# New MX-210V 8x16 lathe - a beginner's first lathe experience



## Tomzo

I had posted some questions earlier about what lathe to get for my first lathe and I pulled the trigger on an 8x16 lathe that is equivalent to the eBay variety.   I bought it off Amazon with the hopes that should things go really poorly I would have a better shot at some level of recourse, but who knows.  Someone on that other thread asked that I post about my experience with this lathe so this thread is that effort.  I expect it to take a few weeks to get this lathe up and working in some sort.

Well a big crate arrived today and it was in pretty pristine shape!   This was surprising to me seeing as it came across the ocean, went across the US, and then came back to California.   There were no signs of damage on the crate apart from a slight misalignment of one of the skids on the bottom.  

When the top was removed it revealed everything inside was apparently in good shape.  Styrofoam blocks at each end were intact with no apparent damage.   So far so good!

However, when the plastic was removed it was clear that a bunch of stuff was missing.   This was supposed to come with two chucks (3 and 4 jaw), the ubiquitous useless toolbox, some tooling, etc, but none was to be found.   There is no chuck at all on the machine - having never bought a lathe I was not sure if they shipped with them on there or not.  I have inquired with the seller via Amazon as to the whereabouts of these items and hope to hear back soon.  Perhaps those items are in a separate shipment.

This has all the cheap lousy features that many complain about but for $1K what more can I ask for.  

This model was supposed to include a 1.5HP brushless DC motor. This larger motor was the main reason I chose this model so it had better be in there! I have to wait until I can get some help to lift it up onto my bench to see if that is actually the case.    I have access to an engine hoist from a friend if I can't get my college age son to give me a hand.  Everything is covered in the usual oil and needs a thorough cleaning.   The compound and cross slide are poorly adjusted and probably full of gunk too, so they will get torn down and cleaned up.

With any luck this will work out OK.  As I mentioned in the previous thread the one thing I know for sure is that I will learn something useful in the process.

More to follow....

Tom


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## matthewsx

Well....

Typically these sellers don't know anything about the products they sell. If there are no chucks it may well be that they don't have any to ship you either.

Document everything carefully and DO NOT AGREE to any compromise that makes you the looser. There is a reason why these things are cheap, go get an indicator and stand and check it out now....

BTW, I was just in your town a few days ago. Beautiful place.

John


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## Tomzo

Agreed - most of the accessories were going to be junk anyway so I was not going to use most of it.  I have a Clough42 ELS already built so I don't need all the change wheels.   I also have a QCTP in hand that will go on there, but I do need the chuck.   I had presumed that the 4 Jaw was a scroll type rather than an independent chuck which is what I want.  I was already prepared to buy one of those.  

I also have an indicator and once I get it on the bench that will be one of the first things that will be checked.   Fingers crossed.

My biggest concern was that the crate would have a bunch of damage along with the lathe itself, so at least that part is OK.


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## Tomzo

I just checked the fedex tracking number and they don't show the package as having been delivered yet - it is in Oceanside about 15 miles away.   Perhaps that is the missing package I am waiting for.  Fingers crossed!


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## Tomzo

Well I could not wait to get it on the bench so I took off the back panel to get a look at the motor and controller.   The motor definitely looks like a BLDC motor to me and the control panel looks decent enough in how it was made.  I am not sure where the orange-ish tint came from in these images - the sun is getting lower on the horizon here so perhaps that is it.  We are not where the fires are in CA so it is not that - thankfully.

I also just got confirmation from the seller that the other package will be here tomorrow!   Wow!


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## wachuko

Congratulations!!!!!


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## Aaron_W

Odd that it shipped as two packages, but if everything arrives that is the important part. The fact it doesn't look like King Kong was playing with the crate is another good sign.


If you are not already familiar with them Little Machine Shop is a good vendor for small lathe accessories, and in Pasadena so not too far from you.

https://littlemachineshop.com/


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## Tomzo

I have already bought a couple of items from them - such a great resource!  I considered one of their larger lathes but for the first one it was just out of the budget.   Maybe for the next one....


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## markba633csi

If there are three wires to the motor then it's a brushless.  Two wires means brushed.
One thing I didn't notice were any adjustments on the controller- might be good or bad
Good that you bought it on Amazon since you can return the whole mess if it's a mess
Interested to see how it works out- 8 x 16 is a decent size for hobby use
-Mark


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## Tomzo

I opened it up to take another look and the cable from the motor has what I presume to be three power wires and five other wires that I presume are monitoring position.   These are circled in this image of the control board.


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## Tomzo

So I am making a number of videos that are going up on a playlist on my currently pretty much empty YouTube channel.   I am not a YouTuber but it is an easy way to share videos.   There will be a good number of these and I may enlist Dave M to help me out as he is a YouTuber and lives not too far away.

This first one is a 2 minute overview of the lathe once I got it lifted onto my bench.   It is not too heavy - two of us were able to lift it pretty easily.   I got the heavy end unfortunately.

Anyway, overall it is not too bad on the surface but as subsequent videos will show this is a cheap Chinese lathe and will need some work to get it functional.   I hope to get most of it all pulled apart and diagnosed this weekend so these will be coming along over the next few days.   If anyone has some insight as to how to fix various problems I am all ears!


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## Tomzo

First up is the tailstock.   There are some definite issues with this tailstock as these videos describe.   There are some huge gouges on the outside that have rust in them.   I thought these were why the tailstock moved so poorly but once I got things apart it was clear that the holes in the casting for the retainer (for lack of a better word) were very poorly done.   if anyone has any thoughts on a good way to fix that I would appreciate it.

The misalignment of the grub screw that keeps the barrel from rotating may or may not be an issue.   If needed I guess I can drill and tap a new hole in the right orientation but will defer to more experienced folks to let me know if that is needed or not.

The presence of a thrust washer was a pleasant surprise that I had not expected.   I have seen others add these to tailstocks in other videos so I am pretty pleased.


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## wachuko

Subscribed to the YouTube channel so I do not miss a video.  Great that you are taking the time to do those.


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## Tomzo

Here is a video of the tailstock back on the lathe and moving "smoothly" but with only one bolt holding the retainer on.   I am confident that the word retainer is incorrect, so please correct me if my suspicion is correct.

The casting on the back side of this tailstock is pretty shabby as this video shows.


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## Tomzo

The bottom surfaces of the tailstock are very, very crudely machined.   I worry that these will impact my ways - any thoughts on how to correct this?


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## Tomzo

I simply did not have the patience to do the full cleanup before testing the runout on the spindle bore and face.   I just got that indicator yesterday and have never used this type before so my measurement method and interpretation of the results may be way off.   With that said, if I did it correctly I am pretty pleased with the result.

There is some grinding noise as I turn by hand that I hope is not the spindle bearings.  I disconnected the change gears to take them out of the equation.   I guess the worst case scenario is that I am doing a spindle bearing replacement.   At some point along this process I am going to figure out if this has tapered roller bearings or not - we shall see!


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## WobblyHand

Tomzo said:


> Here is a video of the tailstock back on the lathe and moving "smoothly" but with only one bolt holding the retainer on.   I am confident that the word retainer is incorrect, so please correct me if my suspicion is correct.
> 
> The casting on the back side of this tailstock is pretty shabby as this video shows.


Obviously, the "backside" you showed doesn't matter.  But it is indicative of the shortcuts that are made.  When you get a chance, look at the bottom of the tailstock where it rides on the ways.  It may not be that pretty. Typically, one removes a screw stop and then the tailstock just slides off the end.  It would be curious to find out how far off the tailstock is.  Typically tailstocks are shipped high of center, maybe to account for wear.  You ought to measure yours.  It's relatively easy to adjust them side to side, vertically, one has to machine it or use shims.  

My LMS tailstock is too tall.  One of these days I need to machine it lower (and not screw it up).  It's high enough that center drills make a conical point, instead of a hole!  Not a problem for large stock as large stiff drills will eventually plow through it.  Small stock with small flexible bits - my tailstock is useless as it is too far out of vertical adjustment.  If I use it, it generates a lot of taper.  Hope yours is a lot better than mine.


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## Tomzo

WobblyHand - I posted a video of the underside of the tailstock in post 15 - it is pretty bad.   My chucks and live/dead centers arrive today so I will make some measurements of how far high I am.  At least I hope I am high because I think those surfaces need to be machined down.   I don't own a mill, so that may pose some issues.   If nothing else I may just take a flat stone to them for a bit.

I came into this project with no illusions that I would be getting a first rate machine.   Half of this effort is to get my hands on a lathe so I can learn how they work and how to make inferior ones do some work that lacks precision.   A better machine would be wasted in my incapable hands, so perhaps this experience will give me a bit of what I need if and when I do splurge on something built in a factory with a modicum of quality control.


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## WobblyHand

Tomzo said:


> WobblyHand - I posted a video of the underside of the tailstock in post 15 - it is pretty bad.   My chucks and live/dead centers arrive today so I will make some measurements of how far high I am.  At least I hope I am high because I think those surfaces need to be machined down.   I don't own a mill, so that may pose some issues.   If nothing else I may just take a flat stone to them for a bit.
> 
> I came into this project with no illusions that I would be getting a first rate machine.   Half of this effort is to get my hands on a lathe so I can learn how they work and how to make inferior ones do some work that lacks precision.   A better machine would be wasted in my incapable hands, so perhaps this experience will give me a bit of what I need if and when I do splurge on something built in a factory with a modicum of quality control.


Sorry, I hadn't looked at that video.  I'll do that in a bit.  Got to run off for some errands, when I get back, I will take a look.

_"A better machine would be wasted in my incapable hands"   _Don't sell yourself short.  If nothing else, you will learn a lot.  You will be able to make some interesting parts, as well, only limited by your imagination.  

Please check out the sticky in the Beginner's section on grinding your own high speed steel tools.  It's a very good read and you will learn a lot.  I've successfully ground some tooling to trepan and make a groove, as well as some basic tools  (RH square, RH knife, RH threading, and LH knife).  All very useful.  

One thing that you have in the MX210V is a rather large spindle bore.  My 7X mini-lathe spindle bore is only 20mm.  Definitely been times when I could have used the larger bore.


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## Tomzo

OK - I took the compound off and have a few initial impressions:

-  It had some grinding dust in there but not an excessive amount. 
-  The surfaces on the dovetails are not as bad as I had feared but are not optimal at all
-  The gib was reasonably straight - I put it on the glass bed of my 3D printer (the flattest surface I have handy) and there was very little noticeable rock in it.   The holes aligned with the gib adjustment screws which I know is not the case with all gibs in this class of lathe.
-  The gib adjustment screws were pretty low quality and bent somehow.   I had some button head screws of the same size on hand so I replaced them.   The threads in the casting were rough, but once I ran the screws in and out a few times they cleaned up a bit.
-  Once put back together it was pretty clear that if I wanted any type of rigidity the gib screws were going to have to be pretty snug.    For this class of lathe I had expected this.

The audio on some of these videos was odd - I must have had my hand over the mic on my phone.  I am going to figure out how to get the phone onto a tripod.


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## WobblyHand

Post #15 on tailstock says video unavailable, so it will be tough to watch.  Bad link?


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## Tomzo

Must be - here is a fresh link:


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## wachuko

Tomzo said:


> Must be - here is a fresh link:



It is a bad link.  You can go back and edit that post with the correct link.  Somehow the link got truncated... easy fix.


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## WobblyHand

Tomzo said:


> Must be - here is a fresh link:


Yeah, that doesn't look so hot.  Can you get a close up still of the pyramidal notch?  It seems not too bad.  Other side is not finished, or finished poorly.  Not sure how much you should take off though.  If finished smooth, that would be a lot of material!  Lets just say, that does not look like a "factory first".  (As opposed to a second.)


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## Tomzo

I can see the videos here in the forums - is that one working now?   I see that WobblyHand saw it - I will try to get some closeup shots in a bit.


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## WobblyHand

Tomzo said:


> I can see the videos here in the forums - is that one working now?   I see that WobblyHand saw it - I will try to get some closeup shots in a bit.


The new link works.


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## Tomzo

And the second box just arrived!   Even the little toolbox is intact and, as expected, the 4 jaw chuck is self centering.   That is something I just don't understand - perhaps there is a use case such as drilling small square plates.   Actually, I need to modify the hole in my QCTP base so that might just work for a boring operation.


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## Aaron_W

Tomzo said:


> And the second box just arrived!   Even the little toolbox is intact and, as expected, the 4 jaw chuck is self centering.   That is something I just don't understand - perhaps there is a use case such as drilling small square plates.   Actually, I need to modify the hole in my QCTP base so that might just work for a boring operation.



Self centering is basically like a 3 jaw for square stock. Kind of odd that they include that as independent 4 jaw are usually cheaper.


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## Tomzo

Both chucks needed to be completely disassembled and cleaned as they were very, very rough.   Once cleaned however they are working pretty well.    The kit came with 8 different carbide tool holders - PPK brand.  I see them sold on eBay pretty cheaply but I had expected something even worse than these.   I had planned to pick up a HSS set as a beginner - any reason I should not try these out?

It also came with a "micrometer" which I tested against some digital calipers I know to be good.  They are off by over 20 thou - those will not be used.


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## Firstram

Did the mic come with a wrench? It can be adjusted.


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## Tomzo

I did not see one in the little plastic case but will look into that.   Something new to learn.   I figured it had to be a very cheap micrometer to get thrown into this kind of cheap lathe package deal.


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## WobblyHand

Tomzo said:


> I did not see one in the little plastic case but will look into that.   Something new to learn.   I figured it had to be a very cheap micrometer to get thrown into this kind of cheap lathe package deal.


The mic wrench is a little bitty thing.  Maybe an inch or two long.  In any case, the mics are relatively easy to adjust.  Is the zero off, (offset) or everything is off?


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## Tomzo

I will check that out and see if it is recoverable.


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## Tomzo

Here is a close up shot of the surface on the bottom of the tailstock.  The bolt is the one that locks it to the ways.   Egad!


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## WobblyHand

Looks like a rasp, not a machined surface.


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## Tomzo

A couple more videos are done looking at the cross slide and carriage.   Here is the cross slide as it looked when it came off.   Dirty but not as bad as some I have seen.






Here it is partially cleaned up:






Here is the compound rotation system which had a bunch of junk in it:


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## Tomzo

I then took a look at the carriage which, to me, looks an awful lot like a Grizzly G0768 model.   The white paint is different than the rest of the lathe paint, so my guess is that I got a lathe that was cobbled together from a bunch of leftover parts at the factory.   In this price class I expected as much so it is not too big a deal to me, but it is interesting.


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## WobblyHand

LMS has loads of spare parts for their mini-lathes (and others).  It's why I am considering machining my tailstock.  A new 7x tailstock casting is < $51, although it is backordered.  

A 8x tailstock casting (top) pn 5215 is only $17.49, and the base pn 5016 is $23.14.  Does your base tailstock casting look like tailstock base ?  Not much meat there.  What's kind of nice is you could go in there (if they are open) and pick through castings to see if you can find one better than what you have.  At $17.49, it might be better to get a new casting, rather than dragging holes in the other piece.


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## wachuko

Well?  Do we have chips?  Or still going over the lathe?


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## wachuko

Never mind... I see that you are busy working with the mill you just got. 









						New (to me anyway) HF 33686 - my first mill
					

So the seller from whom I bought the machine from indicated in the ad that he had a "spare" drawbar included as part of the deal.   It seemed to be kind of an odd thing to have as a spare but when he dropped it off he handed me the spare - which was in reality a piece of all thread...




					www.hobby-machinist.com


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## Tomzo

I have been making some chips - I actually turned my first part on Friday.   I have an RV that uses steel clips on the weight distribution hitch that are super stiff and hard to remove.   I turned down some aluminum to get a clean surface, drilled a hole to give a nice fit on the clip, and then tapered the end to fit where it needed to go.   Worked out well!

I do need to mill some slots in the tailstock retainer - it runs smoothly when the shaft is extended but binds up when it gets drawn back to pop out the chuck.   I am waiting on a new vise to arrive for the new (to me) mill that I got off Craigslist on Friday (separate thread on that one).   I also want to mill down the bottom of the tailstock to get rid of the crazy rasp like surface.

As with most of these class of lathes the compound is nearly unusable without really cranking on the gibs.  I think I will be pulling it back apart to see if I can improve some of those surfaces.   I will not be tapering a lot so I might just mill down a chunk of steel and take that out of the equation for most purposes.


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## Tomzo

wachuko said:


> Never mind... I see that you are busy working with the mill you just got.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> New (to me anyway) HF 33686 - my first mill
> 
> 
> So the seller from whom I bought the machine from indicated in the ad that he had a "spare" drawbar included as part of the deal.   It seemed to be kind of an odd thing to have as a spare but when he dropped it off he handed me the spare - which was in reality a piece of all thread...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> www.hobby-machinist.com


Yeah - too much at once, but when fate delivers the mill you don't get to choose the timing.


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## Janderso

Tomzo,
You did a beautiful job of inspecting and documenting the issues and what to inspect with these lathes.
Wow, they can be rough.
Compared to the old iron I own or have worked on, it's interesting seeing the contrasts.
Now, with that said, there are plenty of Youtubers and hobbiests that have done some very impressive work on these machines.
Have fun.


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## Aaron_W

Tomzo said:


> I will not be tapering a lot so I might just mill down a chunk of steel and take that out of the equation for most purposes.



This is a fairly common modification even on some larger lathes. The compound is a weak point so for small rigidity challenged machines removing it and replacing it with a solid chunk of metal can be a big improvement. You can always reinstall the compound when you need it for a project.


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## Tomzo

Been busy for the last week or so and have not had time to work on the lathe much.   The arrival of the new to me mill was a good portion of the delay but also general work/family/life stuff.   Anyway, with the new mill here I want to take on the tailstock both in terms of the retainer being out of alignment at the back end and the very rough surface on the bottom.   This has led to a number of questions when I take these improvements on.

The first question is how to determine the correct alignment of the axis of the MT2 taper on the tailstock.  I would think this is pretty important to get right as otherwise drills and centers will be offset.   I know that the tailstock itself has a certain about of adjustment, but they are pretty minimal for this cheap tailstock.   

When I adjust the retainer on the end I will be moving the axis from where it is now.   This is not to say it is properly aligned now - I am confident it isn't, but I don't want to make things worse.   I was thinking that I should align it to the tailstock casting so that it moves smoothly along the full length without binding as it does now.  I would correct any misalignment with other methods later.

I also plan to mill off the rasp like surfaces on the bottom of the tailstock, but I want that surface to be as parallel as I can to the axis of the tailstock.  I don't own any MT2 collets and am wondering whether I could just put some drill rod in a jacobs chuck to set the axis.   My thinking was that I would lightly clamp the tailstock upside down in the vise on the mill and use an indicator along that drill stock in the mill until it was parallel to the x axis movement.  From there I could tighten up the vise and then mill a few thousandths off the bottom of the tailstock.   I clearly won't get a nice ground surface, but at least it would not be as rough as it is now.

I also presume that if the material I take off makes the tailstock too low I could shim between the upper and lower parts of the tailstock to get it to where it needs to be.

That is my plan right now but I am confident my inexperience here leaves this approach with something to be desired.   Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Tom


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## Sparkynutz

Any updates? Link to the exact one you ordered?
Thinking of picking up a similar machine


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## Tomzo

Ah - I need to do an update.   I will get some video of it and post that.  I came across a mill not long after I got the lathe and have been doing some work on that too.   Long story short, the TIR on the spindle is good but the compound is pretty bad in terms of rigidity.  I machined up a block of aluminum and have the compound off.   I plan on doing some work on it to see if it can function better as I have a project in mind that will need it.   
The cross slide is not super great and needs to have the gibs really cranked down to increase rigidity.  I plan to add more gib screws and do some work on the gibs and other surfaces to make things operate smoother.   I also got some needle thrust bearings to try to see if I can improve functionality.   I added the Clough42 ELS which is great for turning as I can really get nice slow, even feed rates.   The tailstock is kind of a mess but I made some initial adjustments, but still want to mill down the rasp like surface on the bottom.   That is coming up next on the list.

After installing the ELS there was a huge disparity between the RPM on the built in display and what the ELS was reading.   I got a tachometer off Amazon and it agreed exactly with the Omron encoder that is part of the ELS, which would be expected.   I pulled the RPM display off the front panel, tucked it inside, and mounted the ELS control box in its place.   Much nicer.

Would I buy it again?   Yes, I think so.   The extra power as compared to similar models is nice, but it is a bit of a hodge podge of parts and pieces from what I can tell.   Working in aluminum is fine - steel is tougher - especially boring.   There is just not much rigidity there.  Parting off is also a challenge, but I own a bandsaw so I can just pop the stock out, cut it down and face the cut end.  I am learning a lot about lathes and little tricks to get done what I need done.   I am sure I will upgrade at some point but for now my skill is the limiting factor, not the lathe.


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