"This Old Tony" Buys a Mini-Lathe

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bmachin

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YouTube machinist "This Old Tony" has started a series on the mini-lathe. Thus far there are two episodes. The first is sort of a take-down and the second is the beginnings of improving the machine.

If you are not familiar with this this guy, you should give him a look, he is incredibly watchable and a great teacher. If you're already familiar, well--you know.

Bill
 
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chartle

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Seen it. I would love to see what this can do.

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skiprat

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I'm an avid follower of his. I'm kinda hoping he turns the mini lathe into CNC.:wink:

I am only basing my hunch on this because of his etch-a-sketch cnc seemed to be an intro into a bigger project.
 
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Dick Mahany

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I've had the "Cummins Tool" version of that lathe for years and it looks nearly identical to the lathe he demonstrated. I think that Tony did a pretty representative job pointing out the strengths and limitations of that little lathe.

Although I turn all of my pens on a wood lathe, that little metal lathe does a great job for making my own bushings. If I use 10L14 free machining steel, it cuts like butter and yields an excellent surface finish.

They sure have gotten expensive though as I think mine was less than $400. Still runs fine all these years later.
 

whp4

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It looks kind of plasticy, check out the unimat @ Micro-Mark. https://www.micromark.com/The-Cool-Tool-Unimat-MetalLine-6-in-1





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Not really in the market for a metal lathe but would love to have one to make little maybe 1" pieces. Things like custom pen bushings.



It just I've always wondered about these really toy lathes.



Try making them out of Delrin plastic or even wood. Sometimes I just use a bushing that is the right size to support the tube, and calipers to get the end of the tube at the right dimension. I don't have space for a second lathe, and it offends my cheapskate sensibilities to buy bushings for a kit I'm trying out...


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chartle

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Not really in the market for a metal lathe but would love to have one to make little maybe 1" pieces. Things like custom pen bushings.


It just I've always wondered about these really toy lathes.



Try making them out of Delrin plastic or even wood. Sometimes I just use a bushing that is the right size to support the tube, and calipers to get the end of the tube at the right dimension. I don't have space for a second lathe, and it offends my cheapskate sensibilities to buy bushings for a kit I'm trying out...


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Thats what I've done before either wood or some HDPE I have. Its just sometimes I think this could be so much easier if I had a metal lathe.
 

dogcatcher

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It looks kind of plasticy, check out the unimat @ Micro-Mark. https://www.micromark.com/The-Cool-Tool-Unimat-MetalLine-6-in-1


Sent from my iPad using Penturners.org mobile app

Not really in the market for a metal lathe but would love to have one to make little maybe 1" pieces. Things like custom pen bushings.

It just I've always wondered about these really toy lathes.


I played with one of these eBay lathes, they are too poorly constructed to get the jobs done. I would reccommend spending the money and getting a Taig lathe, add the PSI variable speed motor kit. It started out cheap, I now have ever accessory that I want and some extras that I thought I needed. A small machineshop that will fit in a suitcase.
 

Teodor

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I have the same lathe but with a 80 mm chuck
It's reaching the limits of it can do but still I'm able to create nice pens with it.
I have spent more in tools and a good post, I think is the same like in the video.
Changed also the bearing and added tapered bearings.
It's sharing my desk space with my office work, still I'm very happy with it.
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