My latest confession concerns my new toy - Liliana the lathe (the kids christen everything with names
).
Picked it up a fortnight ago in Sydney, managed to get it home, get it off the trailer, up my steep driveway and down into the shed all by myself. Not an easy task given that it weighs 160kg, but went fine.
Spent the last fortnight getting the bench ready for it. Measured eveerything up so it fits in a perfect position for access and ease of use. Made up a beautiful tray to go underneath it, complete with a little sump section that fits thru a hole in the benchtop so I can fit a coolant / lubricant spray setup to it later on. Mounted the tray to the wooden benchtop, sealed it all up perfectly so nothing can leak out.
Spent last night bodgy-ing up a winch arrangement out of a few bits of steel pipe, a pair of heavy duty tie-down ratchet straps and a littl hand winch. Managed to get all 160kgs of it up onto the benchtop without dropping it.
Spent tonight cleaning all the factory rust preventative grease off it, and setting it all up, including fitting the drive belts on the end. Then lined the mounting holes up, and bolted it down to the bench. Put a lump of aluminium in the chuck, a tool in the tolpost and turned it on. It runs !!. Turned the big lump of aluminium into a small lump of aluminium. Everything just works beatifully
. I was amazed that nothing had gone wrong
Decided to try some screwcutting last thing before I packed up for the night. Went to open the cover over the change gears on the end of the lathe to set it up for screwcutting, only to find that the cover doesn't just open out, IT OPENS SLIGHTLY BACKWARDS AS WELL - STRAIGHT INTO THE SHED WALL
So now I'm going to have to unmount it and move it forward on the bench by a few inches after spending a few nights getting it just perfect (so thought)