I know you said that you didn't want a DRO, but I have one on my old
mill and I haven't looked at the dials (except Z) since. So, if you do
get stuck with the 8 TPI, that's what I'd do.
It's not a "great deal" if it isn't what you want.

Pete Stanaitis
-----------------

Bill Schwab wrote:
Hello all,

It appears that my news server and reader were not happy with each
other. Unless I miss my guess, Earthlink's server screwed up, and
Thunderbird failed to gracefully recover. No doubt Google will help
fill the gap.

The machine looks great, but Enco had indeed told me to expect 10 tpi
screws on the cross and compound - in email. I called on Wednesday and
responded in email yesterday; they appear to be chewing on it. They
were upfront in saying that I have 30 days to return the machine, and so
far have claimed that replacement screws are not an option. On the
phone the tech hinted that this might have been and unexpected design
change, and an exchange for an "old one" might be an option, he returned
my call (faster than) as promised and recanted, saying the machine has
always had 8 tpi screws. No offense to the tech, I am not completely
convinced I buy that last part.

Note that I am convinced that the tech who sent the original emails did
so in good faith; he was communicating with someone else who appears to
have made the real mistake of confirming the erroneous.

If there are indeed 10 tpi options, I consider that the way to go. Let's
assume that the original data they provided was nonsense and that the
machine has always had 0.125 dials. The question is what to do: return
an otherwise great buy, or live with the dials?

As I told Enco, if this had happened on a mill ("Oh, I KNOW those are
0.1" - sorry, he really did say that, apparently not appreciating the
irony, but I digress) I would be seriously mad. I work manually, and
(thanks to you guys) have gotten pretty good at it. Being able to
dimension from zero and pick off the last two numbers as a dial reading
is not something I will give up: 0.1 or 0.2 dials are a must on a mill.

But what about a lathe? Staring at the thing, the carriage motion
appears to be course (0.02" gradations), so the precision would appear
to happen on the cross and compound. It looks like a world of working
"against the dials" by measuring and removing metal until the part is
(hopefullyg) staring back at me, as opposed to zero and trust the
dials. As Harold and others worked hard to help me understand, there is
another realm of trusting the dials to rough and measure to correct, but
0.1/0.2 dials go a long way on a mill. But back to the lathe, IF I am
correct that most work will be measure and remove, how bad would 0.125
dials really be?

What would you do in my shoes? I realize that Enco has not yet
presented options, but given my newbie status with lathes, I need to get
some advice to make a good decision. It is quite possible that I might
have bought this machine knowing about the dials, but we would have a
similar conversation before I did it.

Another question I should ask: do any of you know of a 12x36 (or so)
cam-lock lathe with 0.1 dials? I did some quick checking on the Grizzly
site, and found what looks like the same basic lathe, but no mention
(that I saw) of the screw pitch. That said, their manual is GREAT and
answers many of my "why is this stuck?" kinds of questions.

BTW, I know at least some responses to this type of question lurk in
posts I have yet to see. I will start digging now that I can post again.

Thanks!

Bill