Hi,
I am considering purchasing a 14" -16" engine lathe to fill the gap between my smaller 12" Atlas/Craftsman bench lathe and my larger Nakamura-Tome Slant 1 CNC turning center. I am considering either a used American made machine (South Bend, Logan, Clausing) or a new Asian machine (PM, Birmingham, or a Taiwan built machine).
All of the Asian machines that I have seen have a "gap-bed" design to allow larger diameter parts to be accommodated. I do not believe I have seen any American made machines with this feature. I have the following questions that I hope some of you will be able to answer:
1. I have been told by the local machine tool dealer that it is not a good idea to remove the gap because it is impossible to align it properly when reinstalling it. He says this misalignment will throw of the alignment between the ways and result in loss of accuracy. It would appear to me that if the gap (and as a result the bed ways) were out of alignment (either vertically or horizontally) that this would result in the carriage possibly moving out of its normal alignment as it contacts that portion of the bed ways that are part of the removable gap piece. My question is - do any of you have experience with this problem, and if so how hard is it to realign the gap portion of the bed?
2. It would seem to me that the removable gap feature (even with the gap installed into the lathe bed) would reduce the torsional stiffness of the lathe bed as compared to the same lathe if it did not have this break (gap) in the bed/ways. I would appreciate any thoughts you might have about this.
Thanks,
David
www.deserthybrids.com