I have a 4 1/2 year old Midi that developed bearing noise and note the lathe had not been heavily used. Since it was under warranty for 5 years, the WoodCraft dealer here in Norfolk, VA was able to get me a new set. I replaced the old bearings and could not feel or see a defect on them. I still had the same annoying whine with the new bearings. I replaced those with quality bearing from the supply house and problem solved. As noted on this forum previously, Delta parts for this lathe are not always available and such things as a switch are declared to be obsolete and there is no reference to any other source. Hopefully, the new owners will work harder to correct this serious deficiency. Robert Waddell
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Delta Midi Lathe Bearing Noise
- Thread starter Robert Waddell
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2005
- Messages
- 13,209
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- Location
- Dalworthington Gardens, TX
- Website
- pbase.com
Many years ago, I ordered replacement Reeves pulleys for my Delta 1440 lathe. They were not the greatest pulleys in the world and were always wearing out. The good news is that they were always free, but sometimes I had to wait on a slow boat from China to get my replacement pulleys. On one occasion, I opened the box and inside was a set of completely worn out pulleys that had been returned to Delta. There was a tag attached that said, "Save for Bill Boehme". It turned out that somebody on a woodturning forum was having the same problem and returned the worn out ones to Delta (even though they never ask for worn out parts). They had a tag attached saying that they wanted Delta to send the pulleys to me for my opinion on why they failed. 
On another occasion when I ordered a set of pulleys, somebody in shipping forgot to put packing around them. I'm not sure what happened in transit, but there were tire tracks across the box and it looked like it had been submerged for a while in a pothole. In this case, bubble wrap might not have been enough anyway, but I think that UPS used that as their excuse for not being responsible.
On another occasion when I ordered a set of pulleys, somebody in shipping forgot to put packing around them. I'm not sure what happened in transit, but there were tire tracks across the box and it looked like it had been submerged for a while in a pothole. In this case, bubble wrap might not have been enough anyway, but I think that UPS used that as their excuse for not being responsible.