DPittman
Ultra Member
I have never had much opportunity to say much good about Busy Bee Tools and/or their parts "department", however I just ran across my 2nd positive experience with them.
When my little cx700 lathe was new I crashed it doing something or another and ever since then when the carriage was moving under power I could tell something wasn't quite right. As the carriage got closer to the headstock I could tell there was some binding going on and it did not turn quite as freely. This only occurred when the carriage was under power.
I've managed (ignored) the issue for years until today when I finally got the gumption to disable the appropriate and remove the lead screw.
I thought maybe I had bent the lead screw but once out, I determined that it was straight. That left apron components as suspect. Sure enough, one of the gears on a shaft had a very slight wobble. In the picture you might be able to see the key way on the very end has been splayed out and this causes the gear to sit on it slightly crooked. The other picture shows the gear that is on the end of the shaft and how it engages with the worm gear on the key lead screw.
Identified the part and phoned Busy Bee parts. They actually have one in stock and it is $40!!! My model of lathe has been discounted for a while now and replaced by another model with a different apron and leadscrew.
The shaft would be a fun challenge for me to make as it has a couple different diameters, hollowed out and drilled for oil passages, has two different key ways and a small internal thread in it. But for $40 plus shipping I decided to order it.
When my little cx700 lathe was new I crashed it doing something or another and ever since then when the carriage was moving under power I could tell something wasn't quite right. As the carriage got closer to the headstock I could tell there was some binding going on and it did not turn quite as freely. This only occurred when the carriage was under power.
I've managed (ignored) the issue for years until today when I finally got the gumption to disable the appropriate and remove the lead screw.
I thought maybe I had bent the lead screw but once out, I determined that it was straight. That left apron components as suspect. Sure enough, one of the gears on a shaft had a very slight wobble. In the picture you might be able to see the key way on the very end has been splayed out and this causes the gear to sit on it slightly crooked. The other picture shows the gear that is on the end of the shaft and how it engages with the worm gear on the key lead screw.
Identified the part and phoned Busy Bee parts. They actually have one in stock and it is $40!!! My model of lathe has been discounted for a while now and replaced by another model with a different apron and leadscrew.
The shaft would be a fun challenge for me to make as it has a couple different diameters, hollowed out and drilled for oil passages, has two different key ways and a small internal thread in it. But for $40 plus shipping I decided to order it.
