chinese lathes copied even the errors from german designs

[Elninio]

I was having a conversation about asian import lathes with a friend today; we were discussing the disadvantages of chinese machines and he brought up an example about how chinese lathes are just ripoffs of german technology, and how they even copied the mistakes from the german designs (at least as far as small lathes are concerned). The example he gave was the two sticks that are on cross-slide dial (picture: http://www.bedair.org/Grizzly12x/LATHE1.JPG). Can anyone tell me more about this history?

[914Wilhelm]

U linky is stinky!

[Evan]

http://www.bedair.org/Grizzly12x/LATHE1.JPG

[tdmidget]

What "sticks"?

[Jim Shaper]

The only thing I can think of is he's talking about the dual pegs on the compound hand wheel. I wouldn't call those a mistake (they help you control the feed via positive grip).

[tdmidget]

Most folks call them crank handles. I find them on lathes from all over. Look at Colchesters, Harrisons, and I'm sure others. Not sure how he concluded that:
1. They are "sticks"
2. They are a mistake
3. They are German
Elninio, It's late, that **** will wear off by morning, try then and see if they are a mistake. Hope neither of you are driving tonite.

[MuellerNick]

It's not a bug, it's a feature!
Don't know if this is a German invention. If it is crap, not German, if it is brilliant, it is German (I'm German, so I'm not biased at all! )

At least, I find them very convinient. It has to do with the way you crank the handle. If you do it with one hand, one stick is superfluos (SP). But if you do the cranking with both hands as you are supposed to do for fine and consistent feed, they are very helpful.

Nick

[joegib]

Well, if we can stretch the OP's query to cover 'Germanic' as well as German products, an Austrian EMCO lathe may be a case in point. Some time after I got into model engineering, the Chinese 918/920 lathes started appearing in the UK. Despite some obvious deficiencies — somewhat rough finish, relatively light construction, no backgear and no tumbler gear — I rather liked the look of these lathes. The one feature that really turned me off, however, was the V-form leadscrew thread. Even I, in my ignorance, knew that a leadscrew ought to have an Acme or Trapezoidal thread. It struck me as odd that the Chinese makers had gone to the trouble of providing a half-Norton gearbox yet provided a leadscrew looking like a length of steel studding.

I later learned that the 918/920 range were basically copies of the EMCO Compact 8 lathe. What astonished me, though, on reading the Lathes UK entry here:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/emco/page2.html

— was that a V-form threaded leadscew was actually a feature of the original Compact 8. Tony Griffiths says — "As an economy measure, instead of the proper Acme thread usually found on leadscrews, that on the Compact 8 employed an ordinary 60-degree metric type".

This sounds like a replicated 'mistake' to me.

Joe

[Peter.]

I always understood that the use of two handles was to balance the handwheel.

[MuellerNick]

The Austrians! Poor country, often gets confused with the Australians and tourists from the USA ask where they finally can see a kanguro.

My original EMCO Compact 8 has an ACME leadscrew. But IIRC, the cross slide and the top slide do have some fine pitch metric screw.

Nick