I've watched a million youtubes on mini lathe upgrades, and get annoyed/depressed when they always use a mill, which I don't have. You make this stuff with just the lathe and drill-press, which is all most people have when they first get a lathe. This is much more relatable to me. Well done.
I read your comment after letting out a deep sigh of "dang, I don't even own a metal file or hacksaw, let alone a drill press". It makes me wonder if ever getting into hobby machining will remain a fever dream for me. 😐
@@TheBipolarBearyou’ll get there, keep you head up and keep chipping away at your dream. I started with cheap hand tools then used those tools to make better tools or fix tools up I brought at garage sales. Accumulation of anything including skills and knowledge is a process of which takes time. I believe in you! Now go and get it!👍🏼
Great video and design. I love the absence of music, just the machining sounds. Which is very illustrative too because the sounds tell a lot of how a machine is functioning. Lovely filed facets on the extension block!
When I bought me mini lathe the first thing I realised had to go were the solid handles on the cross slides and replace them with longer ones with rotating sleeves, the simplest of jobs which require no description. So I am slightly bemused when every time I see a video about mini lathes and their modifications, there are the original handles! An challenge for every mini lathe owner.
Thanks for your comment. Yes you can change this easily and perhaps some day I'll do that too. But at the moment there are other things which bother me more on this lathe than the handles. For fine adjusting I actually find the fixed handles even more convenient than the more slippery turning ones.
Hi there- just found your channel, and decided after one video to subscribe, and start from the beginning. Love to have a new back catalog of videos to go through- plus, I love the fact that it seems like you have just about the same stuff to work with, tool-wise, that I do. Keep these fantastic videos coming, and have a great week.
I did a similar mod to mine about two years ago with the two thrust bearings. However I found a large part of the play was the compound leadscrew. You can see it 8:31. They're a very poor fit so I made a whole new leadscrew with a woodruff key to lock the dial to the leadscrew.
Also you need to take a thin piece of cotton cloth and make a large ring just to keep chips out of the roller bearing . And with the cloth it will wick the oil to keep bearings lubed 👍👍
Nice Job! That is a good solution! You still have to sort out the slop on the compound slide dovetails - Are you going to tackle that in a future video?
Thank you very much! You mean taking out the slop by scraping the compound in? I consider this for a future episode, yes. But have still a few things missing which are necessary for scraping :)
Thank you very much! :) Yeah, that was no good idea for drilling. That's why I had to redo the part and ordered a proper center punch an scribing needle to mark the correct positions before drilling the new parts (in part 2 video, I show and used them already). Center drill is a good idea!
I just found your channel and really enjoy the projects and the way you present/make/edit. Do you think that this modification would shorten the travel of the compound?it seems like it may shorten it by the depth of the block behind the wheel?
Thanks for your comment! This modification didn't shorten the travel of the coumpound slide as the aluminium block I made is exactly as wide as the round bearing block which came from factory.
Being I have the same size lathe, and issue, could you share the parts list of bearing and where you got them to save me time in researching. I've been looking for something like this and yours is the most practical.
Hey, you mean in the upper casting of the compound slide (at 9:44)? The old crooked holes were for M5 screws. I drilled them to 5mm and tapped them with an M6 tap. Now I put some two component adhesive in the holes and screwed a piece of brass round stock with M6 thread onto it into each hole. I left them a bit longer to grip them with pliers to screw them firmly in. In the end I cut the excess end off, cleaned the surface on the lathe and bored two new holes in the right position but now I went for M4 threads as they were smaller and fit better to the overall design. Hope that helped:)
I don’t want to spoil the party but you should use plenty of lube when tapping. It makes it easier, prevents breaking a tap and helps keep the tap sharp. Half the videos I see no lubricant being used while the truth is , you can’t use too much.
Thanks for your comment! That's a very good point. It's really annoying to bump your knuckles on the sticking out bolt. I changed it already in the meantime to a dome stud as you said. You can see it in the later videos. On the cross slide I haven't changed it yet but planning to do. That's a very good idea, thanks
Hi to absorb the forces in both directions. When screwing in and screwing out the support. One axial needle bearing can only hold forces in one direction, therefore I need two of them. Hope that helps :)
Is there a reason you use LH boring bars and run the lathe in reverse? I'm curious if it's simply what you had so that's what you use, or if there was a deliberate choice to do so. Just trying to understand as I start trying to tool up my own mini lathe. Thanks!
Hi, it was simply what I had :) Sometimes it is useful to have a left hand boring bar, as you can see a little bit better what's going on, but here it wasn't necessary.
awesome!, please, can you tell us the bearings you are using in this video?, i'm trying to make the same improvements you was done on these chinese lathe.
Hi thanks for your comment :) That's for illustration purposes that the compound is so loose in the beginning of the video. Even with absolutely loose gibs the compound gets stuck because of the way the spindle is mounted. With the bearings installed the compound it's much much better and even with tight gibs the compound can be moved easily.
my buddy's and my Grizzly G8688's are .15 different across :o another worthy upgrade is replacing the compound with a solid block if you don't turn tapers often
You mean the brass nut on the compound slide? It's not a stock part. I made it on the lathe and made a video on it. You find the link in the discription of this video. Answered this your question?
@@superkas Yes I think. In germany this machine is selled as Sieg C2 from different retailers. They look all the same and probably came from the same factory in china.
I am sorry ! I did not intend to slam you . I just want .you to be safe . That unsecured part you were drilling scared me ! That s all. The content was very good ! Your other vids are spot on . Please forgive me . Skip
"Real Machinists" will do what anyone should" Don't really care about the measurements, just use the video as a foundation to build their own work upon. (and hopefully will credit the creator when/if they post what they make online)
Watch the other videos, especially my second video where I referring exactly to this. This was my first video with not many tools on hand. I now have proper scribers and a centre punch.
It seems really nice. My lathe is not nice. His seems nicer. Unless he used a nicer lathe to make one like mine the little red Harbor Freight one nicer. Looked like he had a power cross feed. That would be nice. And a Four jaw Chuck. That would be nice too. I think the four jaw from Micro lathe or some such place.
You mean at the beginning of the video? That was to illustrate how sticky the compound slide spindle is due to it's not existing bearing. Even with the complete loose gibs (that's why it wiggles like crazy) the spindle gets stuck because of misalignment and no proper seating. Lubricration was missing, yes.
@@WeCanDoThatBetter These ball bearings are for the axial forces. Regularly, lathes have a plain bearing just right to that ball bearing for the radial forces. They go together.
@@dazedandconfused3682 Thanks, yes it was not good from factory. I used a ball bearing for the radial forces and two axial needle bearing for the axial forces. Now everything should be covered :)
Please do not take this as a negative comment, but it makes me wonder why people buy those things(mini lathes) at all! better made smallish lathes are produced and are quite accurate and not too expensive either. It would frustrate the hell out of me if I bought a new product only to find I had to modify it to use it for the task it was designed to do...i got better things to do with my time...
Thanks for your comment! You are totally right. Through youtube I made modifying this lathe to its main task. If I had to do serious work on a lathe, I would probably go with another machine as you said, the time it takes to make it work is too much.
You should have remanufactured the entire shaft as it is really out of true, it was wobbling badly when you had it in the lathe. The hole wasn't even in the centre.
I adjusted the spindle to run true to the threaded part. Surprisingly the mounting end wobbled like crazy when the threaded part runs true. Some day I have to change the spindle to an acme type.
И это рукожопство ты называешь "сделать лучше"? Это шутка такая? Когда измерения выполняются даже не инструментом, а пальцами? Одиннадцать минут бесполезного видео...
LOL.....oh you people, by the time you finish ïmproving" all those bits that are total rubbish you will have a new lathe........if you decided to sell this lathe for a better one you would have to get double or more than you originally paid for it which makes your labour costs approx 10 cents an hour..........LOL, your union is letting you down on those rates. Can you now understand how/why the Chinese are selling these machines for such a low price?
Which better lathe, for a beginner, at a similar upfront cost, with easy accessibility, reliable parts availability, and decent backup from the seller, would you suggest? We don't all live in a country where you find well-cared-for, inexpensive, South Bend's at every garage sale you wander into or with an importer as good as Precision Matthews. Secondhand lathes outside the US are fewer and further between, and so the chances of unknowingly buying scrap metal are much greater. No beginner should have scraping their ways as a first project. You can learn a lot and have a lot of creative fun upgrading a Chinese mini-lathe to where it's usable for hobbyist work. Still and all, you and your 'real' lathe owning mates carry on waving your big-boy dicks around. We'll just ignore you and keep on having fun.
I've watched a million youtubes on mini lathe upgrades, and get annoyed/depressed when they always use a mill, which I don't have. You make this stuff with just the lathe and drill-press, which is all most people have when they first get a lathe. This is much more relatable to me. Well done.
Thank you very much for your kind comment!
I read your comment after letting out a deep sigh of "dang, I don't even own a metal file or hacksaw, let alone a drill press". It makes me wonder if ever getting into hobby machining will remain a fever dream for me. 😐
@@TheBipolarBearyou’ll get there, keep you head up and keep chipping away at your dream. I started with cheap hand tools then used those tools to make better tools or fix tools up I brought at garage sales. Accumulation of anything including skills and knowledge is a process of which takes time. I believe in you! Now go and get it!👍🏼
But it's ridiculous to mark things with a precision tool and then cut with Caveman hack saw.
actually one can get mill for 1000€/$ now.
Great video and design. I love the absence of music, just the machining sounds. Which is very illustrative too because the sounds tell a lot of how a machine is functioning.
Lovely filed facets on the extension block!
Thank you for your kind comment! Happy to hear, you like it :)
Nice job.. but the noise from the bench drill needs Fixing too
It's criminal you don't have more subscribers, this content is awesome.
Thank you very much! Happy to hear
Enjoy watching your videos - please keep making them. One of the things I like about them is making everything on the mini-lathe.
Thank you very much! Happy to hear, you like it! :)
When I bought me mini lathe the first thing I realised had to go were the solid handles on the cross slides and replace them with longer ones with rotating sleeves, the simplest of jobs which require no description. So I am slightly bemused when every time I see a video about mini lathes and their modifications, there are the original handles! An challenge for every mini lathe owner.
Thanks for your comment. Yes you can change this easily and perhaps some day I'll do that too. But at the moment there are other things which bother me more on this lathe than the handles. For fine adjusting I actually find the fixed handles even more convenient than the more slippery turning ones.
@@WeCanDoThatBetter OK. Best of luck with the other mods.
@@johnstonewall917 Thank you ;)
Hi there- just found your channel, and decided after one video to subscribe, and start from the beginning. Love to have a new back catalog of videos to go through- plus, I love the fact that it seems like you have just about the same stuff to work with, tool-wise, that I do. Keep these fantastic videos coming, and have a great week.
Thank you so much for your kind comment and feedback and for having subscribed to my channel! Happy to hear, you like my work. All the best!
I really enjoy your videos on the mini lathe. Please keep them coming.
Thank you very much! I really do appreciate it.
Don't worry about "real machinists" if it works, it works. Thanks for sharing.
:D thank you Sir! That's what I think too :)
I did a similar mod to my compound a while ago. Including the thrust bearing is a must on these little lathes.
Yes, it improves the compound a lot. Before the handle on mine hardly moved when trying to turn
I did a similar mod to mine about two years ago with the two thrust bearings. However I found a large part of the play was the compound leadscrew. You can see it 8:31. They're a very poor fit so I made a whole new leadscrew with a woodruff key to lock the dial to the leadscrew.
I have done the same mod but I used round socket head for the capping bolt. So much better for your knuckles!
Good idea!
Turned out looking pretty good, in the end.
Thank you very much!
Great idea and an excellent job, to improve my mini-lathe, which is one of my many hobbies, thanks.
Thank you!
Nice work both practical and great looking
Awesome work , looks really good, thanks for sharing
Thank you very much!
Great video, you did an awesome job with simple tools!
Thanks a lot! Really appreciate that :) I try my best with limited equipment :)
Also you need to take a thin piece of cotton cloth and make a large ring just to keep chips out of the roller bearing .
And with the cloth it will wick the oil to keep bearings lubed 👍👍
That's a good idea, thank you!
Ihre Idee ist sehr gut Sir
Dankeschön! :)
Hi friend. Your videos are excellent! Thank you for sharing. Regards from Brazil!
Thank you so much. Happy to hear :)
What size bearings did you use, please. I want to copy yours. Thanks.
Actually, your work is like a cross of Green Beetle and This Old Tony with a bit of Clickspring in the mix as well.
Haha, thanks my friend!
Except he don't explain anything.
It's like watching a movie without sound.
You get to make up your own story.
@@tonycstech The sound comes from the machinery. I think what he's doing is self-explanatory when it's shown as clearly and as close-up as he does.
Excellent content, are there plans for the upgrades you built?
Excellent work
Thanks my friend! :)
Hey mate which lathe mc u r using?
Awesome awesome awesome! Thank you
:) Thanks for your kind comment!
Nice Job! That is a good solution! You still have to sort out the slop on the compound slide dovetails - Are you going to tackle that in a future video?
Thank you very much! You mean taking out the slop by scraping the compound in? I consider this for a future episode, yes. But have still a few things missing which are necessary for scraping :)
@@WeCanDoThatBetter Yep. That and checking the gib - there are always problems with the factory compound gib.
What brand or type of inserts do you use? What shank size is the tool as well
Well done
Thanks!
I did this to my Warco wm180 and if you leave the Aluminium a rectangle there might be room to add a depth stop.
Your drillbit is dancing well 😂😂
I realize this is an old video but do you have a material and part list for the conversion?
Nice idea and workmanship.
Subscribed.
Answer to page 6.14 do you know what an edge finder and center drill are? Look it up if you are interested.
Thank you very much! :) Yeah, that was no good idea for drilling. That's why I had to redo the part and ordered a proper center punch an scribing needle to mark the correct positions before drilling the new parts (in part 2 video, I show and used them already). Center drill is a good idea!
Hi There, What size are the trust bearings, please??
I just found your channel and really enjoy the projects and the way you present/make/edit. Do you think that this modification would shorten the travel of the compound?it seems like it may shorten it by the depth of the block behind the wheel?
Thanks for your comment! This modification didn't shorten the travel of the coumpound slide as the aluminium block I made is exactly as wide as the round bearing block which came from factory.
@@WeCanDoThatBetter that makes sense. Many thanks for the reply.
What kind of lathe is it, type, size? I'm also waiting for an upgrade...
Thanks.
You have me an idea about something else.
Being I have the same size lathe, and issue, could you share the parts list of bearing and where you got them to save me time in researching. I've been looking for something like this and yours is the most practical.
Thanks!
Excellent content here. New subscriber!
Thank you very much! :)
Woah woah woah... how'd you fill the old holes? I must know!
Hey, you mean in the upper casting of the compound slide (at 9:44)? The old crooked holes were for M5 screws. I drilled them to 5mm and tapped them with an M6 tap. Now I put some two component adhesive in the holes and screwed a piece of brass round stock with M6 thread onto it into each hole. I left them a bit longer to grip them with pliers to screw them firmly in. In the end I cut the excess end off, cleaned the surface on the lathe and bored two new holes in the right position but now I went for M4 threads as they were smaller and fit better to the overall design. Hope that helped:)
I don’t want to spoil the party but you should use plenty of lube when tapping. It makes it easier, prevents breaking a tap and helps keep the tap sharp. Half the videos I see no lubricant being used while the truth is , you can’t use too much.
Stainless button head Allen screw for the handle. Cheers!!
very nice job but i would have put a nice chrome dome stud instead of a cap bolt
Thanks for your comment! That's a very good point. It's really annoying to bump your knuckles on the sticking out bolt. I changed it already in the meantime to a dome stud as you said. You can see it in the later videos. On the cross slide I haven't changed it yet but planning to do. That's a very good idea, thanks
If you sold these as a kit for cross and compound, I'd buy one
id take one also, Great Video.
Why 2 needle roller bearings?
Hi to absorb the forces in both directions. When screwing in and screwing out the support. One axial needle bearing can only hold forces in one direction, therefore I need two of them. Hope that helps :)
Por favor en donde puedo conseguir que cojinetes se usan y las medidas de la pieza de aluminio lindo video gracias
Is there a reason you use LH boring bars and run the lathe in reverse? I'm curious if it's simply what you had so that's what you use, or if there was a deliberate choice to do so. Just trying to understand as I start trying to tool up my own mini lathe. Thanks!
Hi, it was simply what I had :) Sometimes it is useful to have a left hand boring bar, as you can see a little bit better what's going on, but here it wasn't necessary.
great vids buddy
Thank you my friend! :)
Hey, what pen is that you're using to layout on the aluminum at the beginning? I like it.
awesome!, please, can you tell us the bearings you are using in this video?, i'm trying to make the same improvements you was done on these chinese lathe.
Hi, thank you. I have to look it up which bearing I used.
Joli travail je suis fan
Vídeo top Aqui do Brasil 🇧🇷
Have you tried adjusting tightening the Compound gib? It seems to be very loose at the start of the video. I'm enjoying you content so far.
Hi thanks for your comment :) That's for illustration purposes that the compound is so loose in the beginning of the video. Even with absolutely loose gibs the compound gets stuck because of the way the spindle is mounted. With the bearings installed the compound it's much much better and even with tight gibs the compound can be moved easily.
Super.
Thank you!
I want to do this upgrade to my mini lathe. Did you draft up any plans with the dimensions?
Not yet, but I consider to.
my buddy's and my Grizzly G8688's are .15 different across :o another worthy upgrade is replacing the compound with a solid block if you don't turn tapers often
@@pauls5745 I plan on making a plinth just waiting on materials to arrive.
What bearings did you use?
is your cross slide nut stock?
You mean the brass nut on the compound slide? It's not a stock part. I made it on the lathe and made a video on it. You find the link in the discription of this video. Answered this your question?
You can rough cut aluminum using carbide wood blades and a power saw, no need for hand sawing.
At this time, I had no powersaw, so handsawing was the only way...
WOW ! I send 1500 like, from Brazil
Thank you very much!
It would be good if you gave the sizes and type of bearings you used, please and thank you :-)
I have to look it up. I consider to offer plans in some way.
Well done. Now if I could just find a compound slide to fit my Unimat DB/SL...
think that would take it up past its centre line i'll look at mine tomorrow or you may have to have a z bracket made up ?
I need this. That slide is janky.
Можна узнать скока вам лет ??
What mini lathe brand is that? Chinese one?
Artec was the german reseller.
@@WeCanDoThatBetter So is it rebranded?
@@superkas Yes I think. In germany this machine is selled as Sieg C2 from different retailers. They look all the same and probably came from the same factory in china.
@@WeCanDoThatBetter Nice, thank you!
I am sorry ! I did not intend to slam you . I just want .you to be safe . That unsecured part you were drilling scared me ! That s all. The content was very good ! Your other vids are spot on . Please forgive me . Skip
Thanks my friend;)!
👍👍👍
"Real Machinists" will do what anyone should" Don't really care about the measurements, just use the video as a foundation to build their own work upon. (and hopefully will credit the creator when/if they post what they make online)
When you have a noga indicator holder but have to use a nail as a centrepunch and scriber
Edit: you have a quntumike, but no centre punch??
Watch the other videos, especially my second video where I referring exactly to this. This was my first video with not many tools on hand. I now have proper scribers and a centre punch.
It seems really nice. My lathe is not nice. His seems nicer. Unless he used a nicer lathe to make one like mine the little red Harbor Freight one nicer. Looked like he had a power cross feed. That would be nice. And a Four jaw Chuck. That would be nice too. I think the four jaw from Micro lathe or some such place.
Did anyone else see all the play in the compound slide and that there was no visible lube on any of the moving parts?
You mean at the beginning of the video? That was to illustrate how sticky the compound slide spindle is due to it's not existing bearing. Even with the complete loose gibs (that's why it wiggles like crazy) the spindle gets stuck because of misalignment and no proper seating.
Lubricration was missing, yes.
You'll need a plain bearing, too.
Where do you mean, a plain bearing is needed?
@@WeCanDoThatBetter These ball bearings are for the axial forces. Regularly, lathes have a plain bearing just right to that ball bearing for the radial forces. They go together.
@@WeCanDoThatBetter It's the manufacter's fault. It should have one.
@@WeCanDoThatBetter You have made it a lot better that it was before. The mechanism wasn't right from the start.
@@dazedandconfused3682 Thanks, yes it was not good from factory. I used a ball bearing for the radial forces and two axial needle bearing for the axial forces. Now everything should be covered :)
Please do not take this as a negative comment, but it makes me wonder why people buy those things(mini lathes) at all! better made smallish lathes are produced and are quite accurate and not too expensive either. It would frustrate the hell out of me if I bought a new product only to find I had to modify it to use it for the task it was designed to do...i got better things to do with my time...
Thanks for your comment! You are totally right. Through youtube I made modifying this lathe to its main task. If I had to do serious work on a lathe, I would probably go with another machine as you said, the time it takes to make it work is too much.
You should have remanufactured the entire shaft as it is really out of true, it was wobbling badly when you had it in the lathe. The hole wasn't even in the centre.
I adjusted the spindle to run true to the threaded part. Surprisingly the mounting end wobbled like crazy when the threaded part runs true. Some day I have to change the spindle to an acme type.
A bit of wd40 works wonders when milling or cutting aluminium.
That's right, thanks .)
Your lack of under standing on how a center punch works is failing you also drilling and taping loose items . Good luck and stay safe !
Thanks for your comment. I've learned a lot since then and now have other equipment.
Malheureusement sa nous prend un Tour-a-métaux pour améliorer notre Mini-tour a métaux j'ai pas sa voyer vous!!
no sound no way
Sad. But as a non english speaker I feel better not talking and just letting the work noises and images tell their stories.
Ahh...... using a precision bent nail as a scribe. Now that's a McGyver move rite there. Yeah I doubt you youngsters know who McGyver was 🤣
Haha :D Off course I've heard of McGyver :)
This is Dumb. The real problem here is the Backlash and no way to control it. But, the bearings will make it turn smooth.
Doesn't even know how to use a hacksaw properly 🙄🤣
И это рукожопство ты называешь "сделать лучше"? Это шутка такая? Когда измерения выполняются даже не инструментом, а пальцами? Одиннадцать минут бесполезного видео...
LOL.....oh you people, by the time you finish ïmproving" all those bits that are total rubbish you will have a new lathe........if you decided to sell this lathe for a better one you would have to get double or more than you originally paid for it which makes your labour costs approx 10 cents an hour..........LOL, your union is letting you down on those rates.
Can you now understand how/why the Chinese are selling these machines for such a low price?
Which better lathe, for a beginner, at a similar upfront cost, with easy accessibility, reliable parts availability, and decent backup from the seller, would you suggest?
We don't all live in a country where you find well-cared-for, inexpensive, South Bend's at every garage sale you wander into or with an importer as good as Precision Matthews.
Secondhand lathes outside the US are fewer and further between, and so the chances of unknowingly buying scrap metal are much greater. No beginner should have scraping their ways as a first project.
You can learn a lot and have a lot of creative fun upgrading a Chinese mini-lathe to where it's usable for hobbyist work.
Still and all, you and your 'real' lathe owning mates carry on waving your big-boy dicks around. We'll just ignore you and keep on having fun.
when you watched Russian UA-camr,taught do it like professional.