Mini Lathe for Small Parts?

[WobblyHand]

The issue with some of the Vevor's is due to their cost cutting, they have engineered in some custom parts. That might be ok, if they sold spare parts, but for the most part they don't, especially the electronics. On the machinist board that I frequent, about 30%, give or take, have significant issues with Vevor lathes. If you get a good one they can be decent. A poor one, let's just say they became expensive lessons in getting what you paid for. Their lack of QC becomes your problem.

To the best of my knowledge, some of the Vevor lathes use a custom integrated motor, and you can't get a replacement. To fit a standard replacement motor requires a lot of fabrication.

That being said, many lathes can be adjusted to reduce their slop, including an HF one. There's quite a few screws and adjustments that always seem to get loose over time. It's worth your effort to go over your lathe every so often to keep it in good condition.

I have 2 lathes, a mini-lathe 7x16 and a G0752 10x22. Neither are work horses, but both can do serviceable duty, within their class. I got into machining due to my interest in airguns. Think my first job was to convert a P-17 to 0.22 by machining a Crosman barrel. Also extended the piston to get more compression. (JBWeld to piston face, then machined.). Did all the work on the mini. Great fun tinkering. Made lots of threaded adapters, cutting threads is easy, once you learn how.

Don't think machining is a cheap hobby. The tooling adds significant cost. But there's an immense satisfaction to making things, or improving them.

 

[techna]

Don’t forget to check estate sales and auctions. Look for a consolidated list of them in your area and preview any (most straight up estate sales don’t allow previews) that have potential if possible. If you find an estate sale that might have something you’re interested in, go EARLY and get in line if it’s allowed. When the doors open, make a beeline for the garage or shop and park yourself in front of the thing you’re most interested in and if it has potential, yank the price tag before you start spinning dials. This is especially important if a number of the people who lined up behind you (you WERE first in line weren’t you?) are big belly retirees wearing overalls over their pocketed t-shirts and sporting John Deere hats. Trust me, they know the drill and will likely respect you for it. If the aforementioned overall dudes somehow beat you to the punch and lined up in front of you, you’re almost certainly going to miss any good deals present when it comes to the machinery. Don’t give up, but don’t waste time looking over the shoulder of the guy already turning knobs, and start looking for tooling gems. I ended up with several fully complete drill indexes full of unused made in the USA twist drills at literally pennies on the dollar using this method. Snagged some really nice measuring tools too.

A word about estate sale on line AUCTIONS… Preview is super important! These are usually hosted by a company less familiar with tools and equipment than those run by auction companies specializing in shop liquidation. The good part is that these types of sales are a better fit when it comes to finding garage shop size equipment, but the bad is that they’re probably not going to provide good enough pictures to let you know if the tool you’re considering is gem or junk. They often allow preview prior to the auction start though, and it is very much worth your time. Fortunately I’ve yet to dramatically overpay for something I did not look at prior, but I did miss something that haunts me to this day. I was bidding on a Taiwan made Bridgeport knee mill clone that I knew to be of good quality. The photos were poor and the auction company had left the table covered so there were no good clues as to the condition. I got out at $1500 and it sold for $1600. My wife had won some things from inside the house and I picked up a couple of small things from the shop. When I went to pick up our items, I got a sinking feeling as soon as I saw the house and the neighborhood it was in. Both were very upscale. My sinking feeling grew when I saw the 6 car garage with one bay walled off and turned into a climate controlled shop. What almost did me in however, was the not yet picked up mill. It was PRISTINE. Not like never used pristine, but used and very, very, well cared for pristine. This is better than never used in my book. Not a fleck of rust to be found, nor a tool mark on the table. I didn’t run it, but I did spin the dials and it was glorious. Hidden under the table cover (which in retrospect a table cover should have been a CLUE) were two Kurt vises that were as perfect as the mill, and a nice rotary table too. Oh yea, and there was a high quality DRO on the machine that had been hidden by the angle they took the pictures from. The “some bits included“ that was mentioned in the auction description but not pictured, surely represented an investment of thousands of dollars by the original owner. Had I ended up with it after running the bidding up to more than twice my $1600 max bid, I’d have felt like I was robbing someone and almost certainly have converted back to Catholicism just so that I could confess my sin. Damn…

 

[Texas Iggie]

I have a south bend 10" and they can be found for under 3K with lots of tooling. They are great for the home shop and will last forever. With a real professional lathe anything can be made on it including mill work with the proper attachments.

 

[KWK]

A 3 ft South Bend 9 doesn't take much space sitting on a 4 ft workbench. You have to be patient and search out a good one

This one is 4 ft

Cutting tool steel

 

[bustachip]

A 3 ft South Bend 9 doesn't take much space sitting on a 4 ft workbench. You have to be patient and search out a good one
View attachment 549073
This one is 4 ft

View attachment 549072
Cutting tool steel

With a high speed bit no less.

 

[KWK]

With a high speed bit no less.

That's all you need. I don't turn anything hardened. And I don't really have the HP to use carbide. And can only run 1400 rpm max. Only reason a lot of people use carbide is they haven't learned to sharpen HSS. The first step when learning to operate a lathe.
About a dozen HSS blanks is all you'll ever need if you know what you're doing.

 

[Peashooter]

I think i would go for a used Colchester late like i cut my teeth on as a machinist apprentice, just fine little machines and would even take some size.
Probably fit it with a digital readout, but that’s also it.

 

[KWK]

Guys having trouble parting off. Use power cross feed if you have it. A proper consistent feed rate is important. As is cutting oil. I hold a small acid brush with oil on the groove as I cut. Just enough to lubricate you don't have to give it a bath.
I had trouble once and found the chuck jaws were sprung. Allowing the part to wiggle. I trued the jaws with a tool post grinder and fixed it.

 

[Peashooter]

lot of people use carbide is they haven't learned to sharpen HSS.

Well if you cant do that, at least in the 80ties, you would not become a machinist in Denmark, even if back then most used carbide inserts.

I always cut threads with HSS, but i also dome some long thin things with it which you can not do with carbide inserts due to the higher,,,, Mmmmm tip pressure, HSS will cut with less pressure

I still remember the names ( Danish ) for all the different angles on a HSS tool for a lathe.
We also learned to sharpen at least smaller HSS drills in the hand, even if my place of apprenticeship had a guy that did nothing but sharpening such things.
And,,,,,,, of course lawn mower blades and so on,

 

[KWK]

Well if you cant do that, at least in the 80ties, you would not become a machinist in Denmark, even if back then most used carbide inserts.

I always cut threads with HSS, but i also dome some long thin things with it which you can not do with carbide inserts due to the higher,,,, Mmmmm tip pressure, HSS will cut with less pressure

I still remember the names ( Danish ) for all the different angles on a HSS tool for a lathe.
We also learned to sharpen at least smaller HSS drills in the hand, even if my place of apprenticeship had a guy that did nothing but sharpening such things.
And,,,,,,, of course lawn mower blades and so on,

Draw file mower blades

 

[bustachip]

That's all you need. I don't turn anything hardened. And I don't really have the HP to use carbide. And can only run 1400 rpm max. Only reason a lot of people use carbide is they haven't learned to sharpen HSS. The first step when learning to operate a lathe.
About a dozen HSS blanks is all you'll ever need if you know what you're doing.

I have both if needed and can sharpen or make a tool bits or sharpen carbide. But I prefer to use inserted tooling because it's fast and I keep about 15 tools set up and on center for fast changes. Grinding tools takes time. I use swiss tooling 1/2" shanks, and the turning tools have either a .002, .004 or .008 nose radius, so not much tool pressure. I also use micro carbide boring bars which come with about a .003 nose radius or you grind it dead sharp. I like to change tools and go, but either will get you there eventually.

 

[KWK]

I have both if needed and can sharpen or make a tool bits or sharpen carbide. But I prefer to use inserted tooling because it's fast and I keep about 15 tools set up and on center for fast changes. Grinding tools takes time. I use swiss tooling 1/2" shanks, and the turning tools have either a .002, .004 or .008 nose radius, so not much tool pressure. I also use micro carbide boring bars which come with about a .003 nose radius or you grind it dead sharp. I like to change tools and go, but either will get you there eventually.

I understand but I'd rather not talk guys out of making the proper tooling for their hobby lathes themselves.

 

[bustachip]

I understand but I'd rather not talk guys out of making the proper tooling for their hobby lathes themselves.

I agree people starting out need to learn how to use HSS tools and also sharpen a drill bit if needed. Plus most people aren't going to spend the kind of money to get quality inserted tooling and carbide tools.