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The long drought is finally over

John Whitley

John Whitley

Joined
Jul 18, 2020
Messages
178
Likes
189
Location
Seattle, WA
After far too long, I have a lathe again. To recap, I sold my Nova Galaxi back in early December and (pre-)ordered a new Nebula. All this with the aim of freeing up some precious shop space near the lathe due to the Nebula’s shorter bed. That all went sideways with Teknatool’s extreme shipping delays, culminating in Teknatool USA filing Chapter 11. All that past, a few weeks ago I ordered and today received and assembled a Harvey T-60S. It’s been power tested, but I haven’t turned anything on it yet. I’ll get to that once I’ve properly leveled it tomorrow.

One initial impression: compared to my old Galaxi, this thing’s a mountain. I could make the Galaxi’s frame “ring” with vibration by giving the bed a whack with my palm. The long moment of the bed with legs on either end was a real challenge for that lathe. Even prior to proper leveling, the T-60 at 726lb, given the same treatment just goes “thunk”. I might as well hip check a boulder.


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That's a lotta ir'n!

Many happy turning miles for you! For both of you!
 
Phil Hamel said:
Hopefully have mine in a couple hours! That was quick setup! Did you have help?
Hope you get lot's of enjoyment out of it!
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Thanks Phil! I did not have help… but in hindsight I almost certainly should have. I did have a friend on call in case I got blocked. A lift cart, or some other strong stable lifting system, is non-negotiable. I’m well strong enough to lift the bed from one end no problem, and there are cutouts on the end that make perfect handholds. But a full solo lift is out of the question for nearly anyone. This posed a problem getting it from the crate platform onto my lift cart. I ended up using a pair of lifting jacks and a bunch of dimensional scrap lumber as support; see the photo below. (Important: at no point did this feel even a little unstable. If it had, I would have immediately backed out.) My biggest worry was that I was running out of scrap lumber, but then I spied a chunk of 4x4 that I cut up to get it done. Even with that, I had to put small 4x4 blocks under the jacks to get enough height at the end. Another tip for using the lift cart: always lock the wheels before any lift or move of the equipment.

The other big concern is the headstock. It’s both very heavy and extremely unwieldy. It’s the opposite of “designed to be lifted” and you have the tethered electrical box to manage at each step. I’ve been extremely consistent about strength training for almost 2-1/2 years now, and that’s the only reason I (barely) managed. I’d say friend to help with the headstock is important; I goofed by failing to plan ahead here. Even if the lift itself is OK, have someone to help spot and/or orient that beast if it tries to rotate on you. Again, the lift cart to the rescue, since that moderated the two required lifts: one to set the headstock safely aside (non trivial!) and the other to situate the headstock on the lift cart upright onto a pair of 4x4s (again with that tethered electrical box). That done, I used the cart to align the headstock so I could slide it directly onto the ways with only a little cursing at the stupid clamp block not behaving! 😅 Note that 2x4s are not tall enough when flat to clear the clamp blocks on the headstock, tailstock, or banjo. I used 4x4s to situate the headstock for stability and safety, but 2x4s on edge were fine for just setting the tailstock and banjo out of the way when unpacking the crate.

Last but not least, Harvey’s assembly video is essential viewing. The key info is all in the first fifteen minutes or so. (pro tip: remember you can turn the playback speed up!)

Good luck with your assembly, and be safe!

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Phil Hamel said:
Don't want to jump your thread.
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You should absolutely jump on this thread. Not gonna be possessive about it. Congratulations!

FWIW, I didn't do the final leveling until the headstock and tailstock were on, mostly because I knew I didn't have final location yesterday. That's all done now, and I turned a quick practice spindle before I had to move onto other things.
 
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Here's another small but significant thing I appreciate about the T-60S design vs. my Nova Galaxi. The T-60S' legs have threaded holes for the foot posts, where the Galaxi had through holes. Threaded holes in the legs make a big difference when leveling the lathe, since you get positive tactile feedback about foot contact pressure while adjusting the foot height. With the Galaxi, you were really guessing until both bottom and top nuts were locked down again, since the foot threaded post just "floats" in the through hole until then.

Related, the T-60S' feet all have ball and socket joints so that they maintain maximum contact area. IIRC, the Galaxi's feet were fixed at 90° to the threaded post.

I'm unsure how much of a practical difference either of these things make when turning, but I definitely like the attention to detail, and feel like it simplified the setup process.

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I'm only a couple of days in, and it's been great Steve. I can't wait to see what I can do with it. (I'm also extra stoked to even have a lathe before a workshop I'm taking from Elizabeth Weber next month at PTSW. That felt touch and go for a while...)

While I'm at it, points to Harvey customer service. One of the cable mounts under the bed, which helps secure the servo motor cabling, got a bit mashed at some point. It's possible it was damaged prior to shipping, but more likely it conflicted with one of the support blocks needed to lift the bed with a lift cart. I filed a support ticket with Harvey about it, asking if I could buy a replacement. They simply sent a new one out no charge under warranty. And did so within about fifteen minutes of my filing that ticket. A+, well done.
 
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