Customer Reviews for 180x300mm 400W Precision Mini Metal Lathe Variable Speed 2250RPM

I purchased this for making small parts for film processors and related items. It works very well for my needs.

I purchased the MX 8x14 lathe because of the size and higher powered motor over the 7" options. The lathe needs a good cleaning and the gibs all need adjusting. Do use way oil to lube all the ways and ball oilers. The included motor/spindle belt is terrible and will break with little use. I changed mine out for a 470mm 5mm pitch 9mm wide standard belt and changed yhe motor pulley to a 17T 5mm pitch pulley. The motor shaft is 10mm. It arrived on good shape without any damage to the lathe or packaging. It wad packaged well in a wooden crate.

Review of Vevor 8X14 latheThis little lathe surprised me in several ways. First let me thank the other reviews. I carefully read all of the other amazon reviewers. Now that I have the lathe, I can say that most of the other reviews give a fair assessment of what to expect.The good news first : TIR on the 3 jaw chuck was a respectable .003. I was able to reduce that to .001 with a carefully-fitted ER40 collet chuck. The lathe is surprisingly powerful, allowing me to make some deep cuts in my first project : a 3/8"-20 lead screw for the cross slide, cutting left-hand threads.As for the bad news. I had to refinish all of the gears and the keys in the change gears. I had to remake the base of the tailstock which was impossible to center and was tilting downhill toward the flat rail. The tailstock was too high from the factory so I could not use shims to correct for the height. The quill screw was much too long and the quill was loose and wobbly so I tapped the casting to accept a set screw to keep the quill stable as it extends and retracts. Also, I could find almost no relationship between the gear train chart and reality in cutting imperial threads. However, you may find it helpful to refer to the user manual to other well-known 7" lathes which uses a similar set of change gears. Also, there are several online calculators for mini lathe change gears which are extremely helpful. For my first project after making some repairs to the lathe, I was able to cut a 20 tpi thread with an actual 20.0025 tpi result. For my purpose, this is quite acceptable.Fortunately, my unit was not damaged in shipping but the bottom of the crate was quite nearly busted apart. I was lucky.

So far going through this lathe I have been impressed. There are so many bad reviews on China lathes I was expecting a real project. I am guessing that this model was a little more $ and that got a little better quality. Not half the issues seen on the internet. Also like the longer bed. Never going to need it, but it's longer than friends, so I win there.

I bought this lathe to do pen turning and other small projects. So far its been a great machine. It does not come with a thread dial indicator finding accessories and upgrades is fairly easy contact littlemachineshop.com they will help in finding product you need. The pens in the attached photo were made on this machine. The compound rest makes cutting the tapers easy. Wood turning cutters for this lathe well you could adapt some carbide cutters but I made my own with hardened steel on a bench grinder. Keep it clean will last forever

I did not buy mine through Amazon but have this identical lathe. Purchased a bit over a year ago to do small turning operations around the shop. Have not had any trouble with it. You will want to add some accesories for it after purchase to get maximum use out of it. I repalced the tool holder and got a 6 inch 4-jaw chuck plus an asortments of bits and collets. Working with mild steel, aluminum, and brass has been a joy and without complications. I think it is a very fair price and would buy mine again. If you get one you will have to set it up and do some minor cleaning but that is normal for all machines.

The lathe is better then what I was expecting at this price point. The extra cost to get this one with rpm display and the metal gears is worth it. The tooling it comes with is so so and unfortunately the little tool box was cracked during shipping. The only real complaint I have with this lathe is the tool post is very short in relation to the center axis of the spindle. This means that now matter what you do you can't raise a tool high enough to center it on the part you are trying to work on. To fix this you need to add about .25 of an inch under the tool post to give you enough height to adjust things properly. All in all this lathe is nice for the money and if you are looking to buy it expect that you will have to do some minor things to make it better. Writen by CC

This is a well made, heavy weight metal lathe with excellent precision. The drip tray provides an easy clean up after each day. The size is perfect for small or large projects.

Item works as described so far. One of the knobs was broken off but I'm not shipping back just because of it. Very well constructed and solid. Would've been nice to have more setup and use instructions. Over all a very nice investment. For the price I highly recommend it and will update this review as I use the item. I would certainly purchase it again.

Is exactly what you expect from a Chinese mini lathe.