In article ,
msterspy wrote:
Bought a Taig lathe about six months ago. I am a little dissapointed
in the quality, particularly the cross slide. It binds as you turn the
dial. Looks like the piece that the lead screw threads into may be
cocked?

Follow the suggestions given by the other followups. It is
almost certainly just a matter of adjustment. Or perhaps some chips
from previous cutting operations have gotten wedged in the threads of
the nut.

BTW The gibs *should* be tight enough so the setting won't shift as you
move the other axis, so it may be that you are expecting it to
be less effort than is normal. If the gibs are too lose, you
will get chatter, and the settings will change while you're
cutting.

Not sure. Also, very poor instructions came with this lathe.

I have *never* seen what I would call "good" instructions coming
with a lathe. The assumption is always that you already know how to use
a lathe, and they instructions focus on controls which might be
different from other lathes. As the Taig is a very simple lathe, I
would expect very little in instructions. (IIRC, there were *no*
instructions with mine, from quite a few years ago.)

FWIW The best instructions that I have seen came with the Unimat
SL-1000 (which was expecting users with no previous experience).

Other than that -- two of the lathe makers (South Bend and
Atlas) have published a "How to (use/run) a lathe" books which
were often shipped with their machines for the novice user, and
which are still available in reprints or NOS (New Old Stock)
copies, and which are very instructive. None of these focus on
an individual lathe in the maker's line, but rather on the
general principles -- except perhaps for charts for threading
gears for those lathes which come with individual change gears.

Anyone have similar experience?

No -- other than the minimal instructions. But -- I did not
*expect* any more. I already knew how to use a lathe, and had
experience with several sizes.

Good Luck,
DoN.
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