On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 01:33:32 +0000, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2010-06-26, James Waldby wrote:
On Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:50:05 +0000, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2010-06-25, James Waldby wrote:
....
http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Features/features.htm
....
Is the gearing in that all metal, or are the gears in part
plastic?

The leadscrew drive train has plastic gears, driven by a steel ring
gear on the spindle end. See pictures at next two links, from pages
at latter two.
http://www.mini-lathe.com/mini_lathe/features/Gears_y.jpg
http://www.mini-lathe.com/mini_lathe/reviews/homier2/gears.jpg
http://www.mini-lathe.com/mini_lathe/features/features_2.htm
http://www.mini-lathe.com/mini_lathe/reviews/homier2/homier.htm

O.K. Useful information there.

The spindle drive train also has some plastic gears in it;

Ouch! The photos also tell me that there is no way that
Searcher7 could put in a spindle which would accept a 5C collet closer.
:-)
The gears under the spindle would have to be scaled up too,
which would move the spindle higher, requiring a riser block on the
tailstock to move it to the same height, and the carriage would require
a riser block on the compound, making it that much more flexible. :-)

Yes, time and money spent on such spindle changes probably would be better
spent on getting a bigger lathe instead. That said, the minilathe as
delivered is a reasonable and inexpensive choice for making small parts
of medium accuracy. A lot of the same parts can be made using the standard
3-jaw and optional 4-jaw chucks as when using collets, albeit at the cost
of more setup time vs less accuracy and occasional marring of parts.

....
http://www.thms.tedatum.com/shop22.html which has numerous pictures
in a description of replacing the plastic gears with steel gears from
https://thehobbyistmachinestore.com/store/, a place that also has
a steel "Mini-Mill R8 Gear Set" for about $50, should Searcher7 need to
replace or fix a gear in a drill/mill of that sort.

Great! That will hopefully be useful for him.

Awkward location for those levers.
** http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/features/Levers_y.jpg

Yes, they are on the back of the lathe. Besides that, the leadscrew
direction lever is difficult to operate properly because of shallow
detents in the pot metal case, and overly stiff spring. However, most
projects don't require frequent shifting of these levers.

That depends, of course. On my 12x24" Clausing, which has
separate power feed from the threading leadscrew (derived from a keyway
milled the length of the leadscrew turning a worm gear in the carriage
apron) the tumbler needs to be set into reverse for feed towards the
headstock, and when I switch to cross-feed, it feeds out with the same
setting. This is nice when turning to a shoulder followed by facing the
shoulder (just switch from longitudinal to cross-feed), but when facing
towards center, or parting off, I need to switch the tumbler into
forward -- as well as for normal threading. So -- I wind up switching
it fairly often in making a single part.

Unfortunately those considerations don't apply to the minilathe, which
has no power crossfeed, and with the leadscrew drive intended for
threading, it (as stock) doesn't have ratios low enough to get a good
finish. Ie, for a fine finish you have to crank the compound by hand,
or slowly turn the carriage handwheel, or fit a gear-motor to drive the
leadscrew (eg http://www.varmintal.com/alath.htm#Ultra_Fine) etc.

Looking at the motor control panel, I see a screw with a stack
of nuts at the upper left -- looking sort of like a terminal post for
multiple ring terminals to attach to -- perhaps as safety grounds?

No, that's a change the page author made, to store several 10mm nuts.
http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Modifications/modifications.htm#nut_keeper

(Note, I should have referred to 6x1mm nuts; 10mm is wrench size.)

O.K. I see that they are needed for the chuck mounting -- and
hopefully it is tall enough to store them *all* when a collet nosepiece
is installed.

I think it makes more sense the way I do it which is to store the
nuts on the ends of the studs, with the studs loctite'd into their
holes on the backs of the chucks or the back of the face plate.

--
jiw