Couldn't resist taking it apart when it arrived as everything was badly set up and these Chinese tools arrive covered in nasty red shipping grease.
It gives me a chance to spread some rustproofing grease on the back of the iron castings too.
Note that both the X and Y feed screws are bone dry!
Argh...the Chinese have discovered woodruff keys! I wanted to pack the X feedscrew housing with grease so this came off too.
This is the gib strip for the X feed and is clearly in need of lapping - probably the greatest problem of Chinese tools.
Needless to say I forgot to photograph the lapped strips! I reckon on about an hour for the longer Y strip and 30 mins for this shorter one. I go in sanding the strip back and forth with 120 Wet/dry on a glass plate. Then I proceed to 240, 400, then 1200 until the surface is super smooth. Some people go further and polish them but fine scratches are fine by me as I reckon they hold lube better.
This is what really lets down Chinese tools - note that this X feed screw retaining nut has already been adjusted twice before I got near it! I reckon the machines are set up in the factory and then semi-stripped to repaint them in the specific dealer colours. No wonder I thought the X feed was out of adjustment!
I've not done the vertical feed gib strip as I didn't fancy taking the head off just yet - and it's bloomin heavy. I did remove the head stop, raise the head and spray white lithium grease over all the gearbox internals for good measure and I tweaked the motor to gearbox fit to quiet down transmission noise. It's all back together, and after a 10 min 0 - max rpm run in (not mentioned in the manual but recommended for the lathes using the same gearbox) it's running lovely!