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Lathe Operation
Symptom | Possible Cause | Possible Solution | ||
Entire machine | 1. | Workpiece is unbalanced. | 1. | |
vibrates upon |
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| bore as possible. |
startup and while | 2. | loose or damaged | 2. | |
running. |
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| Page 81). |
| 3. | 3. | align the | |
| 4. | Worn or broken gear present. | 4. | inspect gears, and replace if necessary. |
| 5. | Chuck or faceplate is unbalanced. | 5. | |
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| machine shop for help. |
| 6. | gears not aligned in headstock or no | 6. | adjust change gears and establish backlash. |
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| backlash. |
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| 7. | Broken gear or bad bearing. | 7. | replace broken gear or bearing. |
| 8. | Workpiece is hitting stationary object. | 8. | stop lathe immediately and correct interference |
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| problem. |
| 9. | spindle bearings at fault. | 9. | reset spindle bearing preload or replace worn |
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| spindle bearings. |
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Bad surface finish. | 1. | Wrong spindle speed or feed rate. | 1. | adjust for appropriate spindle speed and feed rate. |
| 2. | dull tooling or poor tool selection. | 2. | sharpen tooling or select a better tool for the |
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| intended operation. |
| 3. | tool height not at spindle centerline. | 3. | adjust tool height to spindle centerline (see Page |
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| 49). |
| 4. | too much play in gibs. | 4. | tighten gibs (see Page 79). |
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Tapered tool difficult | 1. | Quill is not retracted all the way back into | 1. | turn the quill handwheel until it forces the tapered |
to remove from |
| the tailstock. |
| tool out of quill. |
tailstock quill. | 2. | Contaminants not removed from taper | 2. | Clean the taper and bore, then |
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| before inserting into quill. |
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Cross slide, | 1. | gibs are out of adjustment. | 1. | adjust gibs (see Page 79). |
compound rest, or | 2. | handwheel is loose or backlash is high. | 2. | tighten handwheel fasteners, adjust handwheel |
carriage feed has |
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| backlash to a minimum (see Page 78). |
sloppy operation. | 3. | leadscrew mechanism worn or out of | 3. | adjust leadscrew to remove end play (see Page |
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| adjustment. |
| 79). |
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Cross slide, | 1. | dovetail ways loaded with shavings, dust, | 1. | remove gibs, clean ways, lubricate, and |
compound, |
| or grime. |
| gibs. |
or carriage | 2. | gibs are too tight. | 2. | loosen gibs slightly (see Page 79), and lubricate |
handwheels hard to |
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| bedways. |
move. | 3. | Backlash setting too tight. | 3. | slightly loosen backlash setting (see Page 78). |
| 4. | Bedways are dry. | 4. | lubricate bedways/ball oilers. |
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Cutting tool | 1. | tool holder not tight enough. | 1. | Check for debris, clean, and |
or machine | 2. | Cutting tool sticks too far out of tool holder; | 2. | |
components vibrate |
| lack of support. |
| length is sticking out of tool holder. |
excessively during | 3. | gibs are out of adjustment. | 3. | adjust gibs at affected component (see Page 79). |
cutting. | 4. | dull cutting tool. | 4. | replace or resharpen cutting tool. |
| 5. | incorrect spindle speed or feed rate. | 5. | Use the recommended spindle speed and feed rate. |
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Model G0746/G0749 (Mfg. Since 3/13) |