8X14” Mini Metal Lathe

This is a really nice and affordable mini lathe. It's a Vevor product, so the quality is better than the average China imports. I have quite a few Vevor tools, and all of them are surprisingly good quality for the price and this one is no exception. Pros: - larger than your typical mini-lathe - metal gears mean you wont break them as soon as your tool catches - electronic variable speed so you can slow down at the end of a pass - standardized parts - most accessories will fit - enough power to turn steel (with the right tools) Cons: - Doesn't have a thread chasing dial (what mini lathe does?) so threading is a bit fiddly - I got 2x 50-tooth gears and am missing the 61 tooth gear. Since I don't need that particular gear, it doesn't matter to me. Tips: - bolt it down to a sturdy surface - its much more rigid that way. - throw the carbide tools straight in the bin where they belong, and get yourself some insert tooling. The difference in cutting quality is night and day! -get a quick change tool post - messing about with shims every time you swap a tool gets real old real quick.

If you can do a massive amount of work after purchase to get it working, this is the machine for you. There is no way that this can be taken out of the crate and used, NEVER. The bed and slide are sooo out of wack that I have to shim all parts to get the bed to slide without binding. The pictures tell the story. Looking at the end view you can see the difference in height from the rail. The left side of the bed has been shimmed so that the undercarriage that holds it on is now. the appropriate height. The right side needs two shims. One under the bed to bring it level with the left side and another for the undercarriage so that it can be fastened to the bed. This is not the only issue. The cranks to control in and out and left and right are so sloppy that I don't know what I can do to fix them. No measurement on either wheel will be true and the slop keeps both of them from being anywhere near accurate. Also, the tail is in the same condition, so I'll have to figure out ways to shim this thing to work. No way it will ever center in its current state. I should have sent it back but the quality is so poor that the next one would probably be the same. The product really should not be sold. That's what you get for buying a cheap Chinese tool. Sad. Based on this experience, I'd avoid the Vevor products altogether. Not really worth the trouble.

Review of Vevor 8X14 lathe This 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.

Unsure about accurate description as it appears to be a return, maybe used. See the photos and decide yourself. Shipped quickly and arrived ahead of schedule, well padded and crated. Shipping may have loosened bolts, nuts and the like. All the listed tools were included. It powers up and has run at 200 rpm as a preliminary test. So far so good…albeit somewhat noisy. I gave 4 Star Avg. due to its used appearance and I have yet to perform a simple test cut. UPDATE; Having performed cuts on various material, this machine needs severe upgrades. Doesn’t center on the work.. leaves a nipple. Both X & Y slides need adjustment. Control wheels do not turn smoothly even after attempting to adjust. Cutting tools fail to maintain an edge after copper. Should you choose to purchase this machine, be prepared to upgrade it to a basic usable level. Be ready to R/R parts and shims. The fact that the cutting tools don’t center on the work makes this unusable our of the box.

I read the reviews before purchasing. Lots of comments about shipping damage and lots of problems with dirt and grease needing to be cleaned. And unhappy they had to adjust everything. My experience was very good. Well packaged, no shipping damage. Had to clean some cosmoline and re-lubricate. Needed some adjusting, hello it's a metal lathe. I am a wood turner. Every new lathe I have purchased I had to do the same thing. My last lathe cost 8000.00, still had to clean and adjust. I looked at Harbor Freights mini metal lathe. More money and junk compared to this one.