I bought a CT089 13x24 lathe less than a week ago and upon unloading/ uncrating it I noticed that the tool post cross slide had been run into the chuck…that’s the first problem. After unloading it and cleaning it up I started the break in process... 15-20 minutes in each gear setting. The problem is when I try to start it in any gear higher than 600 rpm the motor just pulses and doesn’t get up to running speed. I cleaned out all the junk oil it came with and replaced it with ISO AW32, stuck a magnetic block heater on it (my shop is around 10-15c) and it still won’t go over 600 rpm… actually it did once but than it tripped the 20amp breaker after running for only 2 minutes.

I phoned the store I bought it from and they told me to talk to the central office. Over a few phone conversations the tech at the central office told me to:

Keep breaking it in in the lower gears.

Check pulley alignment and belt tension… its fine.

Change the oil… I did that already.

Make sure the bearings aren’t running hot… barely warm

Disengage the lead screw gear so only the spindle is being driven.

Take the chuck off… less rotating weight.

Check the run capacitor… wasn’t able to give me any specs to look for (ohms).

I did all these and it still has all the same problems. I asked him about the chuck grooves in the cross slide and he agreed that it most likely happened at the factory because the nylon gear would have broken and the worker most likely just replaced the gear because he didn’t want to get into trouble.

Now it looks like my only option, as far as the tech has told me, is to borrow a pickup truck and engine hoist again, and drop it off at there central office. Let them have a look at it and either go back and pick up my repaired lathe or a new one. For a total of 4hrs of driving.

If anybody has any advice on anything else I could try or check before bringing it back I would appreciate it. As far as my advice for others before you fork over your hard earned cash for a tool from Busy Bee, make sure you thoroughly visually and mechanically inspect it. I wish I would have done that and maybe I would have saved myself a lot of frustration.