I bought this lathe wanting to get into machining as a hobby.I am no stranger to CNC machines but I've never owned or operated a proper metal lathe and after tons of researching I settled on this machine. I was sincerely expecting it to be a huge mess and that I would need to basically rebuild it to make it usable.I bought the 24 inch bed.And if you're like me, you're reading all the reviews you can find to help you make a decision on what to buy, but there aren't many comprehensive reviews on these smaller machines. So here is my 2¢...The crate arrived in one week, and the lathe was packed very well.It had the usual greasy goop on it that they coat it with to keep it from rusting, and after removing the slides and cleaning everything it went back together and was very rigid and smooth.The first thing I checked was the run out on the spindle. I was so surprised, that I checked it twice with 2 different micrometers. The run out was only 1/2 thousandth!!I put a reputable end mill in the 3 jaw chuck and the run out on that just a little over 1 thousandths. I was shocked!The 4 jaw chuck, however, wasn't as good and I found it to be about 5 thousandths, but was to be expected for a cheap 4 jaw.My first test was a stick of aluminum bar and it turned a slick, smooth finish.My next test was a bar of 1 inch steel and after sorting out the speeds and feeds, after just a few minutes I was turning a mirror finish. The 1100w spindle allowed me to take some fairly deep passes with ease!I was over the moon!!I then tested the accuracy over the length of the bed. I put a piece of 1/2 inch cold roll, 20 inches long. I mounted it between the 3 jaw chuck and the tail stock with a live center.I turned about 20 thousandths off of it to a beautiful finish and I measured the diameter on each end. It was only a little over 3 thousandths off from each other.I was in pure shock!The electronic lead screw takes the guess work out of cutting threads. My first try wasn't perfect due to my lack of experience but it was successful and took the nut without issue.The control board also displays the degrees of the chuck so it has a built in indexer. You just have to come up with a brake to lock the chuck if you want to use that feature.And lastly, you can set the feed rate of the lead screw when turning on the run at the touch of a button. You can also change direction without stopping or reversing the chuck. And no need for a carriage stop because it has an "Auto Turning" function and you can set the travel distance and the carriage feed stops automatically when it reaches the set point that you put in. Very cool feature!Now here's where it gets better... The customer service:I ordered a quick change tool post for it and when it arrived, as expected the stock stud in the compound slide was too small and I needed to drill and tap the hole to accommodate the larger stud that came with the kit. In hindsight I should have just turned the threads on the new stud down to match the thread size in the compound slide but I felt that drilling a larger hole would be more rigid.Not one of my finer moments when I wasn't paying attention to my measurements and I drilled the hole too big. So now I'm screwed.I can't use neither the stock tool post nor the new quick change tool post to fix it.I searched the Internet for a new compound slide but I couldn't find a perfect match.So on a whim I emailed the seller here on Amazon to see if they sold parts.I was completely honest and upfront about my mistake and that I damaged the slide and asked if I could buy a new one from them.To my surprise and delight hey are sending me a new one free of charge!!If you're looking for perfection, this lathe ain't it. Despite my good luck I can't swear that every lathe will be this accurate out of the box. But I have to believe that they are all better quality than most and is certainly the premium lathe you can buy in this price range. I dare say comparable to the PM brand, and certainly on a much higher level than the brand that starts with a V.And what makes it even better ís the speedy and excellent customer service.These folks want you happy!If you're in the market for a decent, accurate and capable mini lathe. You honestly can't go wrong with this one. You won't be disappointed!

The electronic leadscrew function seems to be operating pretty much the I expected it to, however, it would have been nice for the manufacturer to show the decision tree you need to navigate to make it work. On my first project I was making 0.020" cuts. About the only problem I'm having with this lathe is the 1/4" (5mm?) extension added to the cross-slide to support the tool change bolt. It seems reasonable to assume many users are going to want to install a quick change tool post on their machines, and this extension makes that difficult. My solution was to mill off the extension, then counter-bore (5mm) the backside of the cross-slide. from there I screwed in an M10 x 90mm bolt (grade 10.9?) through the remaining threads on the cross-slide. Hopefully this will give me more strength than I will ever need for the quick change tool post. I'm looking forward to future projects on this lathe!

I wanted something a little more rigid than the mini lathe I had. Decided to give this a go. When I got it it was well crated, no issues.The lead screws have little to no backlash. The cross slide has a little backlash in the hand wheel, but it is the way the hand wheel is keyed to the lead screw, not the lead screw itself. something fairly easy to address.I found the tailstock well aligned with the chuck, I did not have to make any adjustments.I was curious about the electronic gear cutting. I was able to cut a 2-56 screw and it was usable. The bit I was using was not mean for that fine of a pitch but it still came out OK.The only thing I changed was the tool post. I went with a 0XA quick release tool post which seems to be a good size for this lathe. I had to modify the cross slide to mount it but it was not a big deal. It involved removing the cylindrical protrusion that the stock tool holder spins around and I made a 2mm spacer to go under the tool post, though I think it works fine without. I just wanted a little more height when using 1/4" tools. With the spacer, my 3/8 tools still work fine.Overall very happy with the machine.

Looks great and shipped in good order. Strangly I started recieving those 'sorry we lost' it notes from Amazon a week or so after I took delivery and it was kind of a pain to get to the 'I recieved it' button.Measuring for a DRO I found the compound travel is roughly 105mm before it clears the screw and the carriage travel is around 720mm. The Carriage interferes with the back gaurd where it slopes to clear the motor and is stopped by the leadscrew bearing mount.One mildly misleading thing is the chucks shown in the Amazon product photo are 160mm but the actual setup is 125mm. There is only one image in the marketing material that shows the correct size and you need to zoom to see it. So luckily they sent the correct size :)