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Thanks Dave, I appreciate the insight on that. I went out and checked and it seems to be properly working. I wonder if I could have strained that pin if I tried to feed the carriage by hand with the carriage locked, or something like that? Or even engaged the power feed with the carriage locked. I don't remember such an event, but could have done that in the past. Might have damaged the pin and it finally failed or something. I suppose having a weak link like that is no bad thing.
Hi Dave,I specifically checked operation of the half nut lever and power feed levers tonight, and it is not possible to engage both at the same time, so the safety is working. I can engage either one, but not both, no matter which one is engaged first. So, no nearer shedding light on the sheared pin mystery.No matter, I'll keep an eye on the situation.Tonight I was doing a little investigation in to chuck speeds, and finish on aluminum, brass and steel. Trying to just dial in some settings. I had some success.Brass:They actually look better in the flesh than in the picture.I turned up the spindle speed significantly for the brass (also aluminum - apparently didn't take a picture though), and this seems to have helped consistency of finish a lot.On steel, I also turned up the speed a bit, although not as much as the brass, and also got some decent results.Pretty sure this is a piece of 12L14, so not that impressive, but nice enough anyway.Also, my collet chuck went back on and stayed true, so I'm feeling better about it. Last time I installed it, it had gone way out. I'm happy about this because I think this chuck will be a key to helping to hold small parts on my lathe.Now I have to figure out where all the vibration on my lathe is coming from. It shakes quite a lot. I think I need to beef up the stands it is mounted on, but also look at the drive train and see if something is not balanced. Or if the belts are too tight - or some kind of combination.I feel like if I keep gradually dialing in this machine, it will help me make better and better parts. It seems to have come a long way in the last year, since I really started taking trouble to get it true and level.