Toolpost Spindle from Banggood for the CJ0618 Mini Lathe

I need a toolpost spindle for the CJ0618 mini lathe for a couple of upcoming projects. Let's see if this one might work. Banggood sent it to me for free, to keep, but this assessment is my honest opinion. If you are interested in a spindle like this, check out this link. Using this link will help support my video making activities, and convince Banggood it was worth sending me the spindle:

I recently bought a new Chinese CJ0618 7x12 Mini Lathe, very similar to the classic Sieg C2 lathe which is sold under different names all over the world. I have a few plans for this lathe, but the main reason for buying it was to finally answer all the questions I get asking whether the Proxxon PD 250/e is worth the money, or if a Chinese lathe is a better deal.

In this video I work out whether this spindle is worth fitting to the lathe as a tool post spindle, and whether it's worth buying.

The links below will financially support this channel if you use them to buy stuff:

Machines:

Tools:

00:00 Introduction
00:10 Unboxing
00:49 Wiring it up
03:30 Powering on
03:58 Speed test
05:27 Accuracy check
07:09 Planning the mount
08:15 Conclusion

Edited with:
DaVinci Resolv 18.1.3
Audacity 3.1.3

Music:

[richardmeyer]

Nice to see you producing videos again, Alistair. I've been missing a number of the old YouTube content makers.

[artisanmakes]

Ive bought a few of these style motors over the years for various cnc routers and they all seem to be decent quality. The run out on mine was almost spot on what you got here. Interested to see where you go with this. Cheers

[brucematthews]

I'd been considering this same combination as a possible tool post grinder for more than a year now. Used as you're considering as a small points and small mounted wheels direct drive. And perhaps with some additional bracketry as a power unit for a pulley reduction to get down to use with 4 inch diameter wheels for external cylinder grinding on the lathe. I'll certainly be looking forward to your next part 2 video.

[Teklectic]

I actually have this same spindle installed on my 3D printed CNC router, it performs surprisingly well. I did find an issue with the collet that came with mine though where there was a sort of ridge inside the collet and when inserting tooling, only a small contact area was maintained on the tool. The result of this was that during a heavy cut the tool pulled out of the spindle and dug deeper and deeper into the work, eventually cutting through the work, the spoil board and one of my steel T-nuts. Amazingly, it didn't stall the motor or snap the tool.

[Dudley]

Looking forward to seeing what you get up to with that powered spindle 👍

[Mister_G]

Hi, I have the same spindle -

1) Be VERY careful of that power supply - it *isn't* isolated from the mains, so the motor leads and the control potentiometer leads are live (as your voltage detector picked up).

2) The bearings are rubber mounted and very small. You may get away with light grinding, but the spindle is too flexible for milling metal - it gets worse as the spindle warms up and the rubber softens.

3) It generates ferocious amounts of RFI, especially under load.

I did try and re-work the spindle to improve it, but ultimately it wasn't worth it IMHO - even with decent bearings, the shaft is too thin, and the bearing spacing too great to be able to make a stiff spindle. (Some pictures on my website). Having been through the loop, I'd strongly recommend starting with something better - I've now made my own spindle, just using this one as a drive motor (will put something on my website in the next week, or so to document this).

[TheKnacklersWorkshop]

Hello Alistair,
An interesting bit of kit... I am looking forward to seeing it in action in the future and also seeing how it performs over time.
Take care.
Paul, ,

[tonybarfield]

I love the videos you make. Can we see more of your new workshop in future videos,

[andrewdolinskiatcarpathian]

Excellent review. Thank you Alastair 👏👏👍😀

[gatorbite]

Thanks for the video I've been looking forward to any and all videos you put out.

[scorpionnz]

I have the same spindle and controller here in NZ . Tried it the other day on brass I needed to remove from an odd shape in lathe (not a full circle )
It worked better then my expectations

[TheRecreationalMachinist]

I'll be interested to see how you use this. Given the number of swarf collection holes inn the power supply, it'll need to be well away from the business end! 👍 🇬🇧

[glencrandall]

Too bad you could not show it in action. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂

[markrainford]

Nice freebie. You can fine tune the spindle speed with the pot on the PCB.

[Rustinox]

This could be interesting. I'm curious to see how well it preforms.

[imajeenyus]

These are really neat little spindles. There are also brushes spindles going around, same sort of overall configuration. I have one I got a good few years ago and use it a lot for polishing small parts. Mine happens to have a sensored brushless motor, so it has good torque even down to very slow speeds. Unfortunately can’t seem to find one again!

[quelixfenzer]

I have used cheap er11 collet chucks before with little success. The problem i ran into is not the translatory runout of the taper but instead the angular runout of your cutter that you get if the taper of the chuck doesn´t match the taper of the collet. If the angles don´t match you basicly have only a ring contact, wich centers the tool only translatory but doesn´t stop it from tilting. If the chuck isn´t hardened you might get away with remachining the taper, though i haven´t tried that yet. good luck with your tool quality

[joshuahuman]

I had one of those it gave me a lot of issues but I doubt that it’s going to be a problem for you. Just make sure you don’t load it too much I had the brush holder melt on mine.

[tomwhite]

Very decent price on this unit. Very much looking forward to see how it actually performs for you.

I really enjoy you ur videos. Are you going to post more on your shop build?

Take care.

[singaporeseaslugs]

Will you do an in-depth video on mini lathe electronics, electronic safety?