geardoc
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2012
Long story short:
I have a friend, now former friend at a local government installation, who desperately needed to borrow a lathe as their EOY budget would not allow purchase or lease through the Griz-company-who-will-not-be-named-on-this-forum.
He asked to lease my South Bend Fourteen through end of January.
I said ok, he'd done me a solid before by doing his job which this dept doesn't often do.
Long story short- it was ok last week. They hired a new kid, new kid was told- do not touch lathe.
New kid had taken and failed Machining 101 at the local CC, but oh he was a beeping pro if you asked him.
While the rest of the guys left new kid to service the hydraulic oil on an excavator, he decided he'd mess around on my lathe.
Well, he managed to (1) change the quick change gears with the machine running and under power(I know because I'm pickup up teeth) (2)he snapped the drive belt (3) he damaged the half nuts trying to engage threading and feeding.
He decided he'd try to save his behind so he got a sling, and tried loading it onto a trailer to return it to me with an excavator.
He was in a panic so he dropped it, the tailstock got broken and the rear gear box cover came un-riveted.
I knew something was wrong when it wasn't returned on the 30th, per contract.
The lathe didn't come with a tailstock. I was given one by AMT in Dayton cheap, and it was for a newer 16" lathe. I made it work by using a metal planer and reducing the size to 14" and I made an adapter where the v-ways fit perfect, I mean perfect alignment. I had probably 100 hours in that tailstock.
I already lost one lathe to theft- I was paying to have it stored while concrete was poured and the storage facility owner took and gathered up everything metal on a rollback, and took it to be crushed.
I don't yet have my Pacemaker off the truck and placed, the Super Bee has to come out of the garage it is in first.
So I am left with a 10" lathe, a 14" Chinese lathe I saved from the scrap pile- and that's it for running lathes.
I loved the electronic speed control on my Fourteen. I just don't know how much more damage the kid did dropping it, and this happened at the worst possible time because I need that lathe to run- the 14" ching chong was just a POS for the purpose of roughing and polishing and it is not a precision work piece.
If I disassemble the change gear box and send the broken gears off, can some company hob replacement copies of them for me ? South Bend(Grizzly) wants an arm and a leg for any part for these and most times just ignored my parts inquiries in the past. I figure I'm better off finding a gear maker and getting some gears made. I'm so scared to open the quick change. I figure every damn one is broken.
I'm going to get nothing from the leasor, I know that now. I also know from small claims with the concrete contractor- I really don't want to sue, and when it is state or local government you have to first go to court to prove you have standing to sue.
I loved this lathe. I put my heart and soul in it and fixing it when I got it from a community college in Greenville.
I have a friend, now former friend at a local government installation, who desperately needed to borrow a lathe as their EOY budget would not allow purchase or lease through the Griz-company-who-will-not-be-named-on-this-forum.
He asked to lease my South Bend Fourteen through end of January.
I said ok, he'd done me a solid before by doing his job which this dept doesn't often do.
Long story short- it was ok last week. They hired a new kid, new kid was told- do not touch lathe.
New kid had taken and failed Machining 101 at the local CC, but oh he was a beeping pro if you asked him.
While the rest of the guys left new kid to service the hydraulic oil on an excavator, he decided he'd mess around on my lathe.
Well, he managed to (1) change the quick change gears with the machine running and under power(I know because I'm pickup up teeth) (2)he snapped the drive belt (3) he damaged the half nuts trying to engage threading and feeding.
He decided he'd try to save his behind so he got a sling, and tried loading it onto a trailer to return it to me with an excavator.
He was in a panic so he dropped it, the tailstock got broken and the rear gear box cover came un-riveted.
I knew something was wrong when it wasn't returned on the 30th, per contract.
The lathe didn't come with a tailstock. I was given one by AMT in Dayton cheap, and it was for a newer 16" lathe. I made it work by using a metal planer and reducing the size to 14" and I made an adapter where the v-ways fit perfect, I mean perfect alignment. I had probably 100 hours in that tailstock.
I already lost one lathe to theft- I was paying to have it stored while concrete was poured and the storage facility owner took and gathered up everything metal on a rollback, and took it to be crushed.
I don't yet have my Pacemaker off the truck and placed, the Super Bee has to come out of the garage it is in first.
So I am left with a 10" lathe, a 14" Chinese lathe I saved from the scrap pile- and that's it for running lathes.
I loved the electronic speed control on my Fourteen. I just don't know how much more damage the kid did dropping it, and this happened at the worst possible time because I need that lathe to run- the 14" ching chong was just a POS for the purpose of roughing and polishing and it is not a precision work piece.
If I disassemble the change gear box and send the broken gears off, can some company hob replacement copies of them for me ? South Bend(Grizzly) wants an arm and a leg for any part for these and most times just ignored my parts inquiries in the past. I figure I'm better off finding a gear maker and getting some gears made. I'm so scared to open the quick change. I figure every damn one is broken.
I'm going to get nothing from the leasor, I know that now. I also know from small claims with the concrete contractor- I really don't want to sue, and when it is state or local government you have to first go to court to prove you have standing to sue.
I loved this lathe. I put my heart and soul in it and fixing it when I got it from a community college in Greenville.