20 Best Mini Lathe Upgrades And Improvements

hey everyone and welcome back if you've seen my videos before you may know that my import mini lathe is a really capable machine not only is it able to turn ferrous metals but it can also make some really great parts i've used it almost daily for two and a half years and it's still going really well however to get to this point i did need to make some modifications to the lathe so in this video i thought i'd show you all the upgrades i've done over the past two and a half years some of these upgrades i've done here on the channel and i'll link those videos below in the description and others i'll be showing here for the first time so the first thing i'd recommend is bolting the lathe down to a workbench the first benefit is you do gain a bit of rigidity doing this and you certainly will notice that when turning parts you'll also see an improvement in the service finish i'd also encourage bolting your lathe down to a bench because having a 50 kilo machine that can easily move around is a huge safety issue so all you have to do is drill four holes in your workbench and use the four threaded holes on your lathe to securely fasten it it's super easy to do all you need are some m8 bolts the second upgrade i recommend is getting a quick change tool post these lathes typically come with a four-way tool post which limits you to using tools that are eight millimeters or less in height a quick change tool post allows you to use bigger size tools and also allows you to quickly change your tools in a matter of seconds you won't necessarily get better parts but from an ease of use perspective they are certainly worth it now there are a lot of different models out there to choose from originally i bought an aluminium one for thirty dollars a lot of people don't like them but this one worked just fine for me for over a year and a half and i only stopped using it when i struggled to machine steel with it the more popular models tend to be made from steel and they use a sliding dovetail mechanism to lock the tool holder but they tend to be a lot more expensive alternatively you can make one in-house i made one using only the lathe and about ten dollars worth of aluminium and that worked just fine i since replaced it with a steel version that i made on the mule using about six dollars worth of steel and they work just fine either way it doesn't matter how you get one a quick change tool post is a worthwhile upgrade for any lathe the next upgrade i'd recommend will be to get some new hand wheels for the top slide and cross slider the design seems to vary between brands and models but the most common ones are a fixed one-piece handle which is very uncomfortable to use now everyone has their own design and i kept mine simple i turned down a 20mm thick piece of acrylic i then turned down a handle and drilled the center out and added a taper to it the handle is then bolted to the hand wheel and a nut prevents the bolt from unscrewing it's a really simple design but it works really well i've seen people add bushings to this handle but i've kept it really simple and the wear is really minimal there are many different designs that work i also replace the top slide handle it's the same design but i added a small brass sound off that helps stabilize the power feed and the power feed is just a recycled chuck key that i've put in a cordless drill overall this is an essential mod it's super quick and easy to do and will make using the lathe so much more enjoyable upgrade number four would be a carriage lock this is a very useful mod when you need to face large diameter stock and you need to get a constant depth of cut and a good finish without one the carriage tends to be pushed back when turning and you tend to get a very inconsistent cut now adding one is very simple you get some bar stock of steel and cut it and file it down so it fits in the gap in the carriage you then bolt that piece of metal to the carriage a piece of metal is then made that can fit between the wides you can use a mill for this or you can use a file when that is done you add a hex headed screw and you tighten it when you need to lock the carriage the resulting carriage lock gives you much better cuts and it allows you to make precise cuts using the top slider overall is a great addition i used a drill press for this but i've seen people do it with just a cordless drill for full breakdown there's a link in the description to my video on it the next upgrade i'd recommend are slide locks they lock the slide in place adding rigidity and prevent backlash pushing the tool away from the part adding them is really simple i drilled a hole in between the grub screws and i tapped the hole for m5 i then got some m5 hex headed screws and screwed them in when i need to lock the slide in place i tighten the screw and it pushes up against the gib locking it in place i did this for both the top slide and cross slider overall it's a very quick and effective mod i used my mill to do it but i think you could easily do it with a drill press upgrade number six would be to change the carriage retainer strips they have a very critical role in keeping the carriage on the lathe and the factory design does a very poor job of this they use an odd adjusting mechanism using grub screws to set the height and this is very difficult to adjust properly and if they aren't properly adjusted the carriage can easily lift up when turning parts another issue is that the strips are made from cast iron and can easily crack and split in half i made a replacement on the mill a slot was cut on one side and the strips were shimmed to the correct height they need to be up pressed against the underside of the ways but not so tight that the carriage can't move and the difference in cutting performance was really noticeable and 100 worth it the only downside is for this mod you do need a mill or router to cut the slot which may prevent a lot of people from being able to do it however if you have a mule i really encourage you to do this the next upgrade i'd recommend would be to add a solid tool post all that you need to do is replace the compound with a solid piece of metal that is the same height as the compound this is done because you lose a lot of rigidity with the compound and since i don't cut tapers all that often i was very happy to remove it i made mine using the mill but you could easily do it on the lathe and drill press for about four dollars worth of aluminium or seal it makes a really big difference in cutting ability and on a mini glaive you need all the rigidity that you can get overall it's certainly worthwhile especially if you don't use the compound all that often improvement number eight would be to get a new chuck this lathe came with a three-jaw 80mm scroll chuck and i happily used it for over eight months before upgrading it worked just fine but the jaws are really poorly machined and it's very crunchy to use thankfully 80 millimeter chucks are really inexpensive i bought a four jaw scroll chuck for about 70 dollars and the difference is just night and dark the action is so much smoother and the run out is about 50 percent better at around 50 or so microns overall it's not an essential upgrade but i certainly recommend it i also picked up an independent 4 jaw chuck it's really good for getting low run out but i really use it mainly because of the time it takes to dial in a part and 50 microns of runout is pretty acceptable for most of the stuff that i do upgrade number nine would be to get a new motor and it's a very common upgrade to do depending on the exact model and brand the motors typically come either brushed or brushless and they're between 350 and 700 watts my lathe for example came with a brushed 350 watt motor and it was very underpowered and had a very unreliable controller which blew and that's a very common issue with these lathes now i've seen people fit treadmill motors and sewing machine motors but i went for a drill press motor the drill press motor runs on ac power so it is fixed speed so i use pulleys to step up and down the rpm but because the motor has very little electronics very little can go wrong with it the motor also delivers a lot of torque even though it's only rated for about half a horsepower there are many different ways of doing this upgrade all of them have their own advantages and disadvantages but they are all certainly worthwhile because it allows you to take much heavier cuts in materials the next upgrade i'd recommend will be to change the spindle bearings from the factory these lathes use plain ball bearings which do not cope well with the axial forces generated by turning now i used the stock bearings for two years and by the end it was clear that they were wearing out there was increased chatter by the end so i had to reduce my depth of cart i replaced the bearings with 30 206 taper roller bearings although you can also use 7 206 angular contact bearings to replace the bearings you will need to take the headstock apart and a press and bearing puller will be really useful here but you can easily do it with a vise a hammer and some pieces of wood i've linked a full breakdown in the description the new bearings were a huge improvement as they reduce the amount of chatter i get from turning and as a result i can take much deeper cuts in steel now every few months i will need to re-grease them but the improvement certainly makes up for them at twenty dollars per bearing it certainly is a worthwhile upgrade the next upgrade i'd recommend would be to get new gib strips a very common problem is they are bent from the factory and they have a very poor surface finish this prevents you from properly adjusting the gibbs resulting in the slides lifting under load you can buy replacements made from brass for about thirty dollars or you can make them if you have a mill for about a third of the cost now technically you should be making them from a bearing bronze but in a pinch brass works just fine for this application and considering that bearing bronze is a lot harder to find in my part of the world and a lot more expensive i'll be sticking with the brass ones for the moment the brass ones do a fantastic job it's much smoother than before and i can probably adjust the gibbs resulting in a much more rigid setup it certainly is a worthwhile upgrade a more recent upgrade that i've done is to add a lever locking mechanism to the tower stock a lot of mini lathes nowadays have them as standard but a lot of seed branded ones still come with a nut locking mechanism it's really cumbersome to use and it takes substantially longer to lock and unlock the tail stock compared to the lever action furthermore the standard nut that it comes with is so thin that it has a tendency to strip the threads on the locking stud now i have a full breakdown of the upgrade linked below the only downside of my upgrade is you do need a mill to do it so i've also linked some examples that don't require a mill overall it's a worthwhile upgrade especially if you need to use the tail stock a lot it's not a quick upgrade it does require the use of a mill but it is certainly worthwhile another upgrade that i did to the tail stock was some rudimentary scraping i added some alcohol marker on the ways and it shows very little contact between the waves and the tower stock base it's a bit crude but i used a scalpel to remove the high spots to allow more of the tail stock to make contact with the wigs now one day i'd like to do proper scraping with a proper surface plate but until then i'll take small improvements where i can overall it's a really quick mod but i can certainly feel an improvement when moving the tail stock on the waves upgrade number 14 is to add a cover to the gear train in the apron it's exposed and it faces the workpiece and chips and dust can easily gum up the gears the solution is pretty simple i trace the shape of the apron onto a piece of paper i then cut the paper template out and use spray adhesive to glue it onto some one millimeter sheet steel i formed the sheet steel into the right shape by hand using some tin snips and some files it was then clamped and several holes drilled and tapped to bolt the cover to the apron with that done it was reassembled and since then i've had zero issues with chips getting caught in the gear trainer it's a really simple and effective mod and i really recommend it the next upgrade i'd recommend will be to add some oiler ports to help you add oil into hard to access parts on your lathe i recommend buying button oilers but i integrated my oilers into existing holes that i have made for other lathe attachments the holes allow me to use an oiler to add new oil into the slides in the future when i buy some button oilers i will be adding one into the tail stock if you use the lead screw a lot i'd also recommend oil reports in the bushings however since i really use the lead screw i'm in no rush to add them i also use the factory carriage lock port for oiling the cross slide nut hole can also be used to add oil to the cross slide nut the next upgrade i'd recommend would be a fix for the top slider if you've used the top slide before you might notice that the dial jams when you turn the dial in a clockwise direction this occurs because the flange on the lead screw is constrained on only one side so when you turn the lead screw clockwise the spacer pushes up against the dial and jams it to add a constraint on the other side i'll use this piece of 20mm bar stock i filed it to fit within the dovetail and i marked the center of where the lead screw was i then drilled a 10 millimeter hole and opened it up using a round file i then drilled a hole and tapped it for m5 the bolt was able to hold the metal so well that i cut away the excess on the other side enough so the cube could be inserted with the constraint added the lead screw should be able to spin freely but should have minimal forwards and backwards movement finally i swapped the spacer for a much smaller one so i wouldn't push up against the dial and the upgrade worked really well i did lose about 18 millimeters of travel in the top slide and i know there are certainly more compact designs out there but since i rarely use the top slide this simple and quick fix really suited me one day i might revisit it but for the moment this design works just fine the next upgrade is pretty simple it's a spring underneath the tail stock it keeps the locking stud locked down so when you move it around it doesn't get caught it's really simple but it makes a huge difference upgrade number 18 is to level your tail stock from the factory the tail stock tends to be angled slightly down the result is especially noticeable when you use long twist drills the drill will seem to lift up when you're drilling the fix is really simple get some shim stock and shim underneath the tail stock it's a really easy fix and it will bring the tool post parallel with the center of the spindle upgrade number 19 was a complete remake of the cross slider this was a really big project but the increase in rigidity due to using a higher tensile material an increase in mass at least compared to the cast iron cross slide and the addition of t slots makes this my favorite upgrade you do need a mill and several specialized cutters but you only need about ten 10 worth of raw stock i'll link the build video below and i think it's certainly worth checking it out upgrade number 20 is a little bit controversial and that is lapping the slides the finish from the factory of the sliding surfaces was pretty poor so i used some compound to lap the surface i wasn't aiming for a mirror finish but i did notice some improvement in the slides since then i've gone back and done some rough scraping similar to what i showed before the scraped surface should better allow for oil to lubricate the surfaces though one day i would really like to go back and use a surface plate and some proper scrapers to finish the job overall it wasn't a quick process but i certainly noticed a big improvement and there we have it these are all the mods that i've done over the past two and a half years and i still have a few more to do but i've done most of the major ones and i really couldn't be happier with the outcome realistically speaking this is the largest lathe i can fit in my workshop and i'm really happy with the parts that it can produce i hope you enjoyed this one if you have any other suggestions i'd really like to hear from you i hope you learned something and maybe take something away from this video maybe to put on your own lathe and with that thank you very much for watching see in the next one

Channel: Artisan Makes

Views: 755,726

Keywords: mini lathe, lathe, mini lathe mod, mods, mini lathe upgrades, mini lathes improvements, upgrade a mini lathe, fix issues on a mini lathe, import mini lathe, sieg c3, 7x14 mini lathe, fix a mini lathe, mini lathe upgrades and improvements, sieg mini lathe, sieg c3 upgrades, mini lathe mods, diy mini lathe, lathe upgrades, make a mini lathe better, change a mini lathe, harbour freight, chinese mini lathe, cheap mini lathe, best mini lathe, carbide, turning, metal lathe

Id: YVkWQLbPo60

Length: 18min 37sec (1117 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021