Lapping The Saddle Of The Mini Lathe. Episode 6

How to Correct The Poor Manufacturing Of The Mini Lathe Saddle, by Simple Lapping & bring it into Parallel with the Lathe Bed. A definite Must.
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[@nickchesshir6994]

Thanks for making this video. Going through your series about the mini lathe and is definitely getting me going in the right direction. Cheers!

[@TheAussieShed]

Cheers Nick, glad you're finding the series helpful.

[@thenet0120002]

Thanks for pointing out the problems with this lathe . I have one and i did not know where to begin . Mine had a list because it was a return . So i jumped in the deep end and learned. That being said i still like this mini lathe idea just that their manufacturing leaves a lot to be desired. It's a journey but if you have time it can do a good job once you've survived the battle.

[@Expedient_Mensch]

I was going to buy one of those, not expecting much, but much better than that.

[@gregdunne1192]

I like the approach to lapping the ways. I have the same problem with my mini lathe and intent to fix the problem thanks to your detailed information. Very helpful!

[@TheAussieShed]

Cheers Greg, Glad to be of help.

[@bhein67]

I have found this series to be very enlightening. I appreciate the information and the time you've taken to explain how you measured and the corrections required. The down side is now I need to tear my new lathe down and check many things....the end result will be worth it. Thank you so much for these videos. Cheers from Canada!

[@TheAussieShed]

Thankyou Sir.

[@oldfarthacks]

So true, you are going along all happy and then get gobsmacked by the thing that you hadn't considered.

[@drjwrg]

A tool I found useful for taking down the worst high spots on the underside of the ways is one for refacing the edges of skis. It has an adjustable right angle surface to the cutting surface (albeit plastic on my cheap version). I think it will take the really rough bits out prior to lapping. I enjoyed your videos please keep them coming.

[@eddietowers5595]

I have to say, your videos seem adventurous. As is with these Asian “Kit” lathes that need correcting, modding,and tuning up, out of the box. Yours is detailed, at length, which is awesome because it’s far better than watching anything on television, which is inundated with reality [trash] TV. And yours is like the feeling I had, as a kid, running home to watch This Ood House and New Yankee Workshop, but, kinda better because I too own metal lathes and milling machines, and a shop basement. Basically relating to your projects. Again, great content, nice detail, and awesome job.

[@TheAussieShed]

Thanks Eddie, pleasure to have you here.

[@theflyingdutchman787]

Thanks so much for the videos. I’m going to have to do the same. Great tip on the single sided lapping method. There are many on the internet lapping both sides with paste.

[@TheAussieShed]

My Pleasure.

[@nickoshana2246]

This video makes me sad! It confirms all the issues I was afraid I'd face buying this. Luckily this video shows fixes can be had. Thanks.

[@oldfarthacks]

It's all just good fun, a few seconds work and poof, you have it done. Well, perhaps minutes. ... Ok well hours, but still fun?

[@cri8tor]

What kind of glued did you use to adhere the emery cloth to the bed? Really appreciate the extra detail you go into when explaining the process of your work. Something can be missed when minor details don't seem important and are left out of a tutorial. Will be adding a video on the control assembly that I modified of this same lathe. Would like your feedback if you watch it. Cheers m8

[@JAYZWORKSHOP]

hi great videos. i brought a mini lathe 7 years ago i must been lucky did not need to much work to get it running great. or the quality has gone down over the years don't know. made tones of stuff on mine paid for its self over and over. must say like your milling setup very ingenious. Have subscribed all the best have a good day. Jace

[@TheAussieShed]

Thanks Jace, I think your right about the quality going down, some of the components of the older Mini Lathes even look Beefier. Cheers Mate.

[@jameshicks7125]

Thanks! This is very helpful. I just ordered a Vevor 7 x14" mini lathe on ebay. $325 new. I couldn't resist. I had a "Smithy 1200XL" Drill/mill/lathe combo. It was pretty decent, but I am starting over setting up a small machine shop. I am prepared that this lathe is going to have to be gone through with a fine tooth comb, tweaked, scraped, modified and adjusted. I know it will NOT be ready to go out of the box, should it arrive intact.

[@TheAussieShed]

Good Luck with it all Mate, Cheers.

[@lindsayfog5246]

no matter how you push down on the saddle to keep the underside flat, lapping always has a tendency for it to end up convex . relieving the middle of the v ways 0.02mm or so from flat can avoid rocking, leaving four points of contact and allows it to wear flat. test by pushing down on the right while yr indicator is set up on the left etc... saddles wear convex after a while and start chattering under load

[@TheAussieShed]

Thanks Lindsay, nice tip. Cheers.

[@DavidKutzler]

I stumbled across your channel recently and thoroughly enjoyed this series. I'm fairly new to machining, and I have had a 7 x 16 Chinese-made lathe for about a year now. Just based on the design, my lathe appears to have been made by the same company, but the manufacturing quality of my lathe seems better than what you're showing in your videos. It's a version of the Seig SC2 lathe, but it's imported and sold under the LittleMachineShop.com (LMS) label. It may be that LMS enforces contract obligations on Seig that specify higher manufacturing quality parameters. Yet, there are some things that I would like to improve on my lathe, and I look forward to following your progress.I subscribed and signed up for updates.

[@TheAussieShed]

Hi David, welcome aboard. I have only heard good things about The Little Machine Shop. I agree they must enforce a tighter quality control than what you see evidence of here. We do have the Sieg's here in Aus but they are quite costly compared to the Generic Models & from reports only marginally better. LMS for the Win it seems. Cheers.

[@oldfarthacks]

You bought from the right company, the Little Machine Shop people don't let the Chinese get away with what other companies do.

[@stevendevin6690]

Shouldn't you be measuring the parallelism up where the cross slide rides?

[@imetr8r]

You might have tried denatured alcohol as a lubricant to protect the adhesive. But, the elbow grease would not have diminished.

[@gangleweed]

Many, many, MANY years ago in the mid 60's I built a small micro lathe 50mm Centre height X 250mm between centres for model aero engine repair. The bed was made from a 50mm wide X 12mm thick piece of bright mild steel, surface ground all round etc. The combination of the steel bed and a Meehanite cast iron saddle wore well and even today, after 55 years of frequent use, the bed has not shown any scoring or wear...…..without Vees to worry about, the square section bed is the easiest format to make and maintain. One thing.....did you also make sure the crosslide vees were dead square to the bed otherwise you will get a concave or convex face to anything you face and you will have to do all that work again, but this time a re-machine of the saddle/bed vees would be needed. Looking at the design of the saddle and if everything went pear shaped you "could" make a new saddle from a slab of cold rolled steel as it would wear very well with the bed iron.....piece of cake with only one vee and a dovetail.

[@oldfarthacks]

Good point, make sure that all is square on something that you can't adjust into square. The tail stock plate he is working on can be made such that the squareness is adjustable, but the cross slide does need to have that V at exactly 90 degrees to the saddle ways.

[@pieterveenders9793]

It would be even better to apply Turcite to the saddle, blue the bed ways, print the saddle on it and scrape in the high spots that were dyed blue untill you have a nice and consistent blue print all over the contact areas of the saddle. Turcite is a teflon based product and thus ultra slick, although it's preferable to use it with oiled ways you could probably run it without lubrication just fine. And it being made of teflon it won't wear the bed ways whatsoever, instead the turcite itself will be the things that wears, so when after many years of use it's ready for replacement you just need to reapply new turcity to the saddle but the most important part of the bed, the ways will still be pristine!

[@mrskunk697]

As a person that’s attempting to do this on a 1900’s rahn Mayer carpenter lathe I completely understand the “being scared” comment. Once the part is messed up there is no going back for sure probably why this has taken me months lmaoo

[@allengentz7572]

Hi your videos are a great help as I too will embark on a similar undertaking

[@TheAussieShed]

Thanks Allen Cheers.

[@brucewilliams6292]

Thanks for putting the videos up. What kind of adhesive did you use to glue down the emery cloth down?

[@TheAussieShed]

My Pleasure Bruce, from memory it was 3M spray contact adhesive out of a rattle can. Cheers Mate.

[@brucewilliams6292]

@@TheAussieShed Brilliant. Thank you so much for responding. I looked for a follow up video on how it performed in the end; all good now?

[@gvet47]

Nice to see how you worked on your lathe but how many time will you have the saddle clear down on the tailstock end. On these short bed lathes you will probably never be but half way down to the tailstock at the far end.

[@TheAussieShed]

Yes that is true, but, the variation in thickness is a taper that existed opposing on both sides & the only real way for me to correct it is to remove the whole thing. Cleaning up the far end of the bed is purely just a function of the whole process. Cheers mate.

[@oldfarthacks]

@@TheAussieShed Once you have it apart, you might just as well go the whole way.

[@thechipwelder1253]

Good video! I am in the process of building a small metal lathe. How spent much time thinking about how to design the saddle. Nice to get some a closer view of yours. Great tips as well. I subscribed to your chanel! :)

[@warrenlemay9883]

I've found that Windex (ammonia based window cleaner in the US) works great with wet/dry abrasives and emery in lieu of WD40. I'm also a user of WD 40, but it does feed on adhesive and is pretty good at removing labels.

[@TheAussieShed]

That's a Great Tip Warren, thanks for that. Should work a treat for doing this. Cheers Mate.

[@warrenlemay9883]

Enjoying the series....thanks

[@oldfarthacks]

Good tip, something that will clear the cuttings out of the paper without attacking the glue.

[@MikefromMOMichaelTurner227]

Mike from mo. US here, ive been watching this vidio series,,nice work!! I picked a ms 210 laythe,,i thought for doin some hobby work,,,now this thing is the hobby..very upsetting on fit..as well you know how these ..things can be.😨,,anyway,,i was wondering what material did you use for saddle clamps? Mild steel or cast... and the scrapping..was it to help oil retention? Thank you for the vidios...i have lots of work ahead..nice to know im not alone 😊 keep up the good job, mike t.

[@WaxMeister]

What spray glue did you use to secure the emery paper to the ways?

[@TheAussieShed]

G'day Mate, nothing fancy just a basic general purpose spray adhesive. Cheers.

[@lendusaquid]

Is the saddle square? as in when facing will the face be convex or concave. Iam asking because my saddle is about 0.3 of a degree off square and my facing is convex.

[@TheAussieShed]

G'day Mate, no its not. Same problem here,,, Convex. I'm almost at the point to address those issues, as well as headstock alignment. Cheers.

[@philoso377]

Have we check is it square between saddle and bed way?

[@ActiveAtom]

Hi nice to be here, Lance & Patrick.

[@TheAussieShed]

Thanks Guys.

[@jamies3190]

Just curious about how the smooth surface is instead of scrapped

[@crazyfeller5704]

Great content

[@chrisrenaud4141]

What are your ideas about the gears? gonna stay with plastic?

[@oldfarthacks]

The Clough42 channel has what I consider to be the best fix for that, converting the drive to stepper motor driven. Cost is not unreasonable and it gives a lot of advantages. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIXWanqvnLeEY7c

[@64t120r]

I you have to do something like this again, use windex (window cleaner) instead of WD-40 for wet sanding. It lubricates and won't dissolve the glue for the tape.

[@TheAussieShed]

Thanks Mate, Great Tip.

[@64t120r]

@@TheAussieShed Thanks for the great videos.

[@jean3xyz]

Could we use very fine grinding paste to do the work?

[@TheAussieShed]

Hi Jean, I think you could but it would extend the time it takes to remove the material significantly. Better off to finish with the Paste.

[@andregarcia6454]

excellent video, very didactic!!!

[@TheAussieShed]

Thanks Andre

[@mitchstaff8281]

You are indicating a cast surface. You should be going by the slides right?

[@ericadams2055]

What grits did you use?

[@gvet47]

I see so much work being put into this type of lathe and other modifications to make it lasting. Would it be cheaper for someone purchasing new just to spend more for a better lathe?

[@TheAussieShed]

Hello. thanks for the comment, very hard question to answer. I guess for a lot of folks the answer would be yes, but that depends on many variables. If you have the money to spend on something better & aren't interested in pulling stuff down then sure, but you will need to spend substantially more to purchase something you wont need to touch at all. For me personally No, money is tight & I really enjoy pushing myself to see what I can do modifying all sorts of stuff. These can be really great little machines, but do require a lot of work to make them perform like a bigger proper lathe does. Beware though, you can pay a lot more cash for brand name versions of the same lathes, such as sieg etc, that still have all the same problems as I am highlighting here.

[@larryrobinson7492]

@gvet47 I have to agree. I had the 7x16 version from LMS around $1600 it seems like with DRO and everything. What an absolute unrigid piece of crap it was. I very soon sold it for half that and bought a 13x40 Grizzly Gunsmithing lathe. I have been very happy with it, no complaints for about 3 years now. I do get the fun to tinker with this stuff but my time is so limited I would rather spend it on tooling, etc.

[@robc8468]

Most bench lathes come from China or sometimes maybe Taiwan if you are lucky. There are virtually no affordable 8 or 9 inch lathes any longer made in the USA Europe or Japan. You might find a few widows out there who don't know what a high quality vintage lathe is worth but unlikely. A used Hardinge 9 inch precision lathe from the mid 1980s would cost about $6000 or more, a Vintage Logan or South Bend lathe in good condition could be around $2000 to $3000 or more. A used Craig's list lathe for less than $1000 would probably be worn out and would also likely need a lot of repair TLC and parts to be accurate again.

[@tomharrell1954]

Ok NO KANGAROOS WERE HARMED IN FILMING THIS MOVIE. But No Kangaroos were filmed while harming this episode !

[@01gian01]

ottimi consigli bravo

[@philoso377]

My lath needs to do the opposite. Lapping the V rail-way instead. I am afraid I also need to lap the under-way.

[@ryanr3618]

Can you make more mini lathe videos?

[@ryanr3618]

It'll cost more in materials and tools and measurement devices to fix this lathe than the lathe cost itself, assuming you don't already have this stuff in your shop. Speaking from experience.

[@adamkenworthy2421]

What grit Emery did you use? Great video btw, subbed 👍

[@TheAussieShed]

Hi Adam The blue stuff at the start was 120grit & the brown that I finished with was 240 grit. Thanks for subscribing, much appreciated, Cheers.

[@adamkenworthy2421]

Thanks mate. I used some 120 grit yesterday because there was a distinct high spot in the center of my v way causing a rocking motion. Made a massive difference I must say! Probably one of the best improvements I've made to the lathe so far. Theres a really nice, useable little machine in there somewhere, just need to scrape away the crap to find it

[@TheAussieShed]

Absolutely Adam. Cheers.

[@woozhi9218]

Whats improved and what not my expericence tells me snadpaper leaves a concave surface but it seems like you are using lapping paper instead of sand paper

[@janvanruth3485]

why not measure off the bottom of the dovetail? that is where the cross slide will ride so that i where geometry matters

[@TheAussieShed]

Hi Jan, the Dove tail was measured to be parallel to the top of the saddle, it was just easier for me to set up that way. Cheers.

[@雷阵雨-j3x]

中国产的机床，总的材料质量太差，如铸铁、钢材、轴承，寿命极短，其中钢材的热处理硬度不均。离现代国家距离不小。

[@transmitterguy478]

If these Chinese mini-lathes were ambulances, every patient would die. Good ole China always makes good-looking machines from 20 feet away but when you touch it you realize it's CHINESEIUM. I have spent so much money on my Harbor Freight 7x14 mini lathe ($500 new) that If I had it to do over again I would have spent $2500 (American) on a "good" lathe. They are fun to mess with though, remaking every part 2 or 3 times till I get them right.😂

[@M1KEMEX]

The Chinese aren't stupid. The reason this lathes have such issues is that they skip casting aging, so they begin to distort and warp as soon as they begin to machine them. For the price, you get a "close enough" kit. Trying to fix it at home requieres a huge supply of elbow grease; I'd rather befriend someone with a milling machine. It's really a couple hour job if you know what you're doing.