High Power 60W Powerful Mini Metal DIY 4-axis Rotating Lathe Lathes Machine Tools With Base 12000 rpm for Wood Soft Metals Plexiglass Plastic

The negative reviews appear to be from people who are trying to use this lathe beyond its intended purpose. This is a very small lathe designed to be used for wood, plastic and very soft metals. If you’re intending to use it for steel buy a lathe intended for steel. The instructions with it are useless but that’s typical for products from China. This works perfectly for me as I am making wooden rings. The only modification I made was to widen the T-slot to accommodate 1/4 carbide tipped cutters. The quality of the machine is very good not perfect but for the price I’m well pleased. I added a PWM speed controller to make it have variable speed control. I have a lot of machining experience so setup and adjustments were not a problem. As with any lathe whether $200 or $2000 it has to be setup correctly or it just won’t work worth a dime. This is an excellent place to start if you’re wanting to learn how to operate a lathe. I hope this helps in your decision making process.

TOY. I set it up and tries to cut a plastic blank. It spun, balanced nicely, but cutting was odd. Little vibration and not a good cut. I assumed it was the material. I chucked a bit of bronze, my target material. Cut OK, but when I stopped it I saw the actual cut wasn't actually round. Lotta bouncing. The stacking to get that extra axis makes the rest a noodle, and no amount of slowing down will correct for that. As a $200 spindle to polish a part... Maybe. Just maybe. Not useful for actually cutting things.

Good quality for the price. Good starting matching to learn the basics and do light metal work.

Overall seems to work ok at least for wood blanks so far. For the size is kind of heavy which feels like decent quality. Some of the actuation screws for the movable tool seem kind of small and wobbly using only one support makes me worry it could break. I wish this had variable speed on it but it does not. The rough adjustments on this also require a screwdriver and allen key while works it is kind of annoying i think. Wish had something simpler to change.

I will admit I was potentially using this outside of what it was meant to do. The description of it says it's for soft metals so I got this with the hopes to turn out some small precise brass pieces which may have been too hard. That aside, the entire construction of this was insanely loose. Even after tightening up the assembly, the whole thing still had some give where it couldn't properly hold the tool against the piece I was cutting - the jaw would actually push away. The thing that made me give up on this item was that even after tightening the chuck to the point the bar bent, pieces would still slip out. It just absolutely can't hold onto anything. I bought this hoping to save some money and space and to make some precision parts on my own. On the other end of things I realize I should have just gone with a much more intentional mini lathe. It was ambitious of me to think this would make pieces successfully.

I can't even do the single thing I purchased it for - which is center drilling requiring either a chuck or collets in the tail stock. Many competitive products of the same lathe ( different colors) come with generous accessories. It has sticky inserts in its base but no feet are supplied. Missing about 1/2 the screws and things in the "user manual". The chuck and tailstock have non-typical thread (m12x.75) which seems unique to this product. Even though the seller cheaped out on accessories, at least he could supply links to sources for needed parts. It's still a pretty lathe. But not at all useful except making pencils or pens