Recently, a couple months or so, I got a new to me Victor 1640B. I know, I know, Peoples Republic or Trash, but that's beside the point. So there I was, minding my own business, cutting a length of 7/16-10 Left hand Acme thread. Nothing too difficult, machine is cutting nice and true and there's no sign of any issues. I turn the lathe off and step aside to grab some water. As I'm walking out of the shop I hear a loud crack come from the lathe. I look around for a bit and then I see it, a sizable crack running about 2.5" inches in length from the operator side alignment bolt. Now I haven't adjusted center in around a week and a half, haven't needed to as it's been cutting within .001/ft but I do admit to getting a little torque happy trying to get that last little bit out.
Anyways, a pleasant call to Machinery Solutions in Cali later and I get the great news that yes, I can get either a complete assembly or just the top half casting. For $2500 and it'll need to be machined to match the ways and sit on center... So add about, oh I don't know, $1000 is my rough estimation to have it fit. I paid $4800 for the machine, not about to pay $3000-4000 just to replace a tail-stock.
I attached some pictures of the damage as it happened and some after I'd removed a small Chinese fortune worth of auto body filler and throat and eye destroying particulate and paint. It looks nowhere near as bad without the ashes of 1000 Chinese ancestors plastered all over the casting. But it's still broken and I'd like it to be less broken. Anyone have any suggestions on how best to repair it? I'm afraid just fixing the crack isn't going to be enough. The crack is on both sides of the bore for the alignment bolt and originated at the thread in the casting. I'm not really opposed to anything that prevents me from buying a new one and having it fit. I've been suggested drill and tap it to the base place and use bolts to lock them together once I get it aligned. I'm not opposed to this but I would still prefer to do anything I can to either prevent the crack from getting worse or the casting warping off center.
Any help is appreciated as I'm kind of dead in the water till I get it back in a usable state.
Stephen
I'm either terrible at working the image system on PM or it just sucks, possibly a combination of the two. I put them in an imgur album to make them easier to see.
Imgur: The magic of the Internet
Anyways, a pleasant call to Machinery Solutions in Cali later and I get the great news that yes, I can get either a complete assembly or just the top half casting. For $2500 and it'll need to be machined to match the ways and sit on center... So add about, oh I don't know, $1000 is my rough estimation to have it fit. I paid $4800 for the machine, not about to pay $3000-4000 just to replace a tail-stock.
I attached some pictures of the damage as it happened and some after I'd removed a small Chinese fortune worth of auto body filler and throat and eye destroying particulate and paint. It looks nowhere near as bad without the ashes of 1000 Chinese ancestors plastered all over the casting. But it's still broken and I'd like it to be less broken. Anyone have any suggestions on how best to repair it? I'm afraid just fixing the crack isn't going to be enough. The crack is on both sides of the bore for the alignment bolt and originated at the thread in the casting. I'm not really opposed to anything that prevents me from buying a new one and having it fit. I've been suggested drill and tap it to the base place and use bolts to lock them together once I get it aligned. I'm not opposed to this but I would still prefer to do anything I can to either prevent the crack from getting worse or the casting warping off center.
Any help is appreciated as I'm kind of dead in the water till I get it back in a usable state.
Stephen
I'm either terrible at working the image system on PM or it just sucks, possibly a combination of the two. I put them in an imgur album to make them easier to see.
Imgur: The magic of the Internet