New Lathe Problems advice needed

[Ady WilsonParticipant @adywilson52106]

[Ady WilsonParticipant @adywilson52106]

Purchased a Chester DB10 10×22 lathe a few weeks ago and not had much time to play with it. What time I have spent on the machine has been problematic. There are a few problems the major one being bad chatter when facing and very bad when grooving/parting. After reading up on these type of Chinese machines I made a few mods to try to improve the situation,I made a solid 4 bolt compound clamp to strengthen the machine in that area and also a rear parting tool holder. These mods didnt help at all. The machine couldnt face more than about 0.25mm and parting was totally impossible. I ended up tightening the spindle bearings a little and it will face about 0.5mm now but parting still no hope.

I did some tests yesterday to look for spindle deflection and after much messing about I discovered the spindle was ok but the headstock is deflecting. If I put pressure on chuck or spindle I am getting about 0.04mm in both directions so adding that together its coming on for a tenth. I stripped it all down and took some pictures and am hoping someone can give me a some advice on how to proceed.

So I dont think there is any chance of this head stock bolting down to the bed in a solid fashion. This must be where my chatter problem is coming from but how am I going to fix it?? I could really use some advice here. I was thinking perhaps I could fly cut and the then shim the larger surface to correct it (thats if I can get it to fit in my small mill) but I have not got a clue what to do with the V section. Should I just leave that? It is quite rough but probably has a better contact area the other worse side.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

I think I would be inclined to get Chester to come and take it away!

John

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

Don't mess about, demand a refund under the "sale of goods not fit for purpose"!

Andrew

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

I’m not trying to be facetious here but I honestly can’t understand why you’ve started stripping it down.

There is no way, absolutely no way on earth it is acceptable for you to be contemplating the type of remedial work you mention on what ought to be a brand new machine.

Get your money back. They’ve sold you a piece of junk. Which us not remarkable because that is what they do. My brother had a mill from them recently. The thing was a wreck, straight out the box. They then sent him worse stuff ad supposed spare parts to fix issues. He reboxed it and sent the whole lot back for a refund.

I urge you to do the same. Don’t let them get away with it.

[larry PhelanParticipant @larryphelan54019]

Hate to say it,but I,ve been there too !

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

They may well say as you have taken it to pieces, so its your fault.

Re assemble carefully, state you test findings (only) and demand a refund as not fit for purpose.

[richardandtracyParticipant @richardandtracy]

Is it new, or just new to you?

If new, then your remedy has been suggested. Sale of goods act can be quoted if need-be.

If new to you and not new,new, then you have problems.

Regards

Richard.

[I.M. OUTAHEREParticipant @i-m-outahere]

I would blue up the section of bed where the head sits ( make sure there are no burrs around the mounting bolt holes ) and then place the head up on the bed and give it a rub back and forth to see what contact points you have .

The v slot is ok and although the flat side is not the best provided you can get contact points in each corner it will be usable . I feel your issue is more about the head rocking around on high spots in the middle of the v and flat section .

Once you have it sitting there without any rocking you can use an epoxy filler to fill the voids ( take a look at stefan gotteswinter youtube channel as he uses this to fix a column alignment issue on his mill ) it can be re machined but you need to make up a jig that fits in the spindle bearing housing so you can set it up to machine everything parralell to the spindle bore .

[DeanoParticipant @deano]

I recently returned a Milling machine to Chester, having uncrated it and looked at the quality. It was appalling. As it was ex demo, I didn’t expect it to be brand new but it was shockingly bad. The stand had been used in several machines and looked like a piece of Swiss cheese too. Chester refunded me and picked it up. Never again. Having looked at Mr Warren’s products at the Leamington show, my money is most likely going to him. Incidentally, I looked at Chester’s stuff at the same show thinking they would have fettled their wares for the show. No comparison, the quality just wasn’t there in my opinion. Get your money back if you can.

[larry PhelanParticipant @larryphelan54019]

Looks like their man in China,needs to kick a few arses !

Too late for me,I,m afraid !.

My advice,next time shop around and believe nothing you are told,and I mean nothing !!

[DeanoParticipant @deano]

I agree with that. My brother and I had a model B a few years ago and it was better than what they are turning out now, marginally. I wouldn’t part with the hard earned now without at least having a twiddle of the handles.

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Much as I admire XD351 for his can do attitude and obvious skill and knowledge in getting your machine back to rights, I’m afraid I can’t agree. Not on the grounds that it isn’t a sound engineering course of action but on the principle of quality and fairness.

You’ve been sold a crock and Chester are getting away with it all the time. The only way to stop it is to send the kit back and get a refund. Maybe when enough people do this they will sit up and take notice and do something to rectify the abysmal quality issues that are currently plaguing their business.

[Ady WilsonParticipant @adywilson52106]

Thanks for all the replies and XD 351 for the epoxy idea, I think that is something I will look at doing. I have had the lathe about a month but due to being busy never had chance to really use it properly just got it on the bench and set up. Once I noticed the chatter I immediately presumed it was due to compound/saddle lack of rigidity so any spare time I had I made the mods to fix that on my old lathe and mill. I am just glad I never sold my old lathe. If it is fixable I would rather just do that and know its done and dusted. At the end of the day if i go through all the hassle of returning it for all I know the next one might have other issues and I will be back in same boat with a load of time wasted. It was a nightmare to get in my garage due to it being at bottom of a rough heavily sloped drive and then onto the bench, dont really wont to be bothered with all that again. Anyway I have learned a lesson I should have found the time to travel to various dealers and seen what they had to offer but something like this doesnt show up on general inspection. At first I thought that maybe this was the best performance this type of lathe could offer but after watching others with similar type of machines on Youtube I realised there must be something wrong with mine.

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

Sorry to hear this Ady.

I'm call Chester and dump the problem on them.

I had a problems with my Crusader, I ended up telling them to send a lorry to fetch it back, they soon got their finger out!!

WORST dealer out there in my experience

Jim

[DeanoParticipant @deano]

It’s your decision Ady, but for my money I’d take the pain of sending it back. Every time someone takes the crap and fixes it, they sell another piece of crap to another customer that doesn’t have the skills to fix it. At least contact them and demand a credit note for what you think it’s worth. They tried to offer me one to keep the mill. There was no way. It was in the crate and on the lorry within a week. The value of forums like this is that wherever we are in the world, we can unite our experience and stick it to the crooks who rip us off. If you get your dosh back, you could look at Warco or another dealer.

Edited By Rockets on 19/11/2017 19:07:41

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

I agree with Rockets. Get on the phone to them and get them to take their rubbish away.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

The problem with trying to scrape it and fit it is that although it might not wobble you don't know if the spindle is pointing straight down the bed or off by a few thou. This could make it difficult to decide if subsequent parallel turning setting up is due to the bed needing to be aligned or the spindle being out.

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

Just remember while you try to sort all these issues out…the scraping, the filling, the head and tailstock alignment…that you’ve paid for the privilege.

[JohnFParticipant @johnf59703]

Ady, its already been said — return it forthwith — in fact I would have them collect it and make sure they know to send enough muscle to remove it from where it is onto their transport.

You are considering remedial work, don't !!

if you do you have burnt your boats and will have little or no chance of recourse. Also consider if the headstock is so poorly machined and fitted what about the rest of the machine ? Even if you do fix the problems shown here its safe to assume there are more — what you have is a set of castings — part machined !

John

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

He’s right. Pay upwards of 1000 pounds for a machine only to have to start filling it with Araldite? Really?!

Edited By Carl Wilson 4 on 19/11/2017 20:23:06

Edited By Carl Wilson 4 on 19/11/2017 20:23:26

[Ian Skeldon 2Participant @ianskeldon2]

Sorry to hear of your issues Ady, the general advice on the forum is bang on, you will always have a sub-standard machine even if you bodge it so that it stops chattering. If you take the individual parts and have thne re-ground then fair enough, BUT, you shouldn't have to. I belive the phrase "misrepresentation" applies here, they sold you a machine quoting various facts and figures to show it had been tested and was working to those tolerances, so you are fully entitled to walk away and let them have it back.

[DeanoParticipant @deano]

Don’t let them get away with it! Why should you have to do their product development? There’s this mentality in the ME world that if you buy a Chinese lathe you should expect to have to fix it first. Thirty years ago this might have been the case. Now we are paying thousands, not a few hundred. You should expect to get a level of quality, at least for it to work out of the crate. It clearly doesn’t. If we take a stand when these things happen, we will force the market to provide better services.

[Stephen FollowsParticipant @stephenfollows82099]

Thank god I read this, I was considering a Chester. Oddly though, a post which I put on here re Chester lathes did not get any negative responses.

[Carl Wilson 4Participant @carlwilson4]

You’ve had a very narrow escape.

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