Richard Rex and his Grizzly G0602 Metal Lathe

摘要

The salvaged lathe saw many hours of use before being sold on eBay for an unbelievably high price - more than enough to pay for a 10 × 22 Asian import sold by Grizzly (USA), and countless others worldwide. Many of its features turned out to be knockoffs of Emco designs, but not so nicely made. Bringing it to a functional state was a remanufacturing exercise, a process of stripping it down completely (to clean out the casting sand and other debris), then starting over. Leaving aside its agricultural fit and finish, the end result does a decent job, especially after I installed a 3-phase motor and variable frequency drive. Things that actually matter, such as the TIR of gears, spindle and chucks, are fairly respectable. Back to the Emco; along the way I learned that its compound (a.k.a. top) slide wasn't as rigid as I like, and was too small for a QCTP (Quick Change Tool Post), a must-have item in my opinion. Anyone still shimming tool bits please note -the QCTP is a game changer.