Thread cutting

[digitalmdj]

I thought this forum was about shoptask lathes not paint jobs. You don't really think people believe you anymore without pictures do you. Its over with the scam is to old to play guys. You need to start producing legit pictures of your machines. You have had plenty of chances . You look awful stupid complaining about the color of my machine.

[smallblock]

Glossy red primer?? Yeah Right. Even if there was such a thing, only a fool would try to paint green over it.
C'mon Digital- Fess up. At first you were just trying to make a copy of the red patriot machine. Now you are mad because they changed the color.
As far as all those supposed defects are concerned, none of those pictures show any thing in any detail and are no proof that you even took them. How about some pics with you holding a copy of the day's newspaper.

You'll never get anything out of this guy- he's just a plant. Those pictures were pulled off the old shoptask website. On the other hand, Roadster just posted pictures of his new Blue and Yellow Patriot in front of his cars and his shop.

[digitalmdj]

They can go back in the posts and see the pictures a year ago so stop trying to change the subject that you don't own a machine and you made it up.

[fastlanecafe]

You'll never get anything out of this guy- he's just a plant. Those pictures were pulled off the old shoptask website. On the other hand, Roadster just posted pictures of his new Blue and Yellow Patriot in front of his cars and his shop.

I think you are right on the money. Those old pictures were pulled right off the shoptask website. He bought one of those 1800.00 closeout machines and spray canned it green.

[digitalmdj]

Anyone can see JT doesn't have a camera that good. Have you noticed the detail my camera offers. That is just low resolution so I can post it on this site. I can only assume that JT got tired of tearing every machine down so he is back selling them as they are shipped. People will be angry as soon as the try to use the machines. I see that you two have ran out of things to start trouble with . You really need to buy machines now to show people you deserve to post here on this forum.

[jdclark]

I know. I've been using a south bend lathe and bridgeport mill for nine years. Occassionally I work with a turnmaster lathe.

The shoptask is for home use.

I had an old South Bend for years before i bought my Patriot. It took me a little while to re-learn threading on the new machine. I suggest you forget using the auto stop rod on the front for your carriage positioning. I could never get it to repeat exactly. I use the old fashioned method of indexing the carriage and the spindle for my repeat passes. It took me a while to get used to it after having the thread dial on the SB, but once I was in the "zone" it became second nature. Going all the way up to a shoulder can be tricky. I like to give myself a short relief there if possible, but if not there is always the old hand crank on the spindle trick or turning the spindle in reverse and cutting from the back side from the shoulder out.

[instructor37]

I would like to know why in the world doesn't this machine have a thread dial. It has been in production for a long time and this issue hasn't been fixed?

Its not something that needs to be fixed. Its a design choice. Machines with thread dials use a half nut to engage the lead screw along the carriage. Its an old and proven design. However, if you want to have CNC and ball screws on your machine, you cannot use a half nut. Shoptask chose to design their machines to be CNC ready, and use a gearbox engagement for the leadscrew. If a person prefers the thread dial and half nut design, a lot of companies still offer this type of machine. I think Harbor Freight, Grizzly and Smithy all offer a 3 in 1 with the half nut carriage as well as stand alone lathes.

[smallblock]

What I can see here is he offers the threading gears but no clear way to use them correctly. It's a job half done and leave it up to the owner to work around a issue that should have been worked out a long time ago. From what I have seen here there a very few Shoptasks that have ever been converted to CNC. It doesn't make a very good argument to say everyone is going to convert the machine to CNC . In the meantime people are left with very few choices.

People can simply choose to buy a different machine.

When I first got my 1720, a friend had one of the Smithy models- not sure of the number, but it was blue. It had a threading dial carriage, and as a lathe it was actually pretty good. It was a little easier to thread with for those few odd jobs when a tap or die wouldn't work. As a mill it was very limited, that was why I chose the Shoptask. Since you are still deciding on which machine to buy, I would suggest you look at one of the brands that have the thread dial, or maybe a separate lathe and mill.

[GITERDUN]

I just might have to go to two separate machines. Because I think the problem is not going to be fixed anytime soon. It may not be fixed ever. I see the owner should be getting close to retirement because he has been in business for awhile now. So how long are they going to be selling shoptasks . It might not be much longer if he retires. New owners may not work out if he can find someone who wants and can afford to take it over.

That would probably be the best choice since you don't like the Shoptask design and you are concerned about the owner retiring soon. You're far better off to buy from another company with a machine design you like and spend your time discussing the machines on their forum.

[Tapered_Gib]

Make yourself a rear spindle handle and spin by hand; unplug your machine. Engage leadscrew, stay engaged. Nice and slow and doable.