10 Years of Mini Lathe Ownership: Pros, Cons, Modifications and Improvements

The ubiquitous Chinese Mini Lathe comes in for a lot of flak. Some of it is justified, some of it really isn’t.

It’s a simple case of horses for courses. Whilst there are very many instances where a small cheap machine is completely unsuitable, I maintain there is definitely a place in the world for the mini lathe.

Over half an hour, I’ll explain what you get for your money, the pros and cons of ownership, some limitations and practicalities then cover some modifications and improvements from the perspective of a user who has enjoyed using a 7 x14 mini lathe for a decade.

I’m channelling @ThisOldTony a bit on this one, as I’ve more words than I’ve got video to say them over. I’ve included some crummy old archive stills and video I’ve dug up from the depths of my phone, that were never intended for public consumption.

Approximate imperial sizes are shown. They're not intended to be direct equivalents, but are there to give the non-metric viewer a rough feel for what I'm discussing.
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00:00 ~ CHAPTER ONE - CHOOSING A LATHE -
01:14 ~ 1a Buy Big?
02:08 ~ 1b Buy Old?
02:35 ~ CHAPTER TWO - MINI LATHE GUIDED TOUR -
02:46 ~ 2a How Big is Mini?
03:32 ~ 2b More Similarities Than Differences
03:49 ~ 2c Chuck Sizes
04:04 ~ 2d Headstock and Tailstock
04:28 ~ 2e Motors and Drives
05:12 ~ 2f Change Gear Considerations
05:39 ~ 2g But What Will it Cut?
06:01 ~ 2h An Example Project
06:40 ~ 2i Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
08:25 ~ 2j High Speed Steel is Your Friend
08:47 ~ 2k To Carbide or Not to Carbide
09:25 ~ 2l Mini Lathe Accuracy
09:57 ~ 2m Starting to Taper Off
12:37 ~ CHAPTER THREE - CHANGES AND MODIFICATIONS -
12:53 ~ 3a Assorted Simple Improvements
16:32 ~ 3b Saddle Strip Upgrade
17:50 ~ 3c Compound Slide Modification
20:24 ~ 3d Adding a Carriage DRO
21:25 ~ 3e Tailstock Rebuild
23:38 ~ 3f Cross Slide Improvements
24:07 ~ CHAPTER FOUR - STILL TO COME -
24:24 ~ 4a Trade Speed for Torque?
24:39 ~ 4b Saddle Twist
25:17 ~ 4c Facing Cuts Could (Sometimes) be Better
25:48 ~ 4d Screwcutting Gearbox Weakness
26:00 ~ 4e Headstock Bearings
26:28 ~ 4f Coarse Handwheel Saddle Traverse
27:17 ~ 4g Keeping Rust at Bay (off on a tangent!)
28:01 ~ CHAPTER FIVE - IN CONCLUSION -
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Manually subtitled for accuracy -click the CC box.
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With Thanks:

Thanks to Stewart for the RC plane footage, and for opening my eyes to the possibility that a lathe can be as much at home in the garden shed as an industrial unit or factory. Without that little push, I may have missed out on many years of hobby machining.

Thanks to Ben for the Striker material. A seriously quick car!

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Links:

Link to my video which describes in a little more detail the changes I made to allow the cross slide to move back an additional 15mm, and how I incorporated a modified dial that makes it easy to read to 1/100th of a millimetre.

https://youtu.be/lNznefS02lE

Note this isn’t a step by step guide, but it should give useful pointers to the home machinist who would like to try something similar.
Links to Brain’s Workshop where details of the brass saddle plate modification can be found:

http://briansworkshop.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/9/3/20933970/top_adjustable_gibs_for_7x--lathes.pdf

http://briansworkshop.weebly.com/lathe-projects.html
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For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks goes to the following:
Clip from ‘Transporting an Old Very Heavy Smart & Brown Lathe’ used with kind permission from Keith Appleton https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qrp28zctP8Q
Patrick Stirling for his amazing free custom promo DaVinci Resolve plugin:
https://youtu.be/SP3jzOW56N8?si=kxkJxCuOhWf84ebu
Monarch lathe still:
https://www.rawpixel.com/image/3322909
Motor and pulley still:
https://pixabay.com/photos/lost-places-warehouse-abandoned-2745649/
Machinist running an old lathe video:
https://pixabay.com/videos/engineering-old-machines-109642/
Icons by @Guapoo from https://www.reshot.com/
Stills used to illustrate compound rotation modification from ArcEuroTrade strip down guide here:

https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/machineguides/SC3-Mini-Lathe-Dismantling-and-Reassembly-Guide.pdf
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Shot: HC-X920 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: Davinci Resolve 18.1.4
Mic: NT1-A

Видео 10 Years of Mini Lathe Ownership: Pros, Cons, Modifications and Improvements канала The Recreational Machinist