I have a story to tell and I will try to be concise. There is a company in Florida by the name of Southern Tool a.k.a. Smith Hamilton which I have had the recent displeasure of doing business with. I am writing this because it's the simplist and most effective way to get some satisfaction. Just for informations sake, I'm 35, male, Northern CA, machinist 3yrs. Around Cristmas I was shopping around to buy my first lathe, I had a little over $2,000 to spend, I decided I would buy new and most likely an import. I reached this decision through much bebate but I have no shame in choosing this route. After serious time spent on the internet at many sites, auctions and classifieds I settled on a 12X36GH, gap bed lathe called a Birmingham (I don't know why). I selected this peticuler one because the week before Cristmas Southern Tool Had a special going where if you purchased one of their Birmingham Lathes you could have your choice of a Collet Closer, Coolant System or Taper Attachment, installed, FOR FREE. I really wanted a taper attachment but they're a little pricey. So this was a dream come true. The lathe was selling for 2500.00 so I had to borrow a couple bucks. Which didn't matter because I was getting a $600.00 attachment, No sales tax and free shipping(not quite). So I ordered the lathe. The shipping is free as long as it's to a business or you pick it up at a local dock, they want $150.00 to bring it to your house and take it off the truck. I can understand this but if you think about it I could have told them to deliver it to McDonalds in Lake Tahoe 100 miles away, and they would have to do it for free. But to bring it to my house which was 5 miles away and drop it they hit me for $150. Anyway, after a lot of b.s. I got it. I couldn't set it up right away, my dad was very sick at the time and I just didn't get to it, About a month later I got it unpacked and set up. Everything looked fine. After I got it leveled and wired up I was moving the carraige around and checking out controls I noticed that the cross slide had a tight spot, I didn't give it a lot of thought and figured it would break itself in very quickly, it didn't. I noticed it getting progressivly worse. Now keep in mind this is a BRAND NEW lathe and 2,500 dollars isn't chump change to me. I start looking closely at the back of the lathe mainly at the FREE taper attachment, It looked as though whoever installed it was a bit of a savage. Paint chipped everywhere, chips all over from where they drilled into the crossslide to mount it, and the holes on the adapter plate where now slots because some one had to grind them so the plate would fit the bolt pattern. On the back of the power box was a sticker with the name CP tool and a number, they are located in Southern CA and it was them that assembled the lathe and shipped it to me. So I call, can't understand the guy on the phone so he gave the phone number to their Mechanic. This guy is pretty much an independent machine tool mechanic and repairman, If they screw something up he comes and fixes it. Nice guy, I explained my problem to him and for about a month we played phone tag while he scratched his head trying to figure out my problem. Then during one phone conversation I happened to mention how crappy the owners manual was, you could hardly read it and I thought I had the wrong one because the sketch showed a one piece crosslide lead screw and I had a two piece shaft. As soon as I told him that It all clicked. He figured out that CP tool put the wrong shaft in intentionally because the lathe I bought does not come with a taper attachment nor does the mfg. make one. Apparently the attachment that they were giving away was a surplus that either CP or Southern tool came into that belongs on a different machine. So they had to use the wrong shaft, modify some things and I even found washers placed behind the crosslide hand wheel dial, they were trying to shim it to turn smoothly. Once again, this was a brand new lathe, I went through a lot to get it located wired and set up, Only to have to tear into it so I could tell the mechanic what I saw. By now I had taken the crossslide off about four times. The gear on the leadscrew(c.s) that rides in the apron would not mesh with the idler gear that drives it for power feeds. I tried every position I could but it just wasn't right. So I called back to CP tool and had a colorful discussion with a fellow named Freddie who didn't seem to be from these parts. We yelled and screamed and so I decided to call Southern Tool(the poeple I gave my money to). I explained my situation to the same salesperson who sold it to me. They tried to tell to call Freddie back because it was his responsibility but I told them that THEY took my money and as far as I was concerened it was they're responsibility. He called me back an hour later and said that if I shipped the Taper attachment back they would credit me 250.00 dollars. I asked him why I was only offered 250 when they were selling it at that very moment on they're own website for 550.00? He told me that it wasn't the same one. BULLSHIT. After all the time and energy I wasted trying to figure out what was wrong with my BRAND NEW lathe, this jackass doesn't even want to give me what, at the very least, I deserve. This was a month or so ago. My dad passed away 2 weeks ago. So this hasn't been a priority. I got the right leadscrew for the crosslide and one day I'm going to make a shaft that will carry thet taper attachment properly. I'm sorry to have taken so much space and belive me there's alot more nonsense that went on beyond what I've stated. I'm going to send the boys at Southern Tool a copy of this and maybe somebody will have to explain why the mission statement on they're website isn't being lived up to.
I'm sure you guys will have a lot of criticism about my actions in this and that's ok, I did this because I said I would and for no other reason, but if this prevents one person from going through the same ordeal, then it was worth it. If you made it this far I will thank you and ask that you forgive all spelling and gramatical errors
Sonny