VEVOR Metal Lathe Machine, 8.7 x 39 in, Precision Bench Power Metal Lathe, Automatic Feed, 0-2500 RPM Variable Speed, 1250W Brushless Motor, for Processing Precision Parts Soft Metals Wood Plastics

Fast shipment from the vendor & very professional! I would recommend this machine to any of my friends. It's a great bargain for its size class. The machine arrived undamaged. Everything appears to be working as it should. Tolerances and runouts are as advertised and will not require much, if any adjustment. It's just a nice little lathe! Machines packed for overseas transport are usually covered with clear cosmoline or something similar. This unit was no exception. Expect to get several shop towels saturated wiping off the bulk of it, then use WD-40 to dissolve and wipe off any of it that remains. It's also a good idea to check the gears for detritis like wood chips and styrofoam that popped off the inside of the crate due to stapling of the crate at the factory to prepare the machine for transport. The stiff, brown grease on the gears in the drive train is for lubrication. As long as it's clean, there's no need to remove it. I plan to keep it well lubricated and use Vactra way oil on the various gibs, dovetails, and Morse tapers. Regular oiling of the lead screws and bearings that have oil ports is best practice and the machine should last for many years if you take care of it. Swarf it down at the end of every work session and when you expect to leave it sitting idle for extended periods of time. One thing that's often overlooked by newcomers is shimming the lathe bed. If you want to maintain tighter tolerances and minimize errors, shim the legs of the lathe bed to remove any twists. The rubber feet supplied with the lathe are not helpful in this regard. Bolt the lathe feet to a heavy bench and add shims. YouTube has several good videos showing how to do this. As to the several comments about the motor not running, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!. There are several interlocks on this machine. The plastic cover over the lathe chuck has an interlock to ensure it is closed. The motor will not run if the cover is open. The Forward and Reverse switch on the front of the unit has to be set to the desired direction or the switch will trip out. And ALWAYS be sure to stop the machine when changing gears or directions. This thing isn't like a vehicle. Any time the gears or direction are changed, ensure the chuck is not turning! One other thing worth mentioning is that tachometer sensor under the end cover has to be close (but not touching) the left end of the lathe shaft. The small metal studs must clear the tachometer sensor. But if the sensor is too far away, the tachometer might register the rotational speed as something other than what it actually is. When I first turned on my machine, mine was reading about half the correct value. This is easy to fix by pushing the sensor a little closer to the shaft encoders, the small studs surrounding the end of the shaft. I have also seen a few people complaining about the lathe tools. These are brazed carbide cutters and need to be correctly sharpened before using. As with most brazed carbide cutters, it's up to the user to profile and sharpen them as needed before using them. You will likely also need to shim them in the tool holder to center them up to your workpiece. The lathe tool muti-tool holder will allow several cutter sizes. The ones in the included kit are 10mm x 10mm. If the cutter isn't lined up with with the vertical center of the workpiece, then watch some Youtube videos that explain how to do it. There is plenty of support for these machines on the Internet. If you have trouble finding videos, remember these all use similar parts that are made in the same factories in China. I agree that the multi-tool holder is a bit lacking and perhaps even more than a little clumsy. And depending on the metal you are working with, brazed carbide cutters might not be the best choice. They are typically used for cutting mild steel. Materials like high speed steel (HSS), titanium nitride, or cobalt steel cutter tools might be a better choice for other metals. It's just a budget tool holder with some general purpose tools for those who might not need anything better. There are lots of tool manufacturers with thousands of specialized tools available. Several recommendations are Shars Tool, Harvey Tools, and Tormach. There are several after-market quick change tool holders that will fit this machine with little or no modification. Remember, you are at liberty to add after-market parts and modify this machine as you desire. For small shop and hobbyist work, it's impossible to guess what every end user might need or expect. So watch videos, read books from the old timers, and ask questions. Someone will likely have a solution for whatever you may encounter. Also, remember that the larger the machine, the greater the cost for the tooling and work holding attachments. The cost of tooling and add-ons goes up exponentially with size of the machine. Many production shops that are trying to reduce turnaround time will expect more than the mini lathes and mini mills are capable of. If you expect the small machines to plow through the toughest metals with just a few passes, they just aren't capable of doing so. But most are capable of doing a decent job if you aren't in a hurry, take shallower cuts, use the right cutting tools, and don't have a long line of customers waiting. If you don't believe me, then look at what some of the so-called "model engineers" do with these things and even smaller machines of various brands. A good place to start is with the Home Shop Machinist books by Village Press, Inc if you are here in the US, and with lathe and mill books from Fox Chapel Books if you are in the UK or other countries. Amazon has both available.

Received in good condition, well packaged. All components were there, nothing missing. After cleaning the awful grease that covered everything and properly lubricated everything, I set in to make measurements and adjustments. The headstock runout was about 1thou, kind of expected for these cheap lathes. Ways were flat to about 1 thou after shimming and mounting to a heavy bench. The tail stock is absolute junk … it was 25 thou out of alignment. I could adjust the horizontal alignment, but the vertical was too high so nothing could be done to correct it other than machining the guide that sits on the ways. Unfortunately, the design is lame and the stock sits on an angle instead of sitting flat on the ways. To properly correct this, I’d need a 90deg chamfer bit for my mill but didn’t have one. I milled the opposite side to lower the stock so I could adjust it. I was able to align with the head stock to within 2-3thou. Total taper on a supported piece after turning it was still unacceptable. Getting a new tail stock. Yeah, I knew this would be a project, but didn’t expect the tailstock to be that bad. If you bought this and didn’t have a mill, this lathe would not be useable. I’m rating it 1 star so everyone is aware that if you buy this lathe you may not be able to get it in working order if you don’t have the tools and skills to fix it. There is truly NO quality control on this stuff so buyer beware.

Now that I've had this lathe for about a year, I can say it has really impressed me. It needs the normal "going through" that all of these Asian imports do (alignments, adjustments, etc). I've filled up a few 5 gallon bucks with shavings, so I've used it quite a bit. It has good power for pretty much anything you can fit in it, but at slow speeds you can still stall it out. No big deal, just don't go jamming the tooling into the piece at slow speeds. The threading feature works pretty dang good, I was really impressed with that. Not changing gears around for different threads is a game changer in the cheap lathe category. If you are on the fence about it, I will say it is worth it if you need small lathe or just want to get into a new hobby. Mine had some small defects in the casting on the slide that didn't affect performance too much and they took care of me. I've made all kinds of things from spacers to bushings to bolts, and it's done a great job with everything I've thrown at it.

Packaging was good. I did have to tighten some loose hardware but I’m not taking any points off for that because you really need to take these things apart some anyway when they are new so you can clean the packing grease off. The Lathe works well for what it is, the more USA little weak but I may be trying to take too deep of cuts (my first lathe) my only real issue it that the power safety switch failed after my first passes and I had to go digging online to order a new one. It does seem to be a common part and not expensive though maybe $15-$20. I will update this review if the new safety switch does not repair the problem but I’m sure it will because I can hold it down and th lathe works so the internal solenoid part of the switch must have failed.

You should get this lathe, but just make sure your committed to actually wanting to machine. This is because the lathe has some loose parts and is also a bit out of alignment, !!BUT!! Everything can be adjusted, which is actually a good thing because all veteran machinist recommend newbies such as myself who never owned a lathe before to tear it apart to learn all about your lathe so it’s actually a pro to have to adjust the parts as you learn right off the go how to do it. I’ve watched several YouTube videos to learn about using a lathe and how to adjust its parts etc. Also bolt the lathe down to a desk/table to reduce vibrations as it is not as big as industrial lathes so is more prone to vibrations if not bolted onto something. The machine can cut various materials however tougher(steel etc)materials require thinner cut and softer materials(aluminum, brass etc) can be done in deeper cuts. You also have to learn what speed to to run the machine at with different materials to get the smoothest/cleanest cuts possible so I recommend buying metal tubes/bars for practice to learn(I bought my material from Home Depot). All in all this is a great machine to use and works really well when adjusted correctly! I would recommend for anyone trying to get there hands on their first lathe

Here is a Lathe, complete enough to machine materials like brass, plastic and with some patience steel. The accuracy and precision will require some additional effort from the buyer. The project aspect is disassembly for deburring many of the parts, to improve the mating surface finishes while learning new skills building confidence the machine will last as good fits make a big difference. Accessories you will need are a drill chuck, a 3/8 capacity is more than enough along with a live center, OAX tool post, & indexable 3/8 cutting bits. It's comes with brazed carbide bits but sharpening them is difficult if you don't have the skill. Delve into YouTube for techniques and ideas to improve the lathe first to have a good experience, do the work you will be glad you did. The chuck guard must be down to turn it on, so read the manual, it's quick but important. I recommend you keep this guard in place, not removing it. The lathe is all there, tools, ETC. A great learning experience tool. You get both machining with a lathe and learning how they work, the fit and flaws all in one. If a project is ideal, this is for you. If your looking to just get a Lathe to just machine with and go, not so much. I have mine dialed in very nicely now, but this took much work, yet fun to do and learned a lot, including my mistakes too. Included are pictures of the machine and my first project I completed on it. The end without the hole I left long, center drilled and used a center to support the material for machining that feature. Hack sawed off that little extra removing the center feature from that end, then took many light finish face cuts. Last operation the Sleeve used was to protect the surface during chucking to drill and turn the bore end. This is for show only. Cheers from a 90k Hrs. Job Shop Machinist.

Best deal/most advanced table top lathe I've seen in 20 years!!!!! This lathe has DIGITAL GEARS or, as more commonly known, an Electronic Lead Screw (ELS)-- It saved me probably 100 hours of work and $200 parts of converting the lathe to ELS! Makes threading a total breeze! Just dial in the thread pitch, and set the length! The computer handles the left and right motions and synchronizing start of thead with spindle on every pass. You move the cutter in and out when it beeps and advance the cross feed cut each pass and let it know when it can start! Once you have an ELS lathe, you will never go back! Oh, did I mention how wonderfully quiet this lathe is? Both the main (brushless direct drive) motor and (digital) lead motors are very strong and super quiet! There are two quiet timing belts, one for the digital position encoder, and one from the electric lead screw motor to the lead screw. Another result is that this lathe, has only 1/3 of moving parts of a conventional lathe. No high speed motors, no main belts, no clutches, no reduction gears, no motor tensioners, no gear direction changers, etc. Just the sliding carriage needs to be disassembled, cleaned, reassembled when you get it! My only word of caution is that the lathe has a minimum speed of about 55 rpm since it is direct drive with feedback speed control. It will "power through" most stalls at very slow speed after about 1/4 second when the feedback detects the underspeed! (A trade off I'm happy to make for the simplicity/low inertia of direct drive.) The large chuck, however, does add back quite a bit of inertia and a lot of stability! Mine had very little runout. --- I guess size matters! This lathe is also also extra large (1 full Meter (39") between centers, 220mm (8.7") Swing, 38mm (1.49") passthrough!) -- That, alone, makes this lathe the best deal on Amazon! Heck, I even really like the color! Light cream white with orange safety cover! Looks great and modern. (not the ugly gray or green or blue everything else is!) Easy read LCD-- RPM and lead screw position! Best value EVER!

Lathe has a lot of problems. From the on/off button and speed controller which doesn’t stay on. Not sure if this is trying to be a safety feature or if there is just something wrong with this lathe. It doesn’t stay on. Probably a bi product of this but because I can’t use both hands the lathe can’t hold dimensions. The dials spin themselves out of alignment from the general rattle of the machine. The machine is struggling to take light passes in aluminum. Because it can’t hold a dimension the finish is bad even working in nylon and plastic. The main material I bought it to work on though was aluminum to replace hubs on a scissor sharpening machine and in a dream world I was hoping to use it to modify the steel shafts to add a groove for a lock washer. Trying to make the hubs though on this machine feels like an impossible task I’m less than ¼ of an inch into the first of 8 of these I’d have to make and it took 6 hours. Any time I tried to take a deeper cut the motor stalled or the fuse would blow. I tried with a drill attachment for the tail stock to see if I would at least help me drill better holes and initially I was kinda hopeful the drill bit I had seemed to cut much better than the provided tooling but it takes a lot to center the tail stock any time I moved it either to hold the end of the work with the dead center or to set it up to drill was a tedious process of just trying to get centered again so for me it was mostly just a really convoluted way to start a hole on center that I had to then bring over to the drill press. It could in part be a biproduct of the provided tooling being bad. It could be that my expectations weren’t realistic although other reviews made it seem like aluminum would be fine. I’m not sure how it could be a “metal” lathe if it struggles this much in a relatively soft metal. It could be that the one that arrived to me has an issue with its switch or speed controller which is causing it to not stay on but nothing in the manual explains this. In its one session of use it tripped the GFCI it was on by itself and then tripped its own fuse several times while barely making any chips. It could be that if I invested in better tooling it would cut better I thought this lathe would be a tool I bought and invested in upgrading but while better tools might improve the situation the bones on the one i ended up with seem to have some major issues.