No photos, but I can tell you about my first experience setting it up. The legs and bed-tubes are held together with a single bolt which pulls down on cast Iron wedge clamps under and on top off the two cast Iron end brackets. Whilst this was probably done to reduce the number of assembly parts needed, it makes assembly a difficult job when your own. You need a long 18mm socket to tighten the nuts on these bolts...Not something everyone has in their toolbox, but luckily I have pro quality, six wall drive, socket set that has a long 18mm socket so it was not a problem for me.
Fitting the drive head was a real P.I.T.A! The drive head is heavy and with the weight of the motor way off to one side, the centre of gravity is also off to that side, so you really need three pairs of hands to fit it! The nut inside the pulley chamber is not captive so you somehow have to support the head, whilst holding the nut, whilst turning the bolt from underneath with a 19mm socket, and you have to make sure you have the washer, bush and cast Iron clamp all it the right order whilst doing it!
Still once that job is done the final assembly is relatively easy.
I discovered the live centre I got with it was a number 2 Morse Taper, but I needed one with a number 1 Morse Taper! So I went to my local record dealer and bought a four tooth spur drive, and a live centre, both with No. 1 MT.
My first turning job was a to turn the corners off a 1 foot length of scrap 40mm x 40mm hardwood, just to see how easy it would be.
Wearing just safety glasses my first impressions were not good...copious amounts of sawdust and wood chips flew off the top of the chisels and went all over my head and torso...It was nightmare!
So I quickly invented a simple prototype wood-lathe dust extraction device, I decided to call the "Turn-Away", that solved the problem in an instant!...No dust or chips at all on the top half of my body, just down at my ankles and on the floor beneath the lathe. I can't give any more details of the Turn-Away as I am thinking of patenting the idea.
