A look at the Vevor 7 x 14 mini-lathe

Namabiiru

Namabiiru

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When I introduced my latest acquisition in the "new to your shop" thread I was asked to provide a review of the Vevor 7 x 14 lathe, being as it seems to have received mixed reviews online. Although I shared some initial impressions in that thread, I knew it was going to be a slow process for me to get going with this tool so rather than hijack that discussion, I figured I would start a new thread and approach it similarly to a build log.

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First things first: There were a couple of reasons I chose the Vevor over other models I saw online. One was that the price was a bit better than most. When searching around online it seems like the different options are all pretty much identical with a different label slapped on them, so I figured quality would be roughly equivalent across the board. Maybe a bad assumption; perhaps I'll never know. Also, the Vevor came with steel gears, rather than the nylon gears on many other models. I know nylon gears have their advantages, so just chalk this up to me being old school. The Vevor also came with a full set of cutting tools. I'm sure I'll acquire more over time, but these give me something to start practicing with.

I will also point out that I suspect that some of the negative reviews on this machine may have been provided by those who expected too much for what they paid, since for the most part this looks to be a very solid and tight machine on first inspection.

Here's what I've already shared on the other thread:
- Fedex seems to have done their best to test the durability of this machine. I guess the delay in delivery was a result of them giving it a thorough going-over in some darkened back room with the lathe tied to a chair.
-The amount of overspray on unpainted parts leads me to think the bed and covers were painted after the entire thing was assembled. Should be only cosmetic, but calls into question the overall production process
-Looks like someone used a pipe wrench on the lead screw. The saddle ran rather rough initially in autofeed, but seems to have smoothed out after a few passes back and forth.
-The operators manual is a huge disappointment: 1 page for the cover, 1 page for mandatory safety warnings, 1 page for specs table, and 1 page in two sections with pictures on how to turn the machine on and how to turn it off. That’s it.

the solution to the last problem was to acquire a copy of The Mini-Lathe (Crowood Metalworking Guides) by Neil M Wyatt. Immensely informative and much more up-to-date than some of the other references out there.

Next update I'll get into mounting and prepping the lathe.
 
In order to keep the tool as compact as possible, there is very little clearance up top to insert mounting bolts as you can see here:
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The holes are already tapped and in fact during shipping the lathe was bolted to the crate from the underside. I didn’t want to get into trying to work from inside the cabinets to bolt the lathe to the top so I made a gusset plate from a scrap of 3/4” plywood. The lathe bolts to the gusset, which in turn got screwed to the bench top. This had the added advantage of making it much easier to relocate if that becomes necessary.
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Once the tool was secured I was ready to start getting ready for a shakedown. The first step is to disassemble everything, clean off the protectant with mineral spirits, and give everything a nice coat of oil.

A word on oil in this context. The right kind of oil is called way oil. I won’t drag you through a dissertation on oil, but I will tell you that way oil can be pretty pricey and it’s impossible to find in less than industrial quantities. If you search online to figure out what an acceptable substitute is for way oil you will find a raging debate, which left me more confused than when I started. So I deferred to my lathe book, which calls for HLP32 Hydraulic oil (no motor oil!). Well, I had no more success finding any of that around town either. Eventually, I popped into a place that builds and rebuilds marine motors (a LOT of boat-owners in Newport). He has a phenomenal machine shop, and the auto-oiler on his CNC milling machine uses way oil. He was very enthusiastic to show off his shop, so in exchange for letting him show me around he gave me 8oz of way oil. That should last until the lathe winds up in my estate sale. Score!
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That’s where things stood when it was time to pour my wife a glass of wine.
 
Congratulations on your new Lathe. I think that most negative feedback that you might read is just due to lack of how to operate the Lathe. Some users try to make too heavy of a cut in one pass.
I have a few assumptions to ask. Have you used a lathe before? IF not, I highly suggest getting like a 3/4 inches or ! inch round stock of brass about 3 inches long. Practice making some passes with very shallow cuts to get used to how the machine can handle it. Brass is a very soft material.
I also assume that the unit came with a "Parting Tool" that is used to part off your finished product. Always REDUCE the speed by one half and go slow.
I do not use oil on brass. As a matter of fact, only when I am cutting stainless steel, I might use a little.
Make sure that your cutting tool is as close to dead center of your stock. If the machine has an RPM readout, then Brass can be cut at about 600 RPM.
Again, all these suggestions are assumptions as I am not sure what level of experience you have with Lathes. If you have any questions, please PM me as I have a lathe I have been using for years. You can also use your lathe for wooden parts too.
 
Donnie said:
Congratulations on your new Lathe. I think that most negative feedback that you might read is just due to lack of how to operate the Lathe. Some users try to make too heavy of a cut in one pass.
I have a few assumptions to ask. Have you used a lathe before? IF not, I highly suggest getting like a 3/4 inches or ! inch round stock of brass about 3 inches long. Practice making some passes with very shallow cuts to get used to how the machine can handle it. Brass is a very soft material.
I also assume that the unit came with a "Parting Tool" that is used to part off your finished product. Always REDUCE the speed by one half and go slow.
I do not use oil on brass. As a matter of fact, only when I am cutting stainless steel, I might use a little.
Make sure that your cutting tool is as close to dead center of your stock. If the machine has an RPM readout, then Brass can be cut at about 600 RPM.
Again, all these suggestions are assumptions as I am not sure what level of experience you have with Lathes. If you have any questions, please PM me as I have a lathe I have been using for years. You can also use your lathe for wooden parts too.
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Thanks for that input, Don. I think you are right about people expecting too much out a lathe in this price range. On initial inspection, everything is rock-solid with no detectable play.

I took metal shop in high school, but that was a few decades ago. I anticipate quite a bit of practice before I launch into anything important.
 
Practice is never a bad thing. Let know how you do as you learn.

Donnie has posted a few good videos on how to turn things with lathe.
 
I got everything disassembled, cleaned, lubricated and reassembled. It took a lot of fiddling to get the auto-feed running smoothly, and it's still not as smooth as I would like, but I don't expect to be doing a lot of thread-cutting so it should be okay.

One question for which I have not found an answer anywhere is this: As soon as I start to dial in any RPM the lathe starts emitting a steady tone. It stops when I dial it back to zero. I assume this is to alert you to the fact that there is power to the spindle so that you don't forget to turn off the power before dealing with a jammed workpiece or something. I've never worked on a lathe that screamed at you all the time, but then the only lathes I ever worked with were older models without variable speed motors. So question is: Is it the normal state of affairs to get that tone all the time, or do I have a serious problem lurking in my tool. Everything seems to run fine.
 
The drive noise is due to the motor controller. The lathe uses a Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) DC drive which is capable of producing full torque at all speeds. For a machine tool this is the best drive to have. You should check the motor and see if there is anything loose which could be making the sound.

In normal operation the motor can produce a noise around 2 to 4 Kilohertz but it should not be that loud (around 40Db or less). if is too loud check everything in the drive line for anything that could vibrate. Also try to single out what ever is making the noise. typically its the motor windings, motor fan and perhaps a transformer in the motor controller. Lastly make sure that the machine is properly grounded. That means a wire connected to the motor ground in the motor terminal box that connects to the ground point on the controller. the controller should connect to the supply ground in the power outlet. The machine frame should be connected to the supply ground.

Jim
 
Thanks, Jim. I'll give everything another check, but I'm quite sure this an electronically-generated tone, not a mechanical noise. For one thing the pitch and volume are constant, regardless of how quickly the machine is turning (even when it's just barely moving).
 
I'm sorry to report that I'd just as soon forget I ever owned it. Proved the old adage you get what you pay for. I managed to complete a couple of simple projects with it, but only with great frustration. Fortunately, I was unexpectedly required to move to Japan for work, so had an excuse to unload it on someone for a fraction of what I paid for it. I truly hope you have a better experience with yours.
 
Vevor mini looks like a very good tool. It is not very “mini” though. I would not be able having it in my condo. Smallest Sherline and Unimat are half the size. I own Unimat for this reason.
 
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