Just a quick note on my experience with off shore lathes. I have a Taiwan made milling machine that has been awesome. Never needed anything, so I purchased my lathe from Busy Bee in Canada. Their tag is "Craftex". Fit and finish of the lathe looked great, everything seemed in place. First thing I did was remove the lid to inspect the gear head. Drained the oil and cleaned out the swarf, floor sweepings and grinding remnants out of the gear box. This is not a joke. Always open the units and inspect inside. Once that was done, cleaned and oiled the cross slide, compound, etc. Off shore manufacturers seem to like using their used grease when preparing new machines. Again, this is not a joke. Started it up and was very happy with the three jaw chuck. Thought I would test out the four jaw, but couldn't get the 3 jaw off. After about three hours, I was able to get the chuck off. It was if it was attached with a 120 Ton hydraulic press. When I attached the four jaw, it had about 10 thousands slop on the taper for the D1-4. I called company support and they thought the D1 locks centered the chuck, didn't realize a D1-4 had a taper. They tried to be helpful and were happy to replace the chucks. Luckily the face plate taper was fine. Removed the jaws on both chucks and cut a new taper in the three and faced off the four until the taper was correct. Once this was done, I was able to mount the chucks and the machine tested out fine. Bed and everything else has been great. Moral of the story: Expect to do some fine tuning with off shore equipment. I got what I paid for and am now happy with the result. Don't make the mistake of expecting American quality with off shore prices. This doesn't mean they are a bad deal, just don't expect a $10,000 lathe for $3600. Also, don't expect an old worn out American lathe to be superior. Always take an experienced user to assess used equipment if you don't have a machining background. Buying worn out equipment doesn't pay either.
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