something... something... Dark Side! congrats, MW! despite their limitations those are are remarkably versatile machines. I look forward to seeing the uses you dream up for that thing! Play safe!

"I got a new tool!" 90 seconds in: "I'm customizing it!" 2 minutes in: "I'm pushing it a bit!" Lol, love you Matthias!

I pray to the UKposts gods for a Matthias/Tony collaboration.

Doesn't mention the time he made a Morse taper with an angle grinder. Absolute Canadian levels of humility on this guy here.

Bolting it to the table will help with the chatter a bit. Metalworking tools crave as much stiffness and rigidity as possible to work right.

There's something that tickles me about a trained engineer who worked on the original Blackberry explaining "I turn the screw and it jams it in there real good."

Seeing a master wood worker learn the metal lathe feels like I'm learning it with him. Inspirational!

Always a pleasure to see a new video from Matthias. Thanks!

Congratulations! Last week I purchased my old English lathe, it's a long time dream come true. I hope you get a lot of use out of it, and I look forward to the future videos!

When Matthias used the angle grinder I felt a great disturbance in the Force... as if millions of machinists cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced

Love the 7xX lathes. They are forgiving but capable machines, congratilations!

Hi Matthias, glad that you have joined the metal hobby lathe group. I have the Vevor 7” x 14” Metal/Wood lathe model CJ18A and it needs a lot of fine tuning. You will find that the more ridged you make the base the better it will preform. Keep up the great job on the videos

Can't wait for more This Ol' Matthias content

A metal lathe opens up many possibilities not achievable with any other machine. The bearing appears to be a sintered part so is inherently not as strong as a solid. As you are well aware we learn so much from experiments that don't succeed. I really respect your honesty in trying and failing on the path to good solutions; real life in the shop. Many thanks for your quality content. senior from Ajax

Very exciting! I've wanted a metal lathe for a long time, and plan to get one someday, but for now I can't wait to see what you do with yours

I really appreciate your reviews and I'm glad if not impressed that brands are willing to continue to work with you.

Yes!! Looking forward to seeing what you create with it! I bought the x/y table you mentioned in this video, and it actually works pretty well..

Yes, you so needed this. I'm curious to see how long until you go bigger and better.

This is a slippery slope Matthias! What is next, a 3D printer?! 😂

You are an honest man and that is what makes your videos great

I'm really impressed with your craftsmanship! Great job overcoming the flaws. Really impressed with the hand crank for cutting threads. Thanks for sharing!

I like where it is going. Metal lathe unlocks so manny path for Matthias now.

Cut an angle block from a scrap piece of wood at 29deg so you can set the compound angle against the chuck for single point threading. This will reduce the load on the threading tool which should reduce chatter when threading. I use a similar block to set my 12in swing metal lathe. I normally leave my compound at the 29deg so I am ready for threading.

I have been waiting for this day! I have been following you since pretty much the beginning Matthias, I have made one of your 20" bandsaws, a bunch of sets of the shelves you designed, and also the sawhorses. Looking forward to any upcoming metalworking content!

Man, I’ve been wanting one of these for years. That’s so cool you have a miniature metal lathe

Congrats! I'm looking into getting one for plastic and aluminium next year, so it's interesting to see how others venture into this area.

I had a 7x10 mini metal lathe to replace ferrules and tips on pool cues in the 2000's. Making joint protectors with old pool balls was fun. Seeing all you've done to this one makes me wonder how bad off mine was. It spun true, but the only thing I did was wipe off the shipping grease.

Oh man I'm excited for you! You're going to have so much fun getting into a new world of materials

Ah industrial arts was a favourite class in high school. One side had dedicated machines for woodwork with lathes, bandsaw, jointer etc and metal working with milling machine, lathe plus welding on the other. The variety of skills taught blew my mind and contributed to becoming an engineer. So fond are those days I ended up building a smaller but well equipped wood working facility and crude metal working. Yes a metal lathe would be nice. So Matthias, keep living my dreams.

Making the crank with the lathe itself is like a paradox. The machine made itself better. We in the 3D printer business know this great feeling. Great review. It looks like typical Vevor quality control, lol

Only Mathias would put a wooden crank handle on his Minilathe. Congrats on the new tool excited for what's next!

Appreciate the honest review!

My first thought was wow a fully metal machine with no wooden parts, but then I got to the crank part. I love your content so much!

I like the way he modifies off-the-shelf parts to reduce machine work. For instance, turning down the outside of those coupler nuts and then parting them off to make the adapters and the bushing--which also used the threads for added stability and concentricity.

Good plug for Vevor, I like the free shipping and taxes in purchase price. I have been very happy with stuff from them.

Thanks Mathias for your perspective. I've always wanted to get into a bit of metal work, but am apprehensive after looking at the cost and how much I'd use it.

you are so good with numbers, you would make a great machinist.

Can't wait till the green BIG metal lathe materializes. :D Awesome stuff, Matthias - the threading crank was just your cup of tea type solution. LOVED it! I am considering a mini lathe myself. :) This was awesome, because threading seems to be a difficult process - the wooden crank was inspiring!

Nothing but love for you Matthias.

Great job, Matthias !

It is fascinating to watch the learning in action here.

The surface finish you show at 10:30 looks like what you get when you machine brass with a cutting tool that has a sharp point. A cutter with a rounded point can produce a mirror finish on brass.

Nice, can't wait for the upcoming jigs for thread cutting and metal gears.

I get an old Schäublin 102 lathe from the 1970th some weeks ago. Still improving my skills, but even if the think is more 50 years old, when I see this cheap hobby lathe, I'm confident to have a wonderful tool to learn!

Great video, thanks! Really helpful that you went through the shortcomings and your fixes. Because of your successes, gives me the confidence to give one a try. Have been held back because the lathe seemed like it couldn't handle steel, but you show it can be done! 😮

Love the almost automatic customizing of it lol. I get a discount on their stuff through my work and I've gotten quite a few things. The quality seems to be on par with Harbor Fright and Wen, which is fine, you get what you pay for and with even the simplest maintenance it will last for years. Thanks for the review because I've been eyeballing one of those for a while now.

Can’t wait to see more metal lathe content! I got the exact one last week! I’ve been watching your videos for years. (first video was of you shooting marbles out of a homemade air gun)

Bolting it directly to a sturdy bench will reduce vibration and thereby chatter a lot, thatoldtony talked about it in his video about mini lathes, a must watch if you buy one of these i think

I ran multiple brands of lathes in the past. Everything in your "needs work" section of this video pretty much highlighted everything that is necessary to have on a lathe, but is not found on this brand's lathe. Fascinating.

This turned out to be an amazing unbiased review for this lathe.

Congratulations on the new machine. I hope you benefit Of it very well

Woooo!!! 🥳Congrats Matthias!!!!!🤗

It's great to see you've already developed the habit of leaving the key in the chuck.

I also just got a vevor mini lathe, but didn't think to look at their site first. It's a fun little machine, but like you said just about everything needs a little tune up

Paper towel over the bed is easy protection for sawdust sticking to oiled surfaces when working wood. I like the hand wheel mod - very creative. I see a lot of lathes having E-Stop over the back but they really should have them up front.

I have bought an ultrasonic cleaner from Vevor, works great no issues, does everything it's suppose to. Great price as well.

Honest review, they work, but plenty of room for improvement. Amazing product for the price. Watched many of your videos, enjoy the experience machining. Cheers!

Yes, the mini lathe as shipped is more of a "suggestion" on how to put the casting kit together. I'm sure your tips will be greatly appreciated! And yes, Vevor does have some good stuff. I quite fond of the annular cutters I got there.

Mathias, you want something really, really stiff to mount the lathe to. Stiffness helps reduce chatter and will help keep you from breaking cutters. Artisan Makes has some good videos on this. Also be careful with the cross-slide for the drill press. Drill presses aren't meant to take side loads, so you may have issues if you try to do anything "heavy" with it.

Oh yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to you using that lathe more.

That lathe is badass bro!!

"So i figured hand cranking it would work better" is an accurate description of the little 7" lathes.

Thanks for the video, Matthias! As a retired millwright you’ve peaked my interest in smaller hobby machine work. One tip is to make sure your tool is centred on the stock you’re machining. Some of your finishes look like they may be due to this. Use some tool steel and sandwich it vertically between your tool and the stock you’re machining. It the tool is dead centre of the stock, your tool steel should be perfectly vertical. Another thing that will drastically improve the cuts you’re making is buying a carbide cutting tool especially with the underpowered unit!

Hey Mathias, When threading, you want to set your compound to a whisker under 30 degrees, and feed it using that. This Old Tony posted a fabulous video about single point threading which I heartily recommend.

Ok, I'm not a machinist either, just a wood butcher. But I can truthfully say, I've never watched one of Matthias' videos and thought, "Oh, I've seen this before" A Canadian treasure!

If anyone should have a metal lathe, it has to be you Matthias! Can't wait to see what you do with it.

I saw the short you made about leaving the chuck key in the chuck. Having been guilty of this I can tell you that having a chuck key fly out of a chuck is not a way to improve your day. Most every machinist I’ve worked with make a habit of laying it on the headstock of the lathe. Some even make a bracket for the chuck key on the side of the lathe, anything to keep it out of the chuck. I love your videos and appreciate your laid back style of doing woodwork. Stay safel

My head is about to explode... Watched you forever Matthias and never EVER thought I would see this day. ha ha. I realize you're probably not going to "get into" machining extensively but I have often wondered of all the cool ideas that you would come up with if you added this to your skillset. It was cool to see just in the span of this video how you had improved as you were obviously working things out mechanically as you went along. Very glad to see you backing off the cross slide after you originally were reversing the threading tool through the cut. Definitely would love to see more and hear more about what you do with the machine. Congrats... Now you can cut round metal pieces. Next you have to get a knee mill so you can cut square things. :-)

I'm going to make the simular hand crank for my lathe (1 size larger), it makes a lot easier. And the parting tool, I made a holder for my angle grinder to be fitted in the toolpost. And that "bronze bushing" was a sinterbronze bushing with some steel powder to get better/cheaper results.

Mathias metal working era sure is a great christmas gift

I find that Vevor is excellent for the entry level tools. Got a quiet air compressor from them and it works great. Not capable of more than using a nailer in the PSI department but that's all I need other than airing up tires and dusting computers.

With the threading gears obviously the metric ones are complete stuff ups, but I think the imperial threads have just forgotten to mention that you need a 100 to 127 tooth gear ratio before the gears they're saying (thats the normal conversion gear because .5" = 12.7mm exactly)

Pretty amazing tool, Matthias! Congrats! 😃 Some day I'm going to get one of those!!! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊 And happy holidays!

You are the best, thx so much for this.

If i had more room in my garage workshop, i'd be tempted to get one of these.

A very useful "upgrade" on these little lathes is to remove the compound slide and replace it with a solid block of steel or cast iron. For most cuts you don't need it, and a solid mount for the tool post greatly improves the rigidity. I still use mine for small jobs, despite owning another lathe that's over ten times the mass.

Very interesting and succinct. I've always wondered what the weak spots of those lathes are. I grew up using a South Bend 14". It's hard to consider something smaller. But who's got room for a South Bend or a Clausing?

Matthias! I'm so happy for you to get your first lathe. I have been following for at least 10 years and I have been to be a machinist more than twice as long as that. I'd love to donate some cutting tools with some more forgiving geometry's.

Started out with a mini lathe myself and they are a project in their own right, hundreds of mods you can do to make it a slick little tool

Nice Pencil Sharpener.

That hand crank is absolute genius. I would have never thought to do that

About time. You do need a really solid base for that lathe though. I like using stone countertop cutoffs. You can often find them for free. The more stiffness the better the lathe will perform. use a precision stone for the machined parts.

I had one in 2008. They're all made at the same factory. Old Grizzly clones. If you lap and true them up, they're pretty good. I'm a trash machinist, so I quickly converted mine to CNC with NEM23 steppers and ran turboCNC on a DOS 6.22 box I found on the side of the road on recycling day. 😁

The Vevor guys will second guess their life choices after that video, hehe.

I got into hobby metal machining 30 years ago before the internet. With my small lathe I run in reverse and my cutters upside down, the cutter needs to be on center of the stock being cut. Cover you ways with a board when grinding and clean it after. You doing much better than me when I first started for never using a metal lathe.

As an old man who has spent a lifetime building and woodworking, a metal lath just intimidates me, including a bit of a scare factor! I have always been able to fabricate the metal parts I have needed by hand, not precise but good enough. Just getting a handle on welding was enough to round out my "let's just get it done" attitude about metalwork.

Great vid. Good to know that hobby-lathes will need some tinkering.

Very exciting stuff, these turn wood really well. I've seen them used to make dowel pins. 6:53 Please PLEASE do not leave the chuck key in the chuck. If the key is engaging the chuck, the other end of it MUST be your hand - never open air. On a machine shop lathe, just imagine turning it on with the key in the chuck. You don't want to have that accident. Looking forward to more!

Good timing. As a fellow woodworker that is finally in the market for a metal lathe I'm following your projects. How about one of those 2" wood tail vise screws using the thread cutter on the lathe?

Never thought I'd see the day! But I'm here for it.

I went through a lot getting my first lathe, first buying chinese, and then a few different types. Where I came out was buy old South Bend. Prices can be reasonable. There is more aftermarket support for a 1937 SB, than there is for any one of the chinese lathes. They are made immensely better. They are true Imperial (depends how you swing on that). Most chinese lathes are metric, but they put different handles on them and gears to sorta do imperial. I learned both system in school, but after 50 years in the shop, I just threw in the towel over being out of sync with the neighbours and having two systems. One tip for buying SBs is that they come in a variety of levels, and often the cheaper lathes are in better condition because they were bought by small shops, or even hobbyists who didn't put a lot of time on them. While the high end toolroom lathes got a lot of work and may have been desirable to buy up till they got totally clapped out. My first lathes had hand change gears, but it really didn't seem to be more expensive to get a gearbox, so I look for those. However, hand change geared lathes often have better condition, and the gears are a separate proposition to the lathe, so you aren't locked into the condition of the gearbox. There are a lot of other old lathes out there. I owned a beautiful Drummond, but for parts and info one can't beat a South Bend. I have seen them for sale in NB. When the electric motor shop was where the ski shop is now, they used to have old ones from time to time, though Kijiji and Craigs. The other reason to get old iron is that it is not uncommon to come across a deal where the owner throws in everything else he ever bought or found as a package, and you get a fortune of parts basically for free. In the US every part is potentially saleable on ebay, but here, the market is so small, people often just forget it.

It's ok that you are not yet experienced. You're so damn smart. You'll be an expert in no time!

I love ur hand crank idea. Just a suggestion tho you should cut a shoulder and relief at the end of the tread so it has a flat place to register against to tighten instead of just running into the end of the tread.

1st thing we were taught in operating a lathe is "Never leave the chuck key in the chuck." It can get ugly. And no loose clothe. ✌️

I would love to see your spreadsheet for the thread gear ratios.

VEVOR makes absolutely everything. No shot they make any of those perfect. For the price though, not bad.

On the hand crank, you should consider putting the handle in a bearing (with the same exact bearing on the opposite side as well so you don't get an unbalanced weight) and making the handle removable. That's going to save you a massive headache when the handle gets snagged on something or comes off one day

If you do end up using your drill press as a milling machine be ready for the chuck to drop out as the side loads don't play well with morse tapers. Some kind of draw bar is a good idea if you can do it, otherwise loctite. Those tables are great for just lining up holes though.

good day, eh...just a little 🇨🇦 fun... A couple of quick ideas.. another commenter mentioned rigidity: absolutely, it should be bolted down to a bench, BUT, since this is not a $2,000 lathe, you need to make sure that it doesn't get any misalignment, either "twist" or "bend"... there are "several" videos about this issue, so check that out... maybe Blondihacks? Also, getting the tailstock centered on the chuck end is critical, sonst you will end up "grinding tapers" on everything. Joe Pie has a video on threading by running in reverse, so that you never run into the chuck. You might also check the centricity of the chuck, you can grind it to a state that is much better than "out of the box", although I actually scraped mine, so no abrasive particles to worry about... I used a boring tool to get to the first stage, and I figured out that most of my work is about 6 to 10 mm diameter, so I adjusted the chuck to 8 mm to do the grinding/boring/scraping, so that the concave radius on the tip of the chuck jaws is kindbof matched to my typical work..... Sie werden viel Spaß haben, und mehr erfolgreich Werkzeugen! keep well, have a lovely Christmas, and healthy, happy 2024! der 🇨🇦 in 🇩🇪

You're going to love having that