Should you buy a Vevor or any Benchtop Lathe? Vevor Mini Lathe MX 400 Part 19 - Thoughts after using 

Thanks for the video! All these lathes come out of the same 1 or 2 factories in China. They are specked out using guidelines from the distributors such as Little Machine Shop, Micro Mark, Percision Matthews etc. I am on my 3rd bench lathe (Precision Matthews 1030v) and I've had pretty good luck with the previous 7x14, 7x16 and now the 10x30. Some purchasers make the mistake of expelcting a $500 import lathe to be on par with an old American iron Atlas or South Bend or (fill in the blank). There is no comparison! However, buying an old American built lathe is a roll of the dice if you don't know what to look for and you will still pay for it. But these import lathes still do a pretty good job if you buy with the realization that you may have to tweak with it a bit. The more you pay the more performance you are going to get. China can build as good a machine as anybody else but if you want a good big and heavy iron that's all set up for you, you are going to pay for it. Grizzly has some good lathes and so does Precision Matthews. Nothing would tickle me more than having a big LeBlond or Monarch machine in my shop but I'm getting my stuff done with the bench lathe from China.

I have exactly the same model of the lathe as you, right down to the useless cross slide angle indicator! Your comments and conclusions are absolutely spot on. I didn’t want to spend too much as I wanted to try doing wood turning on it as well- just in case it wrecked it. Baring in mind all you have mentioned and the very steep learning curve, I’m still glad I have entered the world of lathe use.

Good honest video, well done. I too had a small lathe and am very happy I have now upgraded BUT you are so right, you have to get into this and find out if you like it or not. I totally concur the cost of the lathe is only half the real cost, its the attachments etc that start to really hurt so I recommend getting something that the attachments can be reused, thats not usually possible for small lathes ie they are MT1 and you will likely need MT2or3 for bigger lathes but things like dial indicators, cutters etc etc can be kept so buy a good one. I am impressed with the size of the spindle hole on this, that was the main limitation on the small lathe I had so I think that is a great selling point.

I appreciate you taking the time to do this video. I too ordered an Asian made lathe and am expecting delivery in 3 days. Like you I figure there is a 50/50 chance and I am expecting to do all the set up. You have given me a great deal of hope, thanks.

Thank you very much for taking your time and effort to do what we thought is a thorough review on the mini lathe. We're tired of the videos that say its a review and its actually mostly a review of what that person thought of the lathe soon after they unboxed it or is just them merely having played around with the lathe a little bit, versus them actually putting the machine through its rigors and then letting us know the quality, ins and outs of it, etc etc Also gotta say you're very smart to go through Amazon of such a costly purchase and expensive shipping charges for if something goes wrong. Me and several of my family members have personally experienced on plenty instances of buying specialty tools, machinery, etc through the company or a middle man and we were put through ridiculous hassles after the stuff came with chinese instructions, missing parts, damaged parts, was not new as described but was refurbished, it burnt up soon after getting it, or it was otherwise just plain junk that was hyped up (glamorized) by the company/retailers in order to get it sold. And YES, many of these companies have no problem answering your messages before the sale but then turn into a-holes after the sale. If they even reply, they will: 1) Make you wait 1-2 weeks for their reply 2) Their reply will often be formatted replies that dont even address or fully address your specific question or problem 3) They will never take responsibility for anything and will blame it on you or the shipper 4) They barely speak English and you have to constantly ask them to take a breath, slow down, and repeat themselves 5) Even after sending them detailed pictures from the minute the item was delivered and opened, you have to go through arguments to get them to send replacement parts 6) If you get through to their customer service over the phone, they just bounce you around from one department to another department until youre just sent back to the first customer service rep who answered your call from the start. 7) They put you on hold saying they will transfer you to their proper department but then after 10-20 minutes on hold, the phone goes dead cause they disconnected you which now makes you have to call back and go through all of the bullsh-t again to start where you left off with them and yep there are more games that many of these foreign companies play on us cause they know there's not much we can do about it. So yep go through places like Amazon, ebay, etc

17:15 yes,you are right.For example you can get a MT5 ER32 collet chuck to hold roundstock very precisely.I have the same lathe,bought that adapter ,but honestly i dont use it that often.Most of the time the 3 or 4 jaw-chuck is doing the job.

Nice Comprehensive video. I especially appreciate your comment about support refunding you because I purchased the 8 x 29 lathe for around $1300 initially but through refunds from support it ended up being just over $300. Their refunds were for basic technical questions that their support could not answer, so instead, they offer me $50, $100, etc. I mentioned that the tail stock could not be adjusted down. So they offered me a $100. There was some pitting on one of the gears inside the control box And I asked them for a replacement part, but instead they refunded me $190! It's crazy, there's no real support so instead they offer refunds! In the end, It's a great lathe for the money and perfect for me!

Thanks for the information, I have been debating if this would be a worth while purchase and you have really helped me regarding this brand. It’s more or less what I thought it would be.

Nice job on the video. It seems like a topical mini lathe, and they all need soom kind of work or adjustments done to them. It's not so much the lathe but the person running it. You seem to be the kind of person that can get around problems and setbacks. Nice lathe. Looking forward to future videos.

Thanks for the info on these types of lathes along with the disclosure of the additional cost for tooling, tools, lubes, etc...etc... Subscribed...

Great video. I look forward to seeing more.

Great video. Your style is very easy to watch. You are obviously very experienced and comfortable with speaking in front of an audience. You would have made a good teacher. This is coming from someone who taught HVAC Service Technology through a community college for 35 years. Thank you.

Thanks for this video. I'm looking to get into turning metal myself and have been looking at the Vevor lathes. When you mention the risk of having a drive belt break and not being able to find a replacement, I just googled "Belts for Vevor lathes" :) I do think they are obtainable as goes for almost any other part thanks to - as you mentioned yourself - the fact that they are all produced in the same place (then rebranded), so a huge market for spareparts.

Bought a Grizzly with variable speed. Best purchase ever! Love it! Ok...I gotta be honest...the ball oilers are not my favorite lube setup, but after I modified a couple of oil cans I got one to work perfectly.

I just ordered the 210X800. This will be my first lathe and because of your video is why I pulled the trigger on one. I can't wait to get it this coming Thursday. I think mine is 8.3"- 31.5" For a first time machine I think I went to big. Anyway thank you for your video and I gave it a gigantic thumbs up buddy, take care.👍

Congrats on 100 subscribers

Seems like an honest accessment and is mostly true.......im on my second Chinese lathe only this one is branded vevor that has turned out to be better than the first one......thier low cost is aimed for those entering the hobby, that being you can expect some flaws and must be willing to tinker! My 7/14 arrived flawless so I must have been lucky, what surprised me was it came with an extra belt which is very hard to find!!! The weak points are the motor and alignment of the tailstock. The rpm readout metal gears etc was fine. I only paid $535 shipped and have no complaints' so I must have been lucky......but need to stress you must be able to tinker and watch yt videos for support and questions. am also sorry to hear you gave 'scamazon your$$$$$$$

Nice straight forward video. Thanks.

The spindle bore is one of the most important things on a lathe. I have only 20 mm-s, that is a bit more than 3/4 ". But the 80 mm chuck which came with it has a bore of only 16 mm, 3/5 ". That sucks a lot of time. You made a good decision! (I bought my before a good couple of year)

can't believe the spindle bore on this thing is 1.5" that is huge 😍

Appreciate the review brother. 👍

160 Subscribers now! Keep up the grind bro

If your power control board goes bad ( $100 + if you could find one ) you can simply cut the 2 wires to the motor add a $14 100 amp 400 volt bridge rectifier with a $15 ac variable motor speed control. The motor on the lathe is 180 VDC . No capacitor needed. The RPM indicator is a stand alone readout that powers up with 12vdc. Connect 12vdc to the 2 wires going from the small components board attached to the back side of the readout going to the main board to power it.

I'm only part way through BUT you've answered my one essential first question - the spindle bore of THIS model versus the other models - I think I love you, in a purely platonic way of course. You're doing a fine job on camera BTW - difficult to keep talking without UM's AAH's and pauses...

I’ve had good luck with Vevor products. Both items work good and while I had a broken part with one, they required proof of damage and then sent a new part within a week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I, as well as the rest of you have the same luck and service I’ve received. I gotta say, I don’t know how accurate or reliable it is but it is a darn nice looking lathe. I also don’t know about its fit and finish but the individual parts look great. If I get one and something is off, I’d certainly spend some time going over it and trying to fine tune whatever might be wrong.

Great vid, I just got the same lathe but 600mm long or 24". $1600 AUD. Can't wait for it to get here👍👌🇦🇺

1.5 bore is a great point. I started looking at even much higher priced mini lathes such as Precision Mathews or even Grizzly and they all have much smaller thru hole even when twice the price.

The #5 Morse taper in the spindle is a real plus. That means that you can make or buy an adapter to hold a 5C collet (sellers like Grizzly have them). I have one on my 12-inch lathe and use a homemade drawbar made from galvanized pipe (which will conveniently slip through your lathe's spindle). Then the trick item to get is a 5C collet mount for a 4-inch 3 jaw scroll chuck and/or 4 jaw independent chuck (sellers like Little Machine Shop have them). Now you can switch from a collet to a chuck in just a few seconds. I use the 4" chuck on my lathe much more than the 8" chucks my lathe came with. A caution. Inexpensive 5C collets generally work just fine for the home shop. Ebay Chinese made ER collets and holders are invariably awful. There is a reason ER collets and holders from a reputable industrial supplier who warrants them for runout cost five or six times more than the mystery stuff being sold on ebay. The stuff on ebay are most likely rejects from the factory that made them.

Hi! You have probably found out or been told already, but I have not the time to trawl through the comments. So forgive me. My lathe is very similar to your and supplied by a British company ( I am in the UK). I thought it was the same as yours, but it is slightly smaller. I too, got into the hobby a short while ago and enjoy making stuff by converting metal to chips. The MT5 refers to the taper turned into the front of the spindle. You would see it if you removed the chuck. It is used for mounting items such as collet chucks which are far better at maintaining repeatable concentricity in the work. They are also less likely to damage work and are able to grip threaded portions without fear of damage to the thread. Mine is an MT3 taper and I use an ER32 collet chuck on a matching taper. I would suggest the largest collet chuck you can fit but bear in mind, the larger the chuck, the more inserts are required for full utility - more inserts, more expense. Tooling! I found that on ebay, you can find loads and loads of carbide inserts and holders and these negate the need for sharpening. They are really hard and are consequently fragile to shocks (such as interrupted cuts or sudden loads). This may cause the tip to break and will manifest itself with a sudden degradation in the finish. the positive, apart from the sharpening angle, is that the tools are usually multi-ended (you get two or three cutting edges per insert), so if one breaks, you are only down for a few moments. I can get them for about £1 each (you would probs find them for a Dollar each, I'd expect). This is true thraeding inserts too. They are cheap enough to keep a small stock in. Thats what I do, anyway. The only time these may not be right is for bespoke form tools that are required, these will have to be ground from tool steel. You feed rate is controlled by the change gears in your set. There will be a chart somwhere (mine is on the front of the lathe as well as in the manual). You should try to match the feed rate to suit the material and, as far as I am concerned, to date, this is a black art that I have not yet mastered, as is parting. I hate parting off! If I had a £1 for every squealing attempt or tool tip whistling over my shoulder... Let's just say that my lathe would be bigger and far more proficient. I have tried everything and usually resort to the hacksaw. There are no Yahtzee! moments for me, yet. Last item, I promise. That chuck cover thing and I am not saying that you should do the same! Mine? I removed it. I cannot see of what use it is whatsoever. It does not cover the work (where it may be of some use). Perhaps, the one use of it is helping to prevent you leaving the key in the chuck (WHICH YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER, WHATSOEVER, DO! Even if the machine is off). If you have not yet developed the habit of keeping the key out of the chuck, develop it NOW! That will hurt you far quicker than work being pulled out of the chuck or tool breaking (Yes! I have suffered both indignities). These mostly seem to end up in the chip tray. The chuck key will not. It will more than likely strike you with potentially grievious injury. You can get chuck keys with a sprung collar that covers the drive square to prevent this, but as stated, it is my position that the habit stated is formed sooner that later. This collar pushes the key out of the chuck when not being used to alter the chuck. If you do remove it (just a couple of screws), remember to rotate the residual bar toward yourself. This mimics the 'guard down' position and closes the interlock that would prevent the spindle moving. Well! That is my tuppenceworth! I will continue watching you content as I am enjoying it. I am not sure if this comment is of any use and I hope that we are not in the Granny and egg scenario, I aso apologise for the rant! Regards Ian

Happy to be your 500th subscriber, based on this video.. great job.

good points

I've made a lot of stuff with my little bit bigger lathe. It's paid for itself and I'm in the black.

MT5 means you can fit 1 1/2 diameter stock through the spindle. That is a huge benefit..

Thank you for taking the time to make this video. My question is, can it turn down 1.25inch steel round bar? That's the largest diameter I'd see myself using (making motorcycle/chopper parts). That's my biggest concern is it struggling with 1.25inch 1018 steel.

My bigger question isn't whether or not to buy an import lathe, but whether or not it's worth it to spend more on a more expensive import lathe. Sure, I could pend 600 and get the same 7x14 all the YT people have already explained and reviewed to death with all of their issues, or I could spend 1200 and get a vevor 8x29 that ostensibly has better features and fewer fixes to make. ...But the latter somehow seems even more of a gamble.

If you want to thread, you change gears for specific pitch, right? And then, if you need to mill, do you change gears again or can leave in that setup? Those gear changes for threading are just for automatic movement option (lever on front, 2 positions)?

Got the same brand 3 weeks old and it’s stopped working, wish me luck dealing with them lol

I was afraid to buy one, a few reasons, it's a small lathe and it's limited, now it's a small lathe from china from a company with horible reviews on amazon on a lot of their products. Ended up buying an old logan lathe much bigger with a vfd. Cost a few hundred more but came with a ton of tooling and there is a website that sell every single part for it still.

Hello, Does anyone have any experience with the lathe brand Paulimot? I would appreciate any help. Thanks.

Yeah, spindle bore size set the range of lathes I looked at... ended uo getting a German made lathe 12"x 40" with twice the hp and same spindle bore as you and at 6 times the price.... and then spent just as much on tooling... No regrets !

Subscriber 644 here. Thought I would mention that Precision Matthews is made in Taiwan. Trying to decide if I want to pull the trigger on a Vevor (Mophorn) MX210 which seems quite similar to yours.

Some of these MX210 variants have a set of controls underneath the speed potentiometer knob....Lead Screw Control Knobs i.e Reverse for the one knob and Mid/High/Low for the other knob...........while others versions have no knobs like the one in this Vid.......can someone please differentiate? Is this a partial GearBox? Much Obliged.....thanks for this video.

Blow it up you might be able to modify it so it’ll take a treadmill type motor or something

Dude it looks decent

bien

Well sir you have 23 subscribers now !!!! Lol

The audio was hard to hear. You were too far from the camera/microphone.

Have you ever had to buy a belt for the MX-400 Mine broke 5 minutes in and can't find a replacment?

I am not at all happy with the idea of most of these little lathes coming from one or two factories differing only minor ways. What really gets me is that all the brand names are only brokerage houses. They have no showrooms or store fronts. All they have is their brand and all of the brands connect back to a single source, or the one across the street in Shanghai.... Why is this bad? The retail buyer is made to be the quality inspector. The lathe never really gets checked out until it arrives at it's destination. Then the customer, who should not have to do all this, discovers things that are wrong and has to fix them. Sure, he or she makes phone calls and new parts arrive and it's OK but this should not be the way it is. I think, I believe that most of these so called brands, if we could find their actual offices, are nothing more than a spare room in someone's house withe a bank of computers and some phones. I'd like to have a small lathe but I will order one that I know has been inspected begfore it is shipped. It should not have misaligned half nuts or fittings that don't line up properly. Mind you I am not talking about leveling the machine. That is not what I mean. I mean factory defects in manufacturing. And if the machine is to be returned? How many months would it take to finally get credit? No thanks to all this "game of chance" business. I'll buy American made where I can drive my Chevy to the factory and see as lathes and mills are being made. I'll pay more. Not a problem. I don't like the idea of ordering and paying then wondering if the one I get willl be defect free and if it's not I have to fix it. No thanks to that. In response to this comment there will be a few who will try to tell me that "but the price is low... blah blah..." And I say we get what we pay for. Here is one workaround that I might find satisfactory. I order. They ship. I uncrate and inspect. If I am satisified I pay. If not I return it. How's that for equitable?

I don't see the thread dial.

They dont sell this model anymore

this isn't really a hobby for 'first day beginners to step right into master machinists'. #2 this is why it's better to buy a more expensive at least, american finished, and supported lathe.

I got started in machining years ago with a $300 harbor freight 7 x 10. Learned a lot, made some cool stuff and had a good time with it until I got a larger lathe. I think it's a great way to get started.

28:16, I'm sorry, but it's NOT fine to screw things together and throw it in a crate, and as consumers, if we keep accepting this as fine we end up with crap like this.

Sústruh vevor je pekný na výstavu,na prácu je to šrot .😂keď mi prišiel z Čiech, tak písali aby som ho dal nastaviť že mi to preplatia.Po 14 dňoch mi napísali že už ho nemôžem vrátiť. Tak mám doma výstavný sústruh. 😂

The first four minutes are spent explaining why it was purchased through Amazon rather than another supplier. The first and third hyperlinks didn’t work for me, but the video is over a year old. I eventually went onto the Vevour website and found that they no longer sell mini lathes so watching this video is not going to be of much use unfortunately. However I did continue to watch in case there were any useful pointers that maybe useful. When referring to features of the machine it became obvious that there was a lack of understanding such as no idea of what Morse taper 5 meant when referring to the chuck or the implication of what the apparent horrendous backlash on the carriage drive would have so I gave up watching.

Do not buy a Vevor. When dealing with customer service you're talking with phone operator. That's all you'll get. They say they went to a technician but the answers you'll get do not come from a technician. There is no technicians on board. All vevor is is brokers for chinese manufacturers. No replacement parts. Just a warehouse with crates in it. If something is wrong upon receipt too bad for you. Their "no hassle return" is non existing. If for some reason you have to get it back to them you pay shipping. Even then they don't want it back. To those of you that have received good ones Kudos to you. I am not one of them. Mine, purchased straight from vevor, when starting goes to 120 rpms with the speed set to zero. Replaced the pot no success. When buying something like these make sure there is support. Again DON'T BUY FROM VEVOR.

Thats a large spindle bore for a small lathe!

To much jawing to stay

hell no! Find larger used lathe.

99% of all the mini lathe and many mills are made by the same company just repainted and rebadged

In the instruction it talks about them using the most highest quality materials and I gotta tell ya that is nothing but bull💩. The stock looks like it was made from a rusty piece of iron that was cut off a rusty ship. It had huge pits in it and they tried to paint over it. Mine came with a piece that you put in the center and I think it's too hold longer pieces, anyway that's all pitted up and it looks like it was cut by hand with a hack saw by a 10 year old. Man I'm highly disappointed when I opened the create. The create itself was banged up as well. Not only was the machine low quality but they sent the wrong machine. I mean it looks like the one that I was suppose to get but the numbers don't match so I'm waiting for next week to call vevor and ask them about this piece of pig iron they sent me. This is my first lathe so I don't know the language. Like I said earlier I was very disappointed when I opened the create, it was a nightmare. I paid $1067.99 something like that but for that kind of money I expected better quality. I don't know if i should keep it or sent it back. I should of listen to everybody when they kept telling me to keep clear of that company!!😡😡😡

Notice you rule out all lathes as suspect if not American.

From experience plan on upgrading to a different motor and power supply. there are some good videos out on RU-vid Dazecar. is the master of treadmill motors Thats how I chose to replace motor and power SUPPLY. and get the electric lead screw upgrade its well worth the money. Cloud42 has a diy videos on ELS system. these lathes can be a very nice machine with some work and improvements. and replace the spindle bearing asap it will be a lot smoother and cleaner cuts. its worth it. and cheap under $30 fore bearings.