Tri Power lathe Gear box leaks

[digitalmdj]

I had a leak I could not find on my tripower. Since I was tearing it down anyway I had a chance to find the problem. Well I found it . They Arc welded a casting flaw that went to oil and it leaks. The idiots think they can plug a hole of a dirty casting with arc weld and keep it from leaking. Arc weld is for surface filling it won't bond well enough to plug a leak unless your real lucky. Well Jhon taylor will have to replace it, It's a manufacture defect they tried to hide from me. I would check your machine close to find problems before you get stuck with this kind of junk.

[digitalmdj]

I also have a cracked swing arm they have to replace. Here are some pics.

[Lemo]

I feel sorry for your bad experience! I decided not to go for a shoptask but a couple of machines I got form an older gentlemen 10 miles away. Thanks to my great buddy we hauled the stuff out of a basement. A bridgeport mill and a southbend 13x36 lathe for 1900$. Perfect condition.... Maybe you can find a deal like that and get your money back on that unfortunate acquisition.
The best to you and keep up the documentation it helps others!
Lemo

[digitalmdj]

Their is not one thing on this machine that doesn't need to be adjusted or modified or replaced. The bushings are steel and I am having them made in bearing bronze. Then the gear shift follwer I replaced it with a cam follower bearing 30 mm. The gear needs to be modified slightly for the follower fit properly. Just a few thousands need to be removed from both sides of the gear. The old follower pin was smashed on one side. The Chinese are so bad they just use everthing even if it's junk. I will post pictures in about a week when I have everthing together. Also I am cutting down the spindle pulley because I dont need all the belt groves. I only need one but I am leaving two. It will be alot lighter than the original. JT seriously need to speak to the Chinese about their quality control.

[digitalmdj]

I have been rebuilding the lathe spindle . I found precision 32008x p5 and 32007x p5 bearings at a bargan price. As for the spindle lock nuts they were a sloppy fit on the spindle shaft. I ordered new nuts and now I find that the threads were not cut correctly and had to order a thread chaser to cut the threads deeper so the nuts will fit on the shaft. This machine that is suppose to be precision . Unless you are a blind man missing half your fingers you couldn't miss all the poorly machined parts on the tripower machine. The front spindle bearing was very hard to remove even with the correct pullers and a torch it took about a hour to get it off. Talk about a press fit . Well the new bearing heated to 230 degrees went on just fine.

[plungerhead]

Where did you find th p5s?

plumber

[digitalmdj]

I ordered them from BDI. They are made by consolidated. It will show they are on backorder but order them anyway. They don't keep them in stock . Consolidated drop shiped them and I had them in two days. They are not much more than the timkens but are a better bearing.

[Lemo]

Seems you are getting somewhere! Good thing!
I am happily cleaning the grit of the centuries of my small used Bridgeport and the South Bend lathe. Holy Weight lifting Batman. NOTHING is light on those beasts.
Happy Holidays!
Lemo

[digitalmdj]

I am getting somewhere very slowly. A friend cut down the spindle pully since I only need 1 to run. But I left two so I can use at lower speeds for more torque. He also machined the third shaft gear so I can use a 30mm camfollower on the shifter instead of that cheap roller setup shoptask installed. It looks professional now. They could have built a machine that could hum. But instead they built a machine just one level above junk.

[Lemo]

A friend of mine and I drove up to Grizzly this weekend. We picked up some granite plates and other cheap but immensely heavy stuff and saved a bundle in shipping. While being there I took a closer look at the machines.... Well... you get what you pay for. We planed to buy more, but left a lot of things there after close inspection.
Cheers
Lemo

[digitalmdj]

The shoptask looks good on the outside. But when you get inside it show how poorly it was put together. To be honest it wouldn't have cost to much more to make it right at the factory. It would still need work but it wouldn't be a total rebuild. John Taylor knows this but has done nothing to correct the problems.

[plungerhead]

I ordered the p5s. What grease?

plumber