Thank you. I hope you enjoy your 0768 as much as I do.

I'm glad this idea helped you out. It's made my time at the lathe much more enjoyable. Thank you for watching my video.

Thank you.

I'm about to do the same on my G8688 too! Very clever because the ONLY thing I HATE about that lathe is that compound mitre adjustment which is an important part to at least like on your lathe..... So seriously thank you!

I'm glad the video helped. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Thanks for the comment. I do have to tighten the set screws quite a bit to keep it in place but it does work. Even though it's not perfect It's WAY BETTER than the old method and so far is a lot more enjoyable to use. Good luck with your mod.

I built a pretty cool stepped aluminum tool that I chuck up into a hand drill to quickly rotate all of the handwheels on this machine. Each step fits the ID of the handwheels which keeps it perfectly centered. I bought a long T-handle allen wrench that works great for the 2 compound screws,especially since you don't have to turn these screws much to loosen them.

I have problems with the cross slide leads crew nut, I am working on a bush to replace the sloppy cast iron insert located in the top of the slide.

Did you post any videos on milling the AXA QCTP to fit onto the G0768? Seems the OXA size tool post is shorter, and the AXA size needs more than just a spacer which would raise the height of the tool shank. Thanks,

That's a load of rubbish.....the American way is to swing the compound over at half the thread angle and the Brit way is with the compound parallel to the work piece and feed it sideways a few Hundreths MM as you go deeper......been doing it that for 60 years , now retired, but still do it that way.

Hi did you ever do the mod? the question i have what is the height of the dovetail post?

Just last night I spent 4-5 hours on the lathe creating parts for a new project and it still runs great. I do like the variable speed option, it allows me to make adjustments on the fly that can help with the quality of finish I get on the material. One thing you will want to do no matter what model you get is to pull the spindle and remove that sticky, waxy grease that comes from the factory. The manual will tell you what type of grease to use. I got mine from my local Farm & Fleet store. Replacing the grease made a huge difference in how smooth the lathe runs. It was almost a year before I changed mine and I feel like I dodged a bullet because of how dry the bearings were when I pulled it apart. No matter which one you get, good luck and have fun.

Thanks for the reply. One more question if you've got time: Do you turn steel much? I'd probably be working with steel more than aluminum. If you've turned much steel, how much of a cut do you usually take off in a pass?

I do turn steel quite a bit. I usually take 20-30 thou cuts. Although I did just upgrade to a carbide insert set of tools from Shars so I might be able to go a little deeper. I'll have to experiment when I get a chance. My original set of tools were the blue set from Grizzly with the brazed on carbide tips. They worked surprisingly well for the money.

Thanks for the help Don. One more final question (I lied last time). The sale that I got in the email says normal price is $1,295 and the sale price is $950. I could swear that the regular price was somewhere around $1,050 to $1,125. Do you remember the price when you bought yours? I'd understand if you don't want to share that information..

Hi Bill, I just bought my G0768 and it cost me $1050. Now they are having a sale and they are $950. It's a very capable lathe. The best part is that my wife and I could lift it on the bench without any problem.

I'm not familiar with the 5100 but many of the small import lathes are similar in design. No, I did not do drawings for this part. I just took careful measurements of the existing part and made the same size part only with a dovetail pin in the center. Good Luck with yours.

The 2 step heights are the same as the original part so you can just get those from your part. I'm still trying to get the new shop set up and the lathe is buried right now so as soon as I get it set up again I'll try and get that dovetail measurement for you. I'm spending way too much time running the music store lately and it's taking me away from my shop time:(

Thanks for the reply Don. I was anxious to perform this mod on my lathe and was going through and making all the adjustments anyway. So I took the step measurements off my original part and decided to make my dovetail 5/8 inches in diameter at the large end. I also made it 5/8 of an inch high. I don't know my angle, just fudged it since it's not all that critical.

what angle is the dovetail

@@carlspencer4024 Hi Carl, I went with a completely different solution, I drilled two holes through the cross slide that aligned with the screws. This made it very easy to adjust.

@@brucewilliams6292 Bruce, that's so simple, I can't believe I didn't think of it! Duh!! Thanks for sharing and I'd be curious if you had an update on how it's been working for you over the past 3 years. Cheers.

I don't have any video of the mod I did to the QCTP but what I did was to first remove the existing threaded stud. I think it was a press fit so I just drove it out. Then I drilled the hole in the compound to the proper tap size for the new QCTP stud and then tapped it. Once that was done I had to deal with that collar that sticks up. I couldn't take it off because that was the bulk of metal that I tapped into so I made a spacer with that size hole in the center for the QCTP to sit on. The last thing I did was to put a pin in the spacer and the bottom of the QCTP so when I rotated the post the spacer would also rotate. The spacer also helped with setting a nominal height for the QCTP in general which made it easier to center my tools without them having to be set too high on the tool post. Hope this helps. Make sure to post a video if you get this lathe. I love to see what other people are doing with these small lathes.

I just ordered the G0768 lathe today, which it is back ordered. It should be in stock in 2 weeks and I should have it around Christmas! Now that you have described how you done your QCTP and after seeing that bottom plate I understand how you completed the task. Well done! I was shopping at LMS and noticed that they have a drop in/bolt on QCTP www.littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=4157 . However it is on Backorder. Basically you drive the pin out of the slide and install a longer one and they provide plate that fits the boss. I think I will give it a try. I will be sure to do some videos of some projects. I do plan on doing some reviews of the actual lathe after I run it for a little bit. I looked all over the internet and found very few reviews of the G0768. I was really torn between G0768 and the G0602. I really liked the bed length of the 602, but I am still pretty new and dont really care for threading at higher speed, so the VFD made the choice for me and a few other things. Is there any other tips/tricks or must have items for this lathe you have found ? Thanks for your help

That set from LMS looks perfect for what you need. I'm not sure if it was available when I got my lathe or at least I wasn't aware of it, but it looks like it would have made things a lot easier. As far as tips or tricks, that's an endless list. One thing I would recommend you do when you get it is to take apart the cross slide and compound and spend some time cleaning and honing the dovetails. There are some pretty sharp edges that you want to knock off. Also spend some time leaning about adjusting the gib screw tension. You want the slides to move smoothly but they need to be as solid as possible to get decent results. Good luck, and I hope you don't have to wait too long before you get your lathe. It'll drive you nuts.

I didn't have any problems with my readout but I did make sure I took a couple of closeup pictures of exactly how it was put together to make sure It went back the same way.

Thank you for the quick reply.

Hi Don, and everyone else who might need to know. One has to pull the front control panel off and move the speed sensor out of the way prior to removing the spindle and bearings. The ring that is screwed onto the spindle breaks a light beam on the sensor to produce the speed. Also, there is another ratio available on the belt drives if you flip the top pulley on spindle you can drop down to 340 rmp max. :) Thank you for your videos. I should make on doing the bearings I guess.

The hole in both the 3 & 4 jaw chuck is right at 7/8". I can easily put 3/4" round bar in with just a little play. You might get some 7/8" stock in there but it would be a snug fit. The tool post I bought was the G5689 set from Grizzly. It doesn't work without modifying the compound because of the different size hold down rod and the collar I pointed out in the video. It wasn't easy to get it to work but I can't imagine using my lathe without it so it was definitely worth the effort.

try little machine shop. great service and a great inventory.

My shop is shut down because of the cold weather here but as soon as it's warm enough to get back in there I'll see about getting those measurements. Thanks for watching.

thank you look forward to warm weather ;-)

I didn't do any scraping. That's just the way it came from Grizzly.

Thank you for the comment. No I didn't check it with an indicator, mostly because the cross and compound slides are not very solid to begin with on these small lathes and this QCTP hold down is definitely more solid than the slides. If I do an operation that requires a rigid setup, like parting off steel, I find myself locking down all the compound gib screws along with the carriage.

It's a T3i. I learned my lesson with that camera to not to use it for capturing audio. It takes really good video but I'll never use it with auto focus again. When I start doing videos again I plan to use my Go Pro for everything. I'm moving my shop so hopefully this fall I'll have time to do more videos.