Quick Newbie Question

[Tomc938]

I picked up a Craftex 10" x 18" lathe. (Model B2227L) at a great price. Before you say anything: I know that Chinese machines are varying degrees of junk. There are several reasons I ended up with this lathe rather than the SB 9" model A I was hoping for.

There are two screws on the saddle one the headstock side and I have no idea what they are for. Of course the manual is useless.

If someone can tell me, I would appreciate it!

Thanks all!

Tom

PS: In time I will get rid of this lathe and get what I am really after. In the meantime I am going to make chips!

[mickeyf]

Don't feel bad or pay too much heed to people dissing your newly acquired lathe. Almost any lathe is better than no lathe, in fact, one that is "imperfect" will help you understand what you really need or want in the next one. Only a guess, but those two cap screws (or rather, the threaded hole they are occupying) might be for a follower rest, which may attach to the carriage in different ways depending on the particular design of the lathe.

[MetalByter]

Yes, I have the same lathe. It is for the follower rest.

[tom_d]

Welcome to the forum, and the world of home shop machining. Please don't apologize for owning any specific brand of machine. What's important is that you're in this to have some fun, and maybe learn a few things along the way.

[Tomc938]

Thanks everyone! Was thinking along those lines, but not something I have seen before.

And thanks for the welcome. I'm looking forward to leaning and doing.

[JRouche]

I was thinking they are blind holes for an attachment. Very nice.

Always ask .

The old adage, JR

[Mike Burch]

Yes, my Chinese-made lathe has them too.They are indeed for securing the follow-rest. On mine, the holes have grub screws to keep the crud out of the tapped holes—they have to be removed when the rest is being installed.
Welcome aboard, by the way!

[brian Rupnow]

I owned and ran a B2227L lathe for about 7 years. It was a great little machine, and performed extremely well. The only real "drawback" was the hole thru the spindle, which I believe was slightly less than 3/4".

[OaklandGB]

In my late 60s and beginner in home shop with a 10x22 Chinese lathe. What is just as fascinating is learning the methods, tooling, and accessories that go along with any lathe. Simply learning to grind a HSS tool that cuts was a huge step for me.
I take care of my lathe and keep my work within its capabilities. Very happy with it. Hope yours will provide you with many hours of chips and projects.

[BCRider]

Welcome to the mad house!

As you get used to it and tune up some of the little spots that don't get the proper attention at the factory I suspect you'll come to really enjoy and love that lathe. If your goal is table top "model" engines and other smaller projects that would similarly be doable on an SB9 then I think you'll find over time that your desire for the South Bend may not go away but perhaps you won't feel that you NEED to switch over.

The South Bend lathes are nice and they have a whole different look to them that if you're a machine junky can actually be called good looking. But capability wise what you have right now will do the job every bit as well as an SB9 for the vast majority of any work that suits this size of machine.

[Tomc938]

Thanks to everyone for the comments, and especially the encouragement. As it is the machine in the garage that allows me to curl strips off metal, I am already falling for this lathe. Might be Stockholm Syndrome, but I'll take it! Planning to do some tooling up and then move onto other projects. I also do metal casting (Al) and I'm looking forward to machining some casting and see how they clean up. Thanks again!

[Bob La Londe]

Don't feel bad or pay too much heed to people dissing your newly acquired lathe. Almost any lathe is better than no lathe, in fact, one that is "imperfect" will help you understand what you really need or want in the next one. Only a guess, but those two cap screws (or rather, the threaded hole they are occupying) might be for a follower rest, which may attach to the carriage in different ways depending on the particular design of the lathe.

My first "precision" machine tool was a 7x10 Harbor Freight mini lathe my wife gave me for Christmas. To be fair she said she looked for a bigger one, but it was all they had. I made parts that worked on it. It was not always easy, but with a lot of care and frequent use of a mic I was able to make all kinds of things. It was very most absolutely definitely better than not having a lathe. I still have it, but it has not been used in a long time. The last time I used it I had to put it back together to make a part to fix another lathe. LOL. I have it all apart and partially converted to CNC, but its not an urgent project.

[J Tiers]

Definitely do not feel bad about it.

My first lathe was an old Sears "minilathe" from the 1950s, one of the notorious "AA" or "109" lathes. Or, rather, it was a "Lathe Shaped Object".

Best learning lathe ever..... After getting decent results with it (much care needed) I really understood how to get good performance out of the ancient Logan I bought.

The worst anyone can say about yours is that it is not super refined/sophisticated... It is surely much better than that old "AA" lathe.