I want to buy a heavier lathe than what I have at the moment.There is an sag 14 going for $3800.It is about 100 km from me.
To check a lathe like this what should I look out for ?It does not have a face plate or the steadies.
Not knowing how to operate this lathe I feel a bit vulnerable.Does this lathe have a clutch that can be faulty and how do I check it.I believe this runs in gamet bearings fed by a centrifugal pump of sorts. How do I know if this works .He tells me it is under power running off a vfd.
Does this have an enclosed gearbox that can do all the threads metric and imperial without changing any gears. ?
I dont think he has any spare gears and if I cant turn threads this lathe will be useless to me.
If there is any suggestions on what I should check for I would appreciate it as it is hard in darkest Africa to buy a decent lathe.
Plunger,
I have a Sag 14, and have had a look at the photos and will try and answer your questions. Apologies for repeating some points already made by others.
-The mechanical multi-plate clutch is an excellent feature, but the reverse clutch can wear as it is often used to slow the spindle (no brake on these lathes). The clutch is adjustable however. One or two PM members have found broken springs in their clutches.
As a rough guide, lift the clutch lever up for normal rotation, the spindle should pick up speed smartly. At a guess, 2-3 seconds to reach 400 rpm? The same with reverse (clutch lever down).
To check the oil pump, there is a sight/flow glass but it is probably too dirty to see the oil flow. I can't see anything in mine. You could lift the headstock cover I suppose. Take your metric Allen keys, it is easy to lift. There are squirt holes in the pipes directing oil onto certain areas.
Yes, an excellent screw cutting/feed box. The left hand side of the chart shows you all the pitches and TPI you can cut with the standard gears (also shown on the chart). The gears you need are 20T-40T-80T.
I don't really understand what the right side of the chart does (Dia. pitch etc). It shows a different set of gears.
The lathe in the photos looks to be a metric lathe (i.e. metric dials on the cross feed dial etc.) but as far as I know, all Sag 14's have an imperial (3/8"?) leadscrew. So for cutting metric threads you would leave the half-nuts engaged and reverse the lathe. I do this for any thread cutting usually.
As to condition...it looks pretty rough.
Here are a few things I noticed:
-Has been re-painted.
-The carriage handwheel looks incorrect, normally it has a little screw needed to lock/unlock the graduated dial. A useful feature.
When I see replaced parts on the front of a lathe, I wonder if it has been tipped over. Check the apron for cracks as it is an aluminium casting.
-Several levers on the headstock are missing/damaged. No big deal, but why? (Fallen over?)
-Cross slide hand wheel handle has been replaced - see above.
-The compound hand wheel is a huge replacement. Looks a bit odd, maybe it has been used a lot to turn tapers (crowning) on conveyor drums, like the one in the photo?
-The feed/screw cutting chart has been ruined, just like mine. Not a good place to hang the chuck key.
-The three jaw chuck looks quite small, not a bad thing I suppose, but you could also use one a lot larger (expensive). I have a 300mm 3 jaw chuck, which is great, though a bit difficult to slow down.
-The electrical cabinet might have been removed? Normally it is hinged off the rear of the headstock, and sticks up above the headstock.
Missing:
-steadies?
-faceplate
-extra gears?
-spindle sleeve? (not standard, but I have a drawing of it).
-threading dial? Maybe not a big deal if the reverse clutch works well.
-there should be a swarf guard on the carriage hand wheel.
-Coolant pump OK?
This ignores the other important things, e.g.
-Condition of ways. Lube system on these lathes is via a pump on the carriage, the reservoir is not that big and it can fill up with coolant or just left empty... The copper pipes can get damaged and one broken pipe means no oil gets to the other points. This system oils the main ways and the cross slide ways.
-Check tailstock taper for damage/scoring. Try something in the taper if possible.
-Run the lathe through the spindle gears, feed gears etc. You can change feeds while it is running.
-As others have noted, the feed control on the carriage can be a bit dodgy. Up for longitudinal feed, down for cross feed.
It is unlikely you can get any parts, so take care.
In summary: the Graziano Sag 14 is a very good lathe, but if possible, wait for one that has had better care and is not missing so many parts.