like this doesnt show up on general inspection. At first I thought that maybe this was the best performance this type of lathe could offer but after watching others with similar type of machines on Youtube I realised there must be something wrong with mine.

Sorry to hear this Ady.

I'm call Chester and dump the problem on them.

I had a problems with my Crusader, I ended up telling them to send a lorry to fetch it back, they soon got their finger out!!

WORST dealer out there in my experience

Jim

Edited By Rockets on 19/11/2017 19:07:41

The problem with trying to scrape it and fit it is that although it might not wobble you don't know if the spindle is pointing straight down the bed or off by a few thou. This could make it difficult to decide if subsequent parallel turning setting up is due to the bed needing to be aligned or the spindle being out.

Ady, its already been said -- return it forthwith -- in fact I would have them collect it and make sure they know to send enough muscle to remove it from where it is onto their transport.

You are considering remedial work, don't !!

if you do you have burnt your boats and will have little or no chance of recourse. Also consider if the headstock is so poorly machined and fitted what about the rest of the machine ? Even if you do fix the problems shown here its safe to assume there are more -- what you have is a set of castings -- part machined !

John

Edited By Carl Wilson 4 on 19/11/2017 20:23:06

Edited By Carl Wilson 4 on 19/11/2017 20:23:26