8 or 10 Starbucks cups? $40 is more like 3 cups LOL. I agree with what you said about it being an affordable way to try it out. I was also pleased to discover they have lathe apps on the phone, a 3D virtual lathe with tools and all.

@@sunsetpark_fpv Check your math. A very commonly bought Starbucks item is a "Tall" (12 oz.) brewed coffee. It is $2.25. You could buy almost 18 cups for $40. The most expensive I could find was "Honey Almondmilk Flat White" in the Venti (20 oz.) size for $5.95. You could get almost 7 cups of that for $40. If you want to do some more interesting math, consider somebody buying just one $2.25 "Tall" cup of coffee every day of the week for their entire 40 year working life. Then calculate what that would be if that money were instead invested at a nominal 8%, at the end of 40 years, would be $236,415.49. A great many people could easily be millionaires if they didn't squander even small amounts of money every day. The government has not, so far, been able to take away the magic of compound interest.

​​@@trainliker100Are you talking yankee bux? Or Aussie? They are not 1:1, so prices are somewhat different on the 2 continents. EDIT: I get 1.21 Yankee dollars for my 1 British Pound, or 1.91 Aussie dollars at time of commenting (according to google, of course.)

​@@trainliker100if your country is running at 8% interest, you're living in stupid inflation and might want to get out. That aside, your figures seem ridiculously high. How did you calculate your compound interest? Yes, there really are different ways to calculate.

@@mattsadventureswithart5764 Calculation of compound interest is actually quite standardized, just like mortgage payment calculation. It is even built in to calculators that doe statistics. I used investor (and then the dot) gov at the U.S. Securities and Exchange commission. I also went to two other sites and got precisely the same result to the penny. 8% is a very typical interest rate estimated for LONG term investments in the U.S. For stock mutual funds, it is 8% to 10% annualized over 10 years. 8% is a conservative number. (It's one of the reasons people are foolish to NOT be making long term investments.) I used zero dollars as the starting point, 8% interest, 30 x $2.25 = $67.50 as a monthly contribution, a 4% interest variance (although it really doesn't matter over this long period - I could have entered zero or anything - same result), daily compounding, and a 40 year term. That IS the correct answer whether you think it is ridiculous or not. Compound interest over a long period is by far the best opportunity average people have so they can retire comfortably. But when they waste a few dollars at a time here and there, buy cars beyond their means assuming debit, rack up credit card debt, and live paycheck to paycheck thanks to their poor choices, they will retire with little or no money of their own. To take it a notch further. If somebody today netting $60K per year invests 15% of their pay (absolutely a good plan) that is a $750 monthly contribution and at the end of 40 years will be $2,646,442.10. (But can actually be much higher due to investment vehicles like 401K or Roth IRA plans that help manage the tax impact). Now, that result might not "seem" so ridiculous to you when you are looking at $750 per month for that long. Just realize that the daily Starbucks cup represents an amount that is roughly 10% of that $750 per month contribution. Perhaps that will help clarify it for you.

can you change the motor out with an R/C motor and use an esc to control speed I have some code out there for controlling r/c esc with Arduino

Hey, how big of a bowl do you think one could make with something like this? I'm trying to find a lathe to make bowls, but it has to be cheap. Any advice would be much appreciated!! I really want to get into making bowls, and my family wants to get me some tools for Christmas, but I'm going in blind and don't have a large budget! I hope I can find something that will allow me to make decent bowls, even if I have to do it all by hand. I have a pyrography pen, so I was hoping I could get tools to make bowls that I could burn some designs into and sell them+ give them to my family as gifts! ☺️

Chess pieces and knobs?

Overworked and overheated

Or a bottle cap

@@dordly Gets the job done till the motor breaks after a few uses, as he showed in this video. Im all for cheap tools but breaking after a few weeks is not worth it in my opinion. For a little extra you could have a much stronger machine that would last a lot longer.

Where'd you get it from and what upgrades have you done? I'd also like to make some wood rings

Thanks for info ! just purchased one for making scale model stair rails porch post.

Would this work for making ring inlays?

Quite possibly. I am aware there are a few different models of these 775 DC motors, and the ones I have seen are typically rated for use between 12-36v, though this one night only be rated for 12, I am not too sure. Either way I never went above 14v when I used this lathe, as the high rpm was not suitable for turning. Cheers

its carbon brushed wear out, intense using make it wear out quickly

I also bought one of the aluminum versions, and I have to say, it seems to be more rigid than the steel one, based on how much deflection you were able to get. My motor wasn't the first thing to go, though: first, the bearing on the live center was complete crap from the start, and even though it still functioned as a live center, it made a lot of noise, and I doubt it would have run much longer before seizing. The second thing to fail was the power brick. This appears to have no overcurrent or short circuit protection, as the first time I stalled the motor (which is really easy to do with a wood lathe), the power supply went "pop" and stopped producing power. Also, as you mentioned, the laser-cut and heat-bent motor housing was broken into four pieces in shipping. This wasn't too big a deal, since the motor ran fine without a housing, but it seems likely to me that the failure of your motor was caused by sawdust getting into the bearings. All in all, not a great experience, but I suppose good enough to get a sense of whether or not you want to buy a real lathe.

its what I use for my wood lathe of around this size and its really perfect for the job. One with a foot pedal is especially ideal for small wood turning ive found.

@@Borgedesigns Same :)

Toss together a frame for your hand drill and a live center on a straight board. The rest is up to your imagination.

Wouldn't surprise me, although these 775 motors are typically rated for 12-36v. Cheers

@@artisanmakes Oh hmm it is rated for higher voltage then. Maybe a nice brushless motor upgrade, one that doesn't have any big air holes for wood chips to get sucked into it. Could still be a useful tool just for small stuff.

Aussie, but from NSW. Been to most states but Tassie is one I have yet to visit. Hopefully I'll make it down there once this lockdown is a thing of the past. Cheers

@@artisanmakes oh nice I’m from tassie so we’re not too fare away I just thought you might of been in Tassie because you said Tasmanian oak

Really depends on what the blank is made from. If it is a wood blank then yes, but rigidity was a huge issue when I tried to turn acrylic.

What about using a woodworking chisel to knock off the corners and take shallow cuts to keep from burning out the motor? Is 3,500rpms the lowest the motor will go? Thanks!

Not sure. Don’t know much about making fishing lures. Always been better at bait fishing

@@artisanmakes Well, the biggest top water fish in the world. I know you can buy is about. Ten inches by two inches Do you think it would handle a piece of wood that size? That would be the max I would. Ever attempt to do

I don't think I've ever seen these with a name brand. I assume there is just one factory in China pumping them out and eBay sellers just drop ship them under various names.

@@davidwillard7334 ahaha, we don't always do things because it's the most economical option, but quite often we do things because they're fun, or a challenge

@@davidwillard7334 you'd never watch anything if people like me didn't take the time to make the videos for you to watch.

I can not explain why, but it seemed to fix itself after leaving it for a week or so.

@@artisanmakes i scraped mine

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't mention it bit I was intending to use this lathe for wet sanding, as the powder coat would be very useful in protecting the bed. I used it a bit for that purpose, but only at low rpm. Anything above 3000 rpm gave a poor finish.

I'll have to make sure to add in imperial measurements in the future.

I have not tried, but I would still have my concerns about the wear on the bearings.