Hello all,

Overlapping sales and the likelihood of more weakening of the dollar
pushed me over the edge on the Enco 12x36 geared head lathe; the spindle
is D1-4. You might recall that I got pretty close to buying the
belt-driven threaded-spindle version of the machine back in the fall.
Long story short: I just couldn't go through with it, and ended up
getting a better machine for the same (perhaps less) money than I would
have paid for the lesser one in the fall.

Presumably in a matter of days, a lift-gated truck will appear at my
curb. I am planning to use an engine hoist to lift the lathe (the
manual has pictures of how to sling it), back my F-150 under it, drive
the 50ft to the garage (it's the down-hill part that makes it fun w/o a
truck), back in enough to reach level cement, and then again use the
hoist to exchange truck bed for assembled stand. Sound about right? It
weighs around 1000 lb.

I am a little concerned about getting the hoist to straddle the pallet;
suggestions, lessons from the school of hard knocks, etc., would be
appreciated. Enco tells me it holds 3 gallons of hydraulic fluid!!!
That's on the way too. I ended up buying a a Rohm ball bearing chuck
and an arbor. It was a LOT cheaper than the Jacobs chuck that I might
eventually get (and have on an R8 arbor for my mill).

Assuming I know nothing about running a lathe (not far from the truth),
any good reading assignments? I have a couple of Audel books, but I
find them to be short on teaching: great references though. The Home
Machinist's Handbook by Brinney looks helpful.

I will probably end up doing this on my mill, but is there a good way to
face the ends of square tubing on a lathe? The pieces I have in mind
are 2" square, 1/8" wall thickness, and vary from 11 to 14 inches or so.
I assume the trick would be to make/get a rest for square tubing???
Beyond an opportunity to fiddle with the new toy, the cross-section is
too deep to easily side mill (should have thought to buy long end-mills
while I was at it), but with an R8 collet (to save vertical space) and
some cranking, my mill should do the job with a fly cutter.

Bill