Mini Lathe

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I’ve noticed these mini lathes on ebay for a while and recently saw them as low as $31 and shipped from w.in us (so not 2 months of getting tumbled in international mail). Finally decided to pick one up to play with. A friend got me into micro turning way back and usually do it on the rotary tool and I also have a motor and chuck ive used but never got around to making a good stand for it, but this looked easier to just leave set up and I was intrigued with popping a sanding disc on it for a nice mini disc sander. It’s sort of a mini shopsmith! 

 

Features

- 7 speeds

- rotating live tailstock

- 3/8” chuck to hold stock, dremel bits and grinders, saw blade, sanding disc, etic

- end stand can use a 2” saw blade on a bolt arbor for mini table saw

- a 2” sanding disc can be used with the end stand to make a mini disc sander.

 

Did a couple of fast flower pots turning (Like 2mm) and they did well, chuck seems decently balanced. Motor has quite a bit of torque (think it’s an electric drill motor) and the chuck gives it nice momentum.

 

Works also as a little saw with a small 1-2” saw blade and a bolt arbor. The end stand can be used to make a table and you could make a little cross cut sled to go on it or clamp down a little parallel fence to cut strips.

 

I have a little 2” disc sander with hook and loop with 2” sanding discs (few bucks on ebay) and it works well with the end stand as a table in front of the sanding disc.

 

All in all it’s well built and really inexpensive if you want a little tool to do a few different things like this. Pleasantly surprised! There are more machining mini lathes out there but starting at like 3x the price, this is just something simple and small to do a few bits now and then.

 

The one I got:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Lathe-Beads-Polisher-Machine-Woodworking-Craft-DIY-Rotary-Polish-Tool-100W/254480104717?hash=item3b40323d0d:g:CBsAAOSwpZlbe6l8

Many others basically the same thing $30-40 on ebay just search “mini lathe”

 

Cheers

 

Jeff