After reading all the good things everyone had to say about the reconditioned SN2, I ordered one last Friday. It arrived yesterday and I cleaned off the packing grease last night. Placed the #2 jaws that came with it on the chuck. I folllowed the directions for tightening the jaws screws after closing the jaws together and everything appeared fine.
Put in the newly purchased Nova spindle adapter, put it on the lathe to give it a little manual spin and all looked good as far as runout. But, when I tried to tighten the jaws, they would barely tighten and not at all smoothly like before. I tried the other pinion gear and it was smooth as silk, like before, in both the opening and closing of the jaws. Re-tried the other pinion gear and it was smooth opening the jaws, but still like gravel when closing. Huh! I played the try one side, then the other side game for about a half hour hoping it would resolve itself to no avail.
Today I took it apart and switched pinion gear placements. The side that worked smoothly, still worked fine with the other gear in its new home. The side that had been problematic, was still tight/gravely/hard to turn when closing and smooth when opening the jaws.
Any thoughts other than call Teknatool in Florida on Monday (which I will most definately be doing)?
Also, my new insert is frozen solid in the chuck. I tried the Nova spanner (which I just purchased) using the little spurs per directions to free it...nada. Put the chuck in a vise, that I padded with router pad strips to protect it, and again used the spanner, this time the open end wrench, to remove the insert...zilch.
I love my other SN2 and have never had any problems with it, except a frozen adapter insert in it also.
Help!!!!! At wits end, bewildered and befuddled, confused and (soon to be) contrary!
Thanks for any suggestions and the vent,
Glenn.....A#1 unhappy camper