5.0 out of 5 stars good little lathe well worth the money

T. · 3 September 2023

after a couple of little niggles which i corrected myself calnt fault it better than my old myford by miles

4.0 out of 5 stars OK for price but 7 x 14 version might be better unless you need the extra length between centres.

M.M. · 5 July 2023

Lathe arrived on time and crated in a wooden box. The crate was damaged in transit but the contents were undamaged except for the plastic gland protecting the electrical cable where it entered the lathe casing. This I suspect was damaged when the lathe was put into the crate. Easily fixed by cutting off plug, replacing gland and putting new plug on. As expected, preservative coatings need to be removed from surfaces and all surfaces oiled or greased as appropriate. Handles to hand wheels supplied loose, gibs to sliding parts need adjusting.There are many accessories advertised for “mini” lathes but the appear to refer to the 7 x 14 lathes and will not necessarily fit this 8 x 16 machine without some engineering efforts! In particular the tool post holder has a raised locator some 4 mm x 18 mm diameter. Accessories assume a flat surface. I bought a quick Change tool holder and had to drill out its base to make it fit. All in all the machine is worth the price paid.

1.0 out of 5 stars Not very good

B. · 5 May 2024

This lathe arrived in a lovely crate all in great condition. Placed it on my bench, read the instructions so far so good. Plugged it in pushed the green go button. BANG the circuit breaker tripped. Reset the thing nothing worked on the lathe. Both the plug fuse had blown together with the fuse in the back of the lathe. Replaced both fuses pushed the green button again BANG. So decided not fit for purpose and rejected the thing and asked for a refund of my money. Which after some backwards and forwards I received all my money back quickly. The company refused to collect the lathe stating “you can do what you like with it”. I was shocked that they could write off this machine just like that. So now I have a very heavy paper weight. What I will say is the company was very quick to answer me and easy to deal with.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great value unit.

W.R. · 19 November 2023

Great functionality for the price. Some fettling required before use (tighten all bolts, centre tailstock, grease gears, adjust gib screws, etc.) but this is good for getting to know the machine.

2.0 out of 5 stars Quality

I. · 1 March 2024

Poor finish and assembly,accuracy not obtainable without major adjustment ,should have purchased something else elsewhere.You Tube reviews for American version the same also u cannot turn tapers on it has it has no rotational cross slide base.

4.0 out of 5 stars The best of the mini lathes, but it'll need a tickle out of the box.

D.C. · 3 August 2023

I've been wanting a lathe now for at least five years. It started by accident, clicked on a YouTube video of someone making an inlay ring and I was hooked. However, for the last five years I was a CGI artist and couldn't really justify buying a lathe just for the fun of it. In December last year, I was made redundant from my globe travelling job and I had the chance to reset and rethink what I wanted to do. I've ended up with a small business designing laser cut model kits. In the pursuit of this, I had to build a workshop in the garden to house my laser cutters. A workshop with just enough room for a mini lathe...I had the thought that it was now or never and started to do my research to choose which lathe to buy. I opted for the 8x16, mostly due to the 750w motor, but also due to the metal gears and extra girth permissible through the chuck. All the reviews I watched said mostly the same thing. It'll need some fettling to get it up to scratch.Like most people, I have an expectation that something is going to be right, straight out of the box, so I had to manage my expectations. After all, small as it is, this is a tool for machinists. You'd better have the basics of knowledge before you even begin, so I was expecting to get my hands dirty.The lathe arrives in a crate. Solidly packaged and delivered without damage. A small screwdriver/pry-bar will lift the tabs holding the top on and reveal the little beauty. A pleasing whiff of oil greets you. Contained within is also a small toolbox containing hex keys, gears, small oil bottle and dreams.Some of the reviews I've read told of nasty grease everywhere that needed to be cleaned off. Not so with my lathe. Just some light oil applied. No signs of rust or corrosion.The next step was to get the crate sides off, unbolt the body from the crate bottom and ring my emergency Jon. Everyone needs an emergency Jon. For when you need to shift a moderately heavy lathe into a workshop. It will take two people. It isn't worth the risk of soloing it, unless you unpacked it eight centimetres from where it will live.Once it was on the bench it was off with the gear panel, cleaned old grease off and apply lithium grease. Then to begin the fettling. The gibs all need adjusting/tightening to eliminate any play. Simple enough. Locking nuts and grub screws. Find a happy balance between rigidity and smoothness of movement.Next is aligning the tailstock. Pop something with a point in the chuck and bring up the tailstock wiyth the dead centre in it. There are grubs and locking screws to shift it left or right and if it's too low you'll have to pop some shims in. Mine had a shim at the back, but was low at the front so had to add my own. My only issue with the tailstock, is when mine is loosed off to slide back and forth, it just flops about on the ways. I never trust if it's lined up right until I offer it up to something.Once everything was, as far as my nascent knowledge could tell me, sorted, it was time to power it up. As soon as I did, I tripped the ring main I was on. I thought I'd blown the fuse in the lathe, which was especially vexing as the spare fuse had fallen apart in transit. I flipped the circuit back on though and everything thing worked fine and has done ever since.As for the performance, I've machined mostly brass and aluminium so far with no issues. I've kept it in low gear mode so far and do have issues with chips not breaking with my carbide insert tooling. Once of the nice things for me was it was geared for power feed and not thread cutting out of the crate. It will of course thread both metric and imperial threads, but I have a tap and die set which I use for that.All in all I'm really happy with my purchase and so far, the dream of owning a lathe has lived up to my expectations.Side note: If you're machining aluminium and it's producing long strings of swarf, don't grab it in your hand to move it, because it'll be just at that moment that the chuck grabs it and slices it neatly into your finger...

3.0 out of 5 stars Cheap lathe, you get what you pay for.

P.A. · 17 November 2022

Lots of things wrong with this lathe, too many to list here. Don't expect to use it straight out of the box. Since its delivery, I have had to repair, modify and adjust many areas of the lathe, and its performance is now just about reasonable, but there are still some outstanding problems to resolve in the near future.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great after sales experience

A. · 18 April 2024

I had a few teething problems with the lathe it took a few hrs to sort them but now the machine is working fine. I contacted the company and my experience of that was very positive they replied very quickly. They offered me a reasonable partial refund of which I accepted. Would I shop with them again? Yes I would because my experience with them was very positive. Yours appreciative Al Sharp.