Good evening chaps.

My first post here, although I've been an active browser for some time now, so apologies if it's in the wrong place.

I've recently bought a Chester 920 lathe from someone, who clearly never used. Bargain, I reckon. Anyway, it has clearly been neglected as the leadscrew was disconnected, the thread cutting lever was completely jammed up and some other things not quite the way I would like them. Oh – and it was missing the 127 tooth gear, which after several evenings of googling turns out to be unobtainium, so I 3D printed my own and it's been running brilliantly.(if anyone is in a similar predicament as me, drop me a message. Happy to help)

Anyway, onto my question –

The lathe runs great, but it has a rather alarming issue – when starting the motor, it makes quite a horrible noise. Sounds a bit like gears mashing together, but it comes from the motor itself. Also, it seems to bog down quite easily when taking deep cuts and on few occasions has even stalled, resulting in a horrid noise that made my cats jump.

I was wondering if anyone had similar experiences and recommendations for the best way to remedy this. Currently I'm making the 4 bolt cross slide clamp as the factory one is far too loose and wobbly for my liking(I've used Colchester lathes at uni, so I'm aware that this won't be anywhere near the power or rigidity of what I'm used to, but a 0.1mm facing cut really shouldn't be a problem…)

Thanks in advance.

Erik