Once I'd completed my Nemett 4 stroke, modifications to the lathe became evident.
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a) Moving the tailstock not only required a spanner, but the nut needed unscrewing a couple of turns, then by applying thumb pressure in the right place, the tailstock would then deign to slide up and down. Real PiA. Quite a few articles on adding camlocks, one using bits of bike and another by David Rulezman
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) which has a really nice camlock mod. Reading David's article the problem with the tailstock (and no doubt a number of other chinese lathes) is that the drawbar appears to be a chinese version of a coachbolt and the clamp a old clog iron. By making a bespoke drawbar, converting the clog iron to a respectable clamping plate, the tailstock will slide freely and lock down tight in less than half a turn of the nut, which makes a lever possible and the spanner ( and thumb) redundant.b) Trying to focus on drilling the workpiece whilst counting turns on the handwheel finally came to a head when I was trying to drill a 0.7mm hole
17.5mm deep in a brass rod. I got it right first time, so tailstock DRO was added, now I can focus on the cutting not the counting.
Both mods should be directly applicable to most chinese tailstocks they all look remarkably similar.
PS: Where can I get Sieg Red and Warco Green? I should really paint the add ons.
Steve