Busybee 10 X 18

[metalbyter]

Yippee!!
I just picked up a 10 X 18 from busybee yesterday.
I will be doing a CNC conversion on it eventualy as time permits.
This is an awsome machine, they also had the 9 X 20 and there is no comparison between the two. I will post more pictures over the next few days
Mark

[metalbyter]

Hello again,
The more I play with the 10X18 the more I like it.
The initial clean up was easy, no major grit or crud just a coating of light grease that wiped off easily. during the cleaning I disassembled the apron. carrige, cross slide, compound and tail stock, the fit and finnish were exellent.
my only minor disappointment was the compound, the gibbs and dovetails will require some attention.
This lathe is massive and The test cuts I took today were impressive, out of the box with only a cleaning and minor gibb adjustment it removed .125" off the diameter of a 1-1/2 304 SS bar in 1 pass with an exellent finnish.
I have a 3" torrington roller bearing race i'ts very hard and the lathe took a
.02" depth of cut, the swarf was bright red coming of the tool and the finnish
was as smooth and shiny as the original ground finnish.
I see very little mention of these machines, has any body else done a CNC conversion on a 10 X 18?

[nickm23]

I just bought one of these today! Its my first lathe and and I am a bit lost and excited at the same time

Unpacking was relatively easy except for trying to move all 360# of this machine around!. Not much grease, what was there came off with degreaser and not much scrubbing.

Ran some aluminum through it and it is really smooth...question I've got though is does anyone know what scale the dials are? I haven't put much effort into figuring it out but it doesn't seem that its metric or inch

[JWOOD]

I've had my 10x18 for two years now and have been fairly impressed with it for the price. As for the dail graduations, on mine, the crossfeed is .1mm on the diameter, the topslide is actually .002" per graduation. The dail on the leadscrew handwheel I have found useless as the leadscrew on mine is 7tpi. The goodnews is the tailstock is right on as the dail reads.

The only major problem I have had was yesterday I stripped the two studs for clamping the topslide down. I found a 5/16" grade 8 bolt is a perfect fit in the circular groove and I just had to open the thru holes in the topslide 1/16" to clear. I would reccomend doing this before you go to far, as it is really annoying when your in the middle of a job and you strip the studs.

[nickm23]

Thanks for the tip on the bolt, picked some up on the way home today. I just spent some time running a few test pieces and it seems mine is set up the same as yours in terms of dial graduations & accuracy.

I picked up a chuck and arbour as well, I'm guessing I just wack the arbour into the tailstock? Sorry for all the newbie questions, I'm learning as I go

[JWOOD]

The best way I find to install the chuck onto the arbour is, to clean the socket and arbour with laquer thinner or acetone to degrease, then chuck the arbour in the freezer for an hour and then I place the chuck on the arbour press and use it to seat the arbour into the chuck. If all else fail you can give it a few good taps with a dead blow hammer or a block of wood and a steel hammer. Good luck.

[nickm23]

Worked like a charm, thanks for the help.

I'm going to try and get into the headstock, my lathe is in my garage/shop which is usually kind of cool (maybe 5-10 deg C) and I find the lathe a bit slow to start up. Wondering if some fresh moly grease would help things out?

[metalbyter]

It"s great to see there are others with this lathe, seeing all the groups for the mini lathes and the 9X20's I was starting to feel like an outcast.

The headstock should have oil in it not grease, there is a sight glass for the oil level on the lower right corner as you look at the headstock.

Mark

[nickm23]

Mark, I was wondering what the sightglass was for. I tried to read the manual but that was a waste of time, I have no idea what they are trying to say. I looked at the diagrams but can't really get a clear view of how to drain the oil. Is there a drain plug or do we need to drain it with a turkey baster?

[metalbyter]

Yeah the manual is almost useless,
the oil drain plug is on the chuck side of the headstock
down low near the back.

[JWOOD]

Mine has been slow to start up lately in the cold weather, my shops not much warmer until I turn on the heater. What I do is chuck up a piece of bar and let the lathe run at 550 rpm for 5-10min. I have found after that thier is no problem.

[LUCKY13]

The oil could be changed to a differnt type/weight but I would check with the manufacter to see what would qualify as a replacement. They may even have a recemendation for colder weather operation. It is probably just the tickness of the fluid/oil that is draging things a little until it warms abit. I would be very carfull in trying something like this. But there probably is a oil/fluid that is proven that will help this out.


Jess