Is A $600 Mini Lathe Worth It - 2 Year Review

G'day everyone. I have been fortunate enough to have this mini lathe, which I have used almost daily for the past two years. I think the question on everyone's mind is how good can a $600 mini lathe be. I certainly had expectations, coming from using a Hafco lathe that was 10 times the size of this one, but I can say that I have had a great time using this lathe, through the highs and lows.

This lathe is a 350w brushed DC motor, 7x14 mini metal lathe made by sieg. The motor has been replaced for many of the shots with a 390w AC induction motor, but the cutting ability is very comparable to the stock motor.

This is the lathe made by Sieg, but it is very similar to the ones sold by harbor freight, grizzly and the generic metal worker. I have used this lathe for over 2 years to machine and fabricate many projects and parts, from pens, bolts and even a model steam engine.

This is my Mini Lathe Review.

Cheers

Timecodes
00:00 - Overview
03:04 - Mini Lathe Variations
04:10 - Overall Specs And Work Area
07:13 - Facing Parts And Carriage Lock
08:06 - Spindle Run Out And Chucks
09:56 - Tailstock
11:34 - Bed And Ways
12:09 - Carriage
13:30 - Cross Slide
15:11 - Leadscrew, Thread Cutting And Change Gears
17:21 - Power Feed
18:44 - The Motor
20:45 - Cutting Ability And Quality Of Parts
21:57 - Reliability
23:50 - Final Thoughts

#machining #lathe #review

[artisanmakes]

Time Stamps
00:00 - Overview
03:04 - Mini Lathe Variations
04:10 - Overall Specs And Work Area
07:13 - Facing Parts And Carriage Lock
08:06 - Spindle Run Out And Chucks
09:56 - Tailstock
11:34 - Bed And Ways
12:09 - Carriage
13:30 - Cross Slide
15:11 - Leadscrew, Thread Cutting And Change Gears
17:21 - Power Feed
18:44 - The Motor
20:45 - Cutting Ability And Quality Of Parts
21:57 - Reliability
23:50 - Final Thoughts

[StuffMadeHere]

I had one of these for a while and it was surprisingly capable for the price, but if you're looking for a lathe I think you can do a lot better for 1.5-2x the price. I ended up selling my mini lathe and getting a larger lathe for a bit over $1000 and was vastly superior. Some of the nice things: twice the weight, twice the power, larger, stiffer, much less cramped, higher quality controls, metal gears, a real half nut for threading, a thread dial, power feed, etc. If you can handle the higher price I'd recommend looking one level up - you will end up with a much better machine that will allow you to make more things, faster and happier.

[podoclaste]

I have one of these, am taking it apart, fine tuning it one step at a time and learning along the way. You mentioned the affordability but I'd say it's this kind of quality and witty videos that make this hobby possible. Thank you.

[richmac]

Thank you for this most in depth review. I haven't used a lathe in 40 years but I do remember all the great things you can do with them and would love to have one. Problem is I don't have a lot of room in my workshop so one of these mini lathes looked like the perfect fit. Glad to hear that these are capable of making decent quality parts.

[victorcroasdale]

Hi, great video.
I have had the Grizzly G0765 version for about 18 months now. It comes with aluminium alloy handwheels, both centres and a fixed steady, but not a drill chuck or live centre.The handwheels all have dials. I bought a 100 mm 4 jaw chuck and made an adapter plate.
I know from UK mags (Model Engineer and Model Engineers Workshop) that these lathes are available in the UK with either metric or imperial leadscrews and handwheel dials. In the US, where I live, only imperial is available.
Cutting steel, I'm a hobbyist, I'm not running a production shop. It makes steel swarf quite fast enough.
The gears in the headstock are plastic and I have stripped them when a tool dug in. Metal replacements are available but the plastic ones are less than $10 (US) each, a lot cheaper than a new electronic board!
I also have a Toyo ML 210 lathe (similar is size and quality to the Sherline) so I also bought MT 3-1 and MT 2-1 sleeves to enable the use of its attachments on the Grizzly.
I'm a retired professional engineer. In my younger days I was an engineering officer in the British Merchant Navy and I got my shoreside experience at John G Kincaid. They had a lathe about 40ft long for turning propeller shafts, and one with about a 12 ft center height for turning 65 ton crankshafts!

[randyshaffersr.]

I’ve had that exact model in the auto restoration shop for 10 years ! It’s made a ton of drag racing parts and restoration parts ! Never had to do anything other than maintenance.

[lukearts]

This is THE most interesting, detailed and complete review of a mini-lathe on YouTube! With this video as effective user's manual, I'm sure new users will get a lot more out of their lathe than they would've without the knowledge you shared! Thanks!

[dozerboy]

Thank you for this very thorough and well thought out review! I have been procrastinating for years now on my decision to jump into a mini lathe, because there just isn’t enough information out there in easily understood format. Good on ya mate! I enjoyed listening to your accent too, my younger sister lives in Albany, Western Australia, and so I miss hearing you Aussies! Cheers mate, from Northern California! 🙏💪🙌🤘🤘

[pcrengnr]

Thx for this review. You showed these lathes in their truest light. These lathes beat the pants off hands down over a homemade lathe. For small part these lathes shine nicely. Try to get one with the two speeds. That allows you to keep the motor RPMs up while having higher spindle torque and lower speed. After you tune these little guys up they are great. Don't think you are going to turn a lawn mower crankshaft quickly but they will actually do the job but it takes patience.

A few things to upgrade that weren't covered. Change the fuse out for a breaker. Nothing is more frustrating than blowing a fuse and finding out that you don't have any more fuses. Don't go down to the auto parts store and use one of those fuses, they don't have the voltage rating to interrupt the current of a 100+ volts supply. They will catch on fire, explode; spraying glass everywhere. It will probably destroy the fuse-holder.

If your electronic board fails consider a Harbor Freight Router dimmer followed by a 200V or 400V 10A Full Wave Rectifier. The downside is you lose some lower speed torque but it'll still run and the fix is cheap.

All in all, within the size limitation of the parts that these lathes are capable of they are so much better than no lathe. If you need a bigger lathe stop your cryin and start your buyin. Hahaha.

Again thx for taking the time in sharing you review of these great little lathes.

[cackleberryfarm]

GREAT VIDEO!!! Thanks for taking the time to walk through so much of it!

[robertverschueren]

A very good review. It's like you say, you must make comprimase with the price, your skills, the place of your workspace, and the kind of work you wanna do with it. Thank you for sharing this.

[doc]

Thanks for the review - love my S3 but then, I'm a woodworker and love my wood lathe, too.

Thanks for taking the time to upload.

[billjackson]

Got one of these for a birthday gift a few years ago, the Harbor Freight version. Modifying and learning a little at a time.

[DodgyBrothersEngineering]

Great review. Nice to have a review from someone that actually knows what to look for in a lathe.

[YAhoraTu]

Thank you for this review, this is super helpful. I've been mulling over buying one of these for a while, some really good points there to think about and look out for.

[xcelsir]

This is one of the most detailed videos I've seen. Good work !

[szmyw]

Nice review. I got one of these 27 years ago (!), and it's still working. Except of the control board, this was a bit of a pain to replace and modify, but there are lots of DC cotroller on the marked. Thanks to 3D printing I printed some gears to cut other threads than the listed and yes - setting up the gears is sometimes really annoying. The middle gears are on a plain bearing and like to jam if I forgot to lubricate.

[barry]

Thanks my fellow Ozzie, that was very interesting and it may well be my entry level as well. I used to love lathe work at school and as a home handy man inventor it would be a real buzz. I'll be looking into it.

[shedmanx]

Great review. I bought one of these a couple of years ago from a Seig distributor in Dandenong, Victoria. I bought the upgraded machine with the starter pack that was very extensive, coming with a Jacobs Chuck, live centre, set of drills set of starter drills, tools, extra jaws for the Chuck, etc.
I bought it to make parts for my restorations which it has done fantastically for a newbie that had no idea what I was doing. I purchased the quick change tool post within a week and interchangeable carbide tools. It works great on aluminium, plastic and brass. It will cut steel but as you said, light passes are required.
I honestly can’t fault it. As long as you use it within its limitations, care for it and don’t abuse it, you’ll be happy. It has got me out of many a sticky situation when I’ve broken a part on a 100 year old piece under restoration and there are no spares you can purchase. 👍🇦🇺

[amanofmanyparts]

I bought one these lathes (second hand, but barely used) about a year ago. It has many small upgrades as it came from an importer that does that before sale. I haven't used it as much as intended, but it has allowed me to make a 3 way adapter for my 3" scale steam traction engine. More items will surely follow as I get more time on it. I would definitely recommend it as your first lathe, maybe the only one you ever need if your just making things in softer materials than steel of any flavour.