Yes--just add 1000.00 hours of hard labor-- and it is still an Underpowered laughable POS That is best suited for an Anchor for your boat. Now if you look around, There is a Glut of old Machinists willing to be talked out of solid Iron that Repeats, Repeats, Repeats...Get it? Oh, did I say Good machinery REPEATS? Do Not waste Good Money on this Chinese Crap-- The guy who made it with a Gun Barrel pressed to his temple did not care if it worked, Why Should You? Spend your worthless Fiat Currency on quality machines. No shortage.!

@@anneinfurna8528 - Are you somehow of the opinion that the point of this project is to arrive at a hunk of "solid iron that Repeats, Repeats, Repeats"? It is not. It is CLEARLY a light-hearted journey to see what adding 1000.00 of hard labor to an Underpowered laughable POS will actually produce, learn stuff along the way, and enjoy the process. It's a hobby. Lighten up, Francis. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n7RdlLur1be5lKs.html

@@somebodyelse6673 Isn't the average cost of one of these chinese lathes about 500 dollars? All i am saying is that this money is better spent elsewhere. Light hearted is 20 - 35 dollars, not 500.You get out of something what you put into it--and this venture is not worth the results. Not to me.

I was thinking the exact same thing whilst watching this too. The V-Ways for the headstock, Saddle and Tailstock are shocking!!! The Saddle Gibbs need completely refab'ing. I bet the headstock bearings are just 'Off The Shelf' Roller bearings an not taper roller bearings and, how do you grease them? Those plastic gears!! No trust in them at all. Looking around, these Lathes start at about £500, I'd rather invest in a used Myford Super7 than one of these hunks of junk!

@@anneinfurna8528 these lathes can be purchased new for as low as $350 USD (Shipped!), and can usually do some decent work for less than 10 hours of fiddling, cleaning, and adjustment. From what I've read of other's experiences and my own, this lathe had a shocking number of issues right out of the box. For most people just getting into the hobby, as I was, these machines are a good starting point. As well, even in my area where larger quality metal lathes are regularly for sale I haven't been able to find one that runs for less than $3k. Anything under $2k would require so much work that the restoration itself would need to be your hobby. Yes, when compared to real machines these aren't much more than a toy that'll turn brass, aluminium, and plastic. They can still be a great learning tool for people new to machining, and the process of improving the machine is a valuable opportunity for learning how they work and machining useful parts.

I'm delighted & fascinated that my video motivated you to unpack it after so long. It makes it feel all the more worthwhile. :)

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe Your level of detail and step by step format pushed me over the top. It was definitely worthwhile from my stand point :-) I needed THIS video... I have watched and re-watched hundreds of them and read and printed out 3 or 4 guides in my various aborted attempts to get a level of comfort from a knowledge perspective to get it done. I definitely needed the level of detail visually you presented apparently b/c after the 2nd time through it the box was back on the bench the lath was unpacked and after the 3rd or 4th time through the video it was disassembled and clean. De-burring took some more watching and courage :-) But Im going out to the shop to put it back together shortly. Again thank you sincerely.

@@grumpycat5991 I'm glad to hear that including plenty of detail is worth the effort. I'll keep doing my best to do that. Best of luck with your lathe, and I hope i brings you years of productive fun.

@@grumpycat5991 good job!

I hear ya, bro! I have been holding off purchasing one because of the cheapness...and I would only be utilizing the lathe as a hobby, not for a main income.

Cool, glad to know you found the videos useful. I still have aligning my tailstock to look forward to, but you can be sure I'll make a video on it when I do.

I'm sure I heard Stephan Gotteswinter say once that Chinese machinery is fine as long as you treat it as a kit of parts that need finishing and assembly before you use them.

My similar lathe's worst part was probably the chuck that came with it. Seeing its interior, I thought it must have been cast in sand. I had to rework a good portion of the teeth so that it would not block when opening or closing.

Thanks Ray, and thanks for watching!

Good luck! I'm sure it'll be worth the effort.

I would still recommend these cheap lathes as a learning opportunity for people who want to learn about precision first hand.

Tell your sister that I'm very flattered. :) I hope you keep enjoying the videos.

dont know about you but $1000 doesnt seem inexpensive

I'll do my best to satisfy. :)

Thanks Ashley, that's good to hear.

This project has certainly made me appreciate that I bought the Proxxon first. I would like the Proxxon to have a bit more power and torque though.

Me too, but I found a emco compact 8 copy at the right time

Yes!! I would also like to have a full cast iron lathe, instead of the aluminium slider

It makes me happy that I bought a Sherline... None of the issues that the Proxxon or the Sieg C2 have (In my opinion) :D

It's all those things, but it's also having some space to learn without worrying too much about the consequences.

Thanks! I've already included all of The Aussie Shed videos into my playlist. Unfortunately KZfaq doesn't provide an easy way for me to share a link to the playlist, but you can find it on my channel page, on the playlists tab, "7" Lathe Improvements from all over KZfaq".

DId you find a way to get it straight? I can't work out a way to straighten this out well given the equipment I have available.

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe I shimmed it at the top of the bolt with a piece of copper.

Thanks for the edit, I was just about to ask about that. I've tried a few ways to take the overall leadscrew assembly apart, and I've not found an approach I'm happy with yet. I haven't removed the large plastic gears yet because they've been forced and tightened onto the shafts so hard they're cracked, and they may not survive the disassembly.

​@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe I think its a very common issue with these unfortunately, I cracked one of the 20t gears because the part which joins gears "B" and "C" together was too large, I made a new part from phosphor bronze to remedy the issue. Arceurotrade sell a set of metal gears (part no 090-020-01800) which really are quite good, I bought mine in 2012 for £38, they have gone up in price but they are worth it in my opinion. The plastic gears which came with the lathe didn't give me any issues though to be fair. On my lathe, the bearing blocks and leadscrew are three separate components, does yours not come apart? maybe try to clamp the leadscrew between two bits of wood, and see if that hex bit will unscrew. If the right hand bearing block doesn't come off over the end of the leadscrew then your only option will be to bite the bullet and remove the gears if you need to remove the saddle again. Not that the saddle needs to come off regularly.

A steel OXA wedge type is the one I have. You should be able to see in this video at 35:42, but if not I did a review video which went through the installation.

I've heard really good things about Warco, and they're definitely high up the list of places I'll go when I'm looking to upgrade to a bigger lathe for real work. (This Chinese lathe is for practice projects). At 17:00 I'm not really doing anything too clever, or accurate. The centre screw pushes the nut down, the two on either side pull it up, so I was trying to get it straight along the lead screw, at the right height that the screw is parallel to the movement so it doesn't get stuck. All I did was fiddle with these screws until the cross-slide seemed to be able to run smoothly from end to end. For the QCTP I haven't yet had a need to set the tool holder below the level, so haven't had to worry about that. I can see a need for it though. What tools in particular have you been using when you needed to do that?

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe So You're not giving the leadscrew a slight angle, in the axial respect, to lower play/backlash from the nut? The toolholder I think of is a 250-007 part off holder. The blade is directed upwards. Parting of thick material the blade is sticking out more and more. Then the height of the cutting edge becomes higher and the holder had to be milled off by some 4 - 5 mm.

​@@Stefan_Boerjesson No, I didn't think of setting the nut at an angle. Most of the backlash comes from the way the leadscrew flange is held by a pocket that is too large, so my first priority will be to fix that. I see what you mean about the 250-007. I've never tried using it, but I've heard from others that it is very limited by the way the tool slopes up.

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe Thanks for the tip to check the play at the flange. The backlash has increased a bit.....

@@Stefan_Boerjesson I was planning to pack the flange with a couple of bronze washers, to make sure it can still move freely with way less slop.

Interesting. Good to hear that despite the issues the headstock is straight where it counts. Did you also find that the saddle has the same issues? One of my concerns is that the poor fit to the bed reduces the overall rigidity of the machine significantly, and tightening all four bolts holding the headstock would add a twist force to the bed.

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe In my case I didn't find any issues where the bed warped when tightening the headstock. I put the most tension on the front and back bolts on the side where the v-grove is, and then just snugged up the opposite side which does not really sit flat on the bed just as your video shows. Once adjusting the lateral (x) adjustment on the tailstock I get a good alignment on the tail stock with the chuck. I suppose I got lucky on the Y axis (elevation) of the tailstock I think one way of fixing that if it doesn't align (hopefully it would fall too low) would be to run a shim to compensate along the back side of the head stock to get the proper Y alignment with the tail stock. The saddle (cross slide) seems to run true to the bed. It seems that the dimension between the top of the bed and the machined underside where the adjustment plates rub seem to be ok. I did find them a bit tricky to adjust properly.. I've seen a number of mods to the way they're configured on youtube. For now I've left mine stock. I noticed that both the plates had a slight curvature to them so they tended to come in contact with the underside of the ways on the ends. I found that adjusting the grub screws first and then tightening the center bolt first tended to flatten out the curve and then drawing up the two outside screws seems to work the best to get a good even tension on those places and increase the contact area. I get a nice smooth even drag on the cross slide all the way up and down the ways. In all of this I'm assuming that I just happened to get extremely lucky compared to what some others have received with this particular versions of the mini lathe.

Thanks for the tip! I'm actually considering something he mentions in this video, but doesn't do: trying out anglular contact bearings instead of taper roller bearings.

I'm absolutely certain that's not the case, because they line up with voids in the headstock casting. No matter how much they protrude above the bed, they can't affect the position of the headstock. On the other wise, if the motor is not supported from above, the belt tension causes it to flap around and vibrate, because the main mounting studs provide almost no vertical rigidity.

If I waited until I'd fixed all the faults before making another video, it'd be a couple of years before it came out. It'll come apart and go back together many times before we're done.

Adventures with a Very Small Lathe and no locktite.

@@gordon6029 I'm guessing because "It'll come apart and go back together many times before we're done.".

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe Still, wouldn't this be the last part in a "chinese lathe fault fixing series"? If there is going to be a series, that is? :)

@@ScinnerNo1 yes, Days of Our Lathe

Thanks! I'll definitely be repainting the lathe at some point, but it'll be much later in the overall improvement process, so the paint doesn't get damaged by the frequent disassembly and reassembly. The allen wrenches are Wera, and many people call them the finest money can buy. You can get them from Amazon, or many other tool sellers. Beware of cheap imitations coloured to look the same.

Thanks for the info dump, lots of really useful info. I'll adopt your practice when wanting to a slower speed, as i'm not keen to have to fiddle around re-soldering MOSFETs. Do you recall the part numbers of the higher load rated MOSFETs RS sorted out for you?

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe It was quite a few years ago and I regret I no longer have the sales docket.

He has already said that the first upgrade project will be the motor mount and wiring .

@@steved8038 know-it-all! ;-)

It has 3 indents, but neutral isn't in quite the right place.

@@AdventureswithaVerySmallLathe thanks for the reply, i guess i will have to try and drill an indent for neutral. i have to say i am disappointed in the standard of machining on the lathe. when i unpacked it i went over it to check all nuts and bolts, i found a number of them quite loose but on tightening the spindle locked up due to misaligned drill holes, the missing indent that i mentioned and saddle, cross slide and compound faces that had to be deburred. still i enjoy a challenge and am working my way through it with the help of your videos. thank you.

That sounds like a good plan, as they're totally exposed right now.

I've watched some of those Gingery build project videos, and they seem to be pretty major commitments, and require quite a bit of expertise. I feel like the improvement work I'm doing is quite a bit easier.

At that point the lead screw was loosely in place, and free to move around. After I opened the half nuts, I had to nudge the lead screw until it was at the right height to pass through the half nuts without snagging.

Another word for "hobby" is "pastime" :-)

you must be getting a bit wiser to recognize this. Ditto crappy musical instruments made to sound wonderful in the hands of a competent player... and yes, watching and commenting on youtube videos... and of course commenting on the comments.... whew!

It's definitely bigger, heavier, and more powerful, and if I was doing larger work, I'd prefer a machine this size, but it didn't arrive in nearly usable condition, and it's still a long way from being ready to do really good work. It's hard to predict how good it's going to be once I've improved it to my satisfaction.

The bad fit is very frustrating. The gibs are the most obvious, and the most mysterious. I can only assume the design was changed at some point, but there were surplus parts, or the production specs weren't correctly updated. I think you're right to be concerned about the grub screws in the hold-down plates, but those aren't a good long term solution anyway. There are a few ideas out there to improve this, from shimming the plates, to completely replacing them with tapered gibs.

Sounds worth a shot, if I can get hold of some bronze for a reasonable price. I'll put that on the quick project list.

I just ordered some 5/8" phosphor bronze from a model engineering supplies shop. On it soon.

Sorry, I've never looked into making a modification like that.

I've been able to buy a follow rest for the Sieg C2, but it does not fit this lathe. Real Bull lathes have the hole positions on the saddle in different places.

I've heard of them and they look great, but the shipping is sadly a bit prohibitive to where I am.

Adventures with a Very Small Lathe have you tried arc euro trade I get all my parts from them and it’s fast delivery hope it helps all the best stay safe