You have the best content highlighting the few GOOD, mostly BAD, and many UGLY factors typical of the Chinese Mini lathes along with the meticulous FIXES to make them BETTER. You deserve the title of a MINI LATHE Cononer who not only determines the cause of fatalities of the components but shows us how to "resurrect" them to function well. Although I don't own a mini lathe, I was quite intrigued by your long and meticulous work using rather simple tools and techniques to make a poorly made machine to a fairly precise tool for home hobbyists. Cheers from USA

I think you nailed it. All the beds and components are cast identically, all of them are likely processed to a minimum standard, Parts at that stage likely make it to places like Harbor Freight, and buyers like grizzly pay more to have more precision fit and finish work. I bet if those parts fall out of spec, they end up, if you're lucky, on a Harbor Freight grade machine. It's almost like Atkins or Disston badging branded and etched saw blades with they warranted Superior medallions if they don't meet specifications. At least, they were more transparent in those cases. I just found your Channel! Thanks for making videos, mate!

Just watching the Lathe series again, forgot about the "balls on the park bench" 😂😂😂 Cheers

Again, thanks for taking the time to put these videos together- greatly appreciated.

Best guide on KZfaq! Hands down!

I have the grizzly version, probably a few hundred bucks extra and its not much more refined, if at all. Love the channel btw, been binge watching your videos, hope to keep seeing more!

Damn, I wish I had a sweet Aussie accent. This dude sounds cool as hell when he talks. I just sound like a nasally nerd.

Love the compound endplate idear ,thanks for sharing and keep up the great work

Nice video, and I'll be doing the mod at 27.19 Thanks!!

Do mine next! You are saving me a tremendous amount of thought and work towards my refining of my lathe. The gib work will be done on my vertical mill to help refine that as well. Thanks again for saving me all the search and destroy work to get to where you are now.

Great Job so far. I have the exact same model and the same issues. I love your attitude and enjoy watching you work through the mess while I work on mine. Keep making videos so I can use your ideas, thanks.

...at least I don't have to fight Crocs! LoL! Good fix on cross slide. I did change mine so I can rotate the compound without having to back it out to access the two SHCS's. (used a wedge type design like a old Logan or Atlas, more laping/fitting, milled an angle and drilled, tapered original circular pivot piece, made brass gib for screw end, works like a champ).

I haven't been able to find any more mini lathe episodes past this one.

I think you are on to it re the trickle-down reject part theory, it makes sense, it makes economic sense. I have a sieg C2, basically the same lathe as yours but nowhere near the number of fuckups, like you I went through the entire thing, it had a couple of problems, assembly errors but none of the borked faces and parts etc.

Glad to see it's coming together, good video series. Steve, Perth WA

Flip the gib strip over and use the backside to drill new indents for the gib screws.

I agree that it is likely that these "economy" mini lathes are assembled from crap, I mean scrap. I just bought a Vevor MX-8x14 lathe, (Motto: Tough Tools, Half Price) . It arrived with bolts and nuts careening about the shipping container and an evident intrusion making a divot in the control panel. Imagine a 120 pound box tossed from one shipper to another. All of the grub screws for the ways were missing, gears and axels are out of round, parts of castings are not present, holes have been drilled in the wrong places, and some extra parts seem to have no home. Its as if someone dumped a bunch of pieces into the box to "make up for the discrepancies". They should change their motto to "Crap Tools, Half Assed".

Hi mate, you really been kicking ass on this project. Hats off to ya. The parts at 9:46 the dove tail that is out of speck and The holes that are drilled in the wrong spot can be corrected if you really are balls to wall with want to. Weld more metal in one of the holes. Grind off the extra. Drill the hole again properly. The dove tail can be done the same way. Although it would be nice to have a mill the new cuts can be done on the lathe. These techniques sound difficult. They are not. I just used the same technique to repair a welding cart with an under cut side. The cart is not worth the cost of the repair. I was just practicing my ability to weld on metal and recut the piece and it came out nice. If it does not come out right the first time just go back and start over!!! That plastic degree gauge could be used to make a mold for a casting with aluminum !!!!! It just takes want to. Your skill goes up with every repair you do. Especially if you endeavor to make the job perfect. More power to ya buddy !! Regards Tom from Florida

I just ordered and received the 10mm X 1mm RH tap to create something similar being the lead screw is threading into the assembly itself and there’s not any backlash adjustment and on cross slide I have had this spring washer sitting in the drawer for over year and never thought to measure the ID and yesterday I popped it on to just see what it would do for backlash Mr. Aussie and I shit you not this 10mm thin springy washer took all the back lash down to 1 thou backlash and now I am searching for another one and recreate the same set up come compound. I do like your idea/re-routing too. We’ll see how well my creation comes out and any advice or thoughts on the 10mm thin spring washer I’ve applied is welcomed being I want to get rid of the final 1 thou play it has!

great bit of Aussie engineering

For small dovetails, I get on better with riffler files, the hook shaped ones .Change fileing direction each time and deburr finally with a burnishing action, I use a slip.

Hi there i found that a 8mm countersink drill fits perfectly for both centering and getting the 14 mm OD needed on the disk, great site great content, keep up all the good stuff coming.

There is a book on using these things which tells you to regard your purchase as ‘kit of parts’ and that has been my experience even on ‘named’ versions, however businesses like Myford which built quality lathes were ‘driven to the wall’ (the people who bought the name don’t actually seem to build lathes).

Use a flat table belt sander will do the same thing as your scraper then take sandpaper on a flat table run it back and forth to get all surfaces flat. As you sand you see the voids highs and lows and go until it is flat and uniform .

Hi There, What size are the wheels you have on the carriage and the tailstock, please?

Did you have a little Crocodile soup last night then? MMMMMMMM Crocodile!

one you get it running turn some thin bronze shims to put between the running surfaces of the bosses of the leadscrews it will go even smoother and will wear a lot slower

Hi Trevor I just saw the brand of your diamond plate ULTEX where did you buy it cause I can't find it

On the plate at the end of the compound slide. Did you really need two additional mounting bolts or could it just be held by the two originals? Sandwiched in place?

So you De filed the file hmmm 🤔 great work mate love the vids 👍

That hand movement in the beginning though lmao

I don't know why you would have scraped that when a good file have you ever heard of Wittrock are Emory cloth . For the angled area cut a piece of wood and put Emery cloth on it with a little cutting fluid and sand the crap out of it there's no way you're going to get a flat surface scraping it with a hand file you want to keep everything flat

your a good machinist,im a fitter and turner your attention to detail shames me lol,its time to do mine now adelaide is basically in a lockdown...nice videos ,stress disolver

Are all of the milled holes on the gib strip done with a flat bottom end mill? Should any of the holes have a rounded shape at the bottom? I noticed one of the screws you made to lock down the gib strip had a rounded/pointed end. Thanks.

Great job!!!!

I thought my Harbor Freight lathe was a piece of crap but looks like you got a really good one why don't you send that thing back it does look like you've done everything possible to improve it

Thank you for the detailed work. What did you use as a spotting compound? Is there any place to source canode ink in Australia?

Beauty!

Graphite on the fibre washer?

Just a thought, why angular contact bearings and not taper roller. Play Safe From Elliot Lake Ontario Canada.

A pair o balls on a park bench hahaaaa!

Those friggen salties are persistent but not very tasty. I suspect the ones around your neck of the woods migh be a bit lethargic though , being Antarctic conditions and all ;-)

I think your theory on the flawed parts being put aside and then assembled by the Uyghurs in forced labour camps is plausible, or did someone else mention that regardless i am concerned about the parts themselves and not the selves that assemble them. Now i would never do this but i could see a certain type of person that would order four of the same machines from Amazon strip them down and build the best machine out of that best parts. Then return the other three machines back to Amazon and say only one of the machines was satisfactory but not good. Have you heard of this happening? Great job great reengineering from four years ago.

Seems like you need full on machine shop just to get these things going right. :(