alan2525

I purchased a little Lathe milling attachment from Chronos

It's an import job - and it's got some really daft design faults! It's a copy of a Taig Milling attachment.

Chinese Part: http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/059102L.jpg
Taig Part: http://www.cartertools.com/1220.jpg

The dial actually projects higher than the top of the slide, so you can't fit a vice onto it, or clamp a workpiece to it that overhangs the dial on top!

The Tee slots on the Sides aren't actually Tee Slots - Just slots!

The dial's aren't resettable (as per Taig) but just have a slip ring which you can position and use as a ref point - the groove for that on the chinese job is machined, but not deep enough to fit the ring as they didn't seem to know what it was for when they machined it!

The actual dovetails are engineered so rather than pull the slide down onto them, the slide just pinches onto the corners of the dovetail and lifts up so light is visible underneath. The bottom of the gib is also worn, indicating it's only a corner of it thats the only part making contact.

I'm glad I didn't buy a chinese made lathe.

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Bunkerbarge

My lathe is originally Chinese, as seems to be the norm and whereas it isn't perfect, I am very happy with it.

You have to be prepared to take these things apart and sort them out right from the start to be in with a chance. As for your "T" slots, that's just plain stupid and I would be tempted to return it as it isn't:

"Fit for the purpose for which it was sold".

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“Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, Butting through the Channel in the mad March days"