What’s your opinion on Summit lathes? When I was an apprentice in the late 1970’s the shop I worked in bought a 12 x 24.
They were some of the first machine tools brought into this country from China.
Wet headstock sump with open bearings. All the fines from gear wear do not settle out.
Changed out all the bearings except the spindle bearings
The brake is a composite assembly of flat spring steel and asbestos riveted together in a cheesy way. Small window of adjustment to get it just right.
Two wet clutches, forward and reverse. The reverse clutch does double duty for braking the spindle.
Better machines have a separate wet clutch for spindle braking.
Oil flow on the wet clutches had to be adjusted for proper cooling.
Clutch plates are prone to cracking and breaking up if over heated. Clutch should be adjusted for reasonably quick spool up else the plates may burn and crack. The machine was purchased new and part of the kit were spare clutch plates. Score!
The engagement dog is a bronze alloy. Oil flow is hit or miss and may result in high wear and difficult engagement. There is a line for oil but as the dog moves left and right it will be in and out of the path of oil. The end of the tube can be modified for coverage at both positions.
An insert/core can be machined and matched to the dog to renew proper engagement.
There is a long splined shaft in the headstock that is prone to snapping under heavy load. It was fully hardened. A spline with a soft core would have been better.
Had the ways reground and applied Rulon to the saddle. That took care of the soft ways high wear problem. Fabbed wipers for the ways.
Some electrical contactor-heater problems.
The halfnuts were prone to collecting metal chips and had to be cleaned. Air gun problem.
Coolant would enter the apron. Fixed that can't remember the details.
Summing up, a solid machine from a developing third world country (at the time) that was much better after the rebuild.
This was a 20" lathe or larger gap bed lathe built in China.
John