Well, this didn't go very well. That lathe I got was a real piece of crap. Literally everything I checked has something wrong with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSjnOos_OGY&t=1s
Started out when I moved the carriage and saw a ground off section of the front wayslide.
Sooooo, I told the seller to take this piece of junk back and give me my money back. So that is what is going on right now. I've got the lathe still in the back of Connie's truck with the crate on it, but not sealed up till I get notice of a truck being on the way to pick it up. Often these Chinese sellers will try to wear you down by asking for photos and videos, so I don't want to seal it up and then have the guy ask for one more photo. I already inundated him with photos and videos, but heck, you never know.
A strange thing that happened in early AM hours of Monday was that the guy sent me a prepaid return label via email. Odd thing was that it was via USPS. USPS will not accept a package heavier than 70 lbs, which I am sure the guy knew. I immediately sent the guy an email asking him what was going on.
Interestingly enough, Ebay stated that if the seller didn't receive the return within a specified time, they would possibly cancel my claim. And, of course, there is no way to reach anyone at Ebay via email, so to cover my butt, I took some small tools that came with the lathe, put them in a padded envelope, slapped on that return label and ran it to the post office that day.
Not long after I got back from the post office the seller sent me a reply telling me to ignore that return label. Yeah, right.... I can see where this was headed.
So I am supposed to call a number in Anaheim, California today to arrange with someone to have truck pickup arranged. Will be interesting to see where that leads.
Well, so much for that idea. Now that my appetite has been whetted for a larger lathe, do I look around for something with a quality brand name attached? Of course it will cost a lot more money, and certainly be a lot heavier. This one on Ebay looked like it could have been a real gem with real decent specs, yet light enough to be easily managed. Darn shame it turned out to be garbage. I guess I could go as heavy as 500 lbs before I'm getting WAY out of my comfort zone. I have a Harbor Freight shop crane that at the longest extension is rated for 1,000 lbs, so that should do the job of lifting something weighing 500 lbs out of the bed of Connie's truck without any trouble. But that means that the lathe would have to go into the garage, as there is no way to manage this thing weighing that much to get it into the work room in the old reptile building. Even disassembled, the bed is surely going to way a substantial portion of that 500 lbs.
But before I can do anything, I've got to get that basket case of a lathe out of Connie's truck.
Ah well, par for the course, I guess.
