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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ก.ค. 2020
- Here is my recently purchased CJ18A Mini Lathe by Amadeal;
It was taken as a gamble, which so far has definitely been worth it. I had decided to go for the cheap start and hope that it is still practical enough for what I needed it for giving me chance to progress. I will happily admit I am not an experienced machinist but for me, I felt there were not many serious overviews of this specific lathe, there seemed to be a lot of conflicting opinions on this style of lathe so I thought I'd help by sharing my experience of the CJ18A mini lathe.
Below are some links to where I purchased the items shown in the video:
Lathe bundle (missing drill chuck): www.ebay.co.uk/itm/263494996283
Drill chuck: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/352977532423
Center drills: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/163020807112
6mm Diameter cutting tool: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/223970150325
Quick change tool post: www.aliexpress.com/item/40007...
Additional tool holders: www.aliexpress.com/item/40007... - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
When parting off, the tool should be as close as possible to the chuck, like 3mm. Use the minimum tool length hanging out from the tool post. If you buy a 55 degree holder for carbide inserts and get some matching inserts for cutting aluminium your lathe will love you. The 20 degrees of rake makes cutting so much easier and on ebay they are really cheap. On brass you may have to watch the tool does not get dragged in to the work piece. I use a cnc and cut brass with these inserts all the time, but I don't have to worry about the tool being dragged in as the feed is controlled. I use those aluminium inserts on brass, aluminium and steel. Get inserts with 0.4 radius for a reasonable finish. If you don't need a radius to finish at a shoulder don't use that button insert and don't let it hang out from the tool post as far as it is in the video.. If you get a carbide insert parting tool, it should cut much better and with less risk of jamming up than a HSS tool. If you are buying material the lathe would prefer free cutting steel or brass and machining grade aluminium. If using carbide tools, any brass or aluminium less than 32 diameter will machine best at speeds of 3000rpm and upwards. I know because 3000 is the max my lathe can do ordinarily. That part looks great, so considering the tools you had on hand, that is a damn good job. Congratulations on your purchase, I am sure you will do well with it.
I tend to get a bit nervous about making heaps of suggestions, but they are well meant I assure you. Happy for you to delete this post if it offends
Hey man! Being inexperienced, I am happy to listen. With most of your points, I have already found that I do this mainly down to my own experience of using the lathe such as; parting off close to the chuck, I have cut down my parting tool to get a rack to assist, and definitely found that brass likes to grab!
I will look into a carbide parting off tool, I use the button cutting tool as I do need a radius on my parts and it does seem to be able to take a larger cut and leave a better finish! My lathe doesn't sound too happy anywhere over 1k rpm, so i usually hold it around there and the cut is good, I will look to increase it!
@@BadE30 Bets research tool geometry to understand how different materials machine - brass needs a neutral or positive top rake to stop it pulling into the cutter -
Been Tempted to buy one , this nice video has made my mind up I’m getting on
Great news! Good luck with it
i almost bought one myself a few weeks ago since i needed one to make new slide bearings for my throttle body :P but i had another solution for that moment. still need to get one for sure! hope you make some great stuff with it!
the part turned out really well.
I'm waiting for my 1st lathe ever to arrive, and I will be trying it out soon too.
Nice one! Good luck with it
I bought my mini-lathe from Amadeal, and quite a few other tools too. Never had a problem they dint sort out very quickly. Lathe is about 5 years old now, has had many upgrades and improvements, and still provides hours of educational amusement.
Great work! I can’t wait to get stuck in with some upgrades.
@@BadE30 You want some suggestions?
@@fredgenius would be interested yes!
@@BadE30 Have you got a problem with Hangouts? It's a free google service, text and images, or video...
Great video...my lathe is exactly like yours and i almost lost faith in it untill i seen this..thanks a mill
Good to hear it helped!!
Nice work and nice video; in spite of the criticism of these lathes, this shows what can be done.
Exactly that! I’m glad I made the video to share my experience, as this was the type of video I looked for before purchasing it!
I bought a Clarke CL300 lathe upon lockdown first round :)
well I was going to get one the same as yours, as the price was cheaper than that of the Clarke.
But I would of had to wait few weeks.
So as I couldn't wait I got the Clarke one that came the next day.
I can say these little lathes work very well, all these small lathes do need to upgrade the Tool post to a better quick change.
Anyway as like you Bad E30 I use mine for brass and it does the job for the size of work I need to do.
So only buy a lathe to accommodate the work size that you intend to do,
No point in buying a lathe the size of a car to only make small things.
Great way of putting it, I feel like I won’t outgrow this lathe for quite a while. As long as I keep on top of maintenance and upgrades, it’ll be a good part of my workshop. Anything large I can do on my work lathe which has probably close to a 6ft bed!
Lovely finish on the thread from that tap.
Not bad for a cheap set!
If you havent got to it yet, just a heads up, my headstock as 100% dry when I got mine, a bit of grease and doing a full tear down clean and reassembly improves functionality and noise levels a lot.
I haven’t, i better take a look. Thanks!!
I have the same one from the same seller but mine is way quieter, I think you may have some issues. Make sure everything is well oiled, use silicone grease on the tumbler and 80 tooth gears at change gear end, quietens it down a lot. Putting lead screw in the no drive position when not needed also removes engaged gears and quietens.
This is great advise, thanks! Will definitely look to lubricant the hardware.
I've had the same model for over a year .
First the Gibson were rough finished 1 was bent so contacted Aberdeen they sent a free replacement.
They are a poor fit as others have said.
The quick change tool post would not tighten enough to lock the tool in place .
Placed a spacer washer under the locking cap ,works better now.
If I get to much cut on it will pull the tool down due to free play in the gibs so intend to sort replacments out.
All in all it is nearly a good quality .
Shame really as if it were a bit better quality control they would work straight out of the box.
Good to hear! I have had my tool pull down too, I need to look at tightening the gibs on the saddle as I can feel the play in it. I think that requires removing the rear splash guard to do so.
Did that tailstock come with the machine ? Where can I get one with the lever on the rear of the body
This came with the machine! I have seen quite a few different renditions of the tail stock and I’m happy with mine. I would simply google the lathe for the tailstock!
Hi. I'm new to lathes. Does the play you mention matter in cutting threads? A friend of mine would sell me his Myford ML7 with gearbox and few accessories. Problem is, that I'm planing to take this lathe to Poland and we use metric while this lathe is in imperial units. Do you think I should get ML7 for £800 with chuck and cutting tools or this one from eBay without accessories for £650 and have preferable metric units. Or should I just stick to tap dies for the threads on ML7. Your expertise is much welcome.
On the tailstock lock - you said you have to tighten that M6 nylock periodically. Strip it, and loctite the stud that the nut is on into the locking block ender the lathe bed - it's the stud into that block that comes loose. I had exactly the same lathe (also from Amadeal) for months before I figured out what was going on.
Sounds like a plan, thanks! It becomes an issue when i'm using the tailstock to drill using the measurements and it slips, will look at that
@@BadE30 yes it's a pain. I was delighted when I found out how to fix it, it doesn't come up on any of the mini-lathe sites I've seen.
Great video mate. I'm about to buy one of these. Should I go for it ? I've used lathes before
I am very pleased with mine and have not had to make any huge adjustments out the box. There is a large following for these lathes with several groups on Facebook with people offering advice on problems and upgrades, which makes it massively helpful if you come into any issues or ways to prevent them.
@@BadE30 thanks for the reply pal. I'd be looking into making bushes and pins, threaded rods etc. I've used lathes since college. Is it a decent investment ? Have you made your money back ?
@@davidbooth578 I’ve worked mainly with brass, but have made quite a lot of custom size presses for bearings out of aluminium and turned down steel bolts etc so it is definitely capable. I invested in it mainly for my separate business where I make custom displays for bmw e30’s which use a custom brass sensor, i used to make these at work but during furlough I needed a lathe! So that really helped me keep my sales going
@@BadE30 that's great man. Glad you got to carry on. I'll invest in one for my garage and get some practice in. What sort of diameters of material fit in the chuck ?
Hi, have you ever replaced or removed the chuck as I can't figure it out? 🤦♂️
just bought that same lathe that must have been from a good batch cuzz Im very pleased with it! but the motor does whine which am hoping will calm down>>>>>>only concern is how can i loosen up the chrome compound crank so its not so damn tight!
Cool man! Is it the crank that’s tight or the actual compound slides? You may need to adjust the slides to release some tension
@@BadE30 thanx for the reply I got more questions. whats the deal with the lever in the back?? I use the top position cuzz the 2 bottom ones make a crazy noise! ..also what is the reason that lever is used for?? did you get the metal gear set ?? if so where did you get it and how much it cost??
@@BadE30 the chrome crank is tight but think its starting to free up
An arm chair wanna be engineer here, thanks for the vid and entertainment, keep it up and i wont spend my pension on a dust catcher..
Appreciate the kind words! Thanks, looking to make some upgrades soon to the lathe to help improve it
Nice video, fyi when parting off run slower rpm and lube the crap out of it, Al will cold weld to your tool is running too fast.
Great advice, thanks!
I had to turn down my phone volume, damn it's a loud lathe,,,l like these vedios,,I just bought another vintage USA Made Lathe,, all have proven the test of time, smooth and quiet and accurate, and very inexpensive. I understand if you have no choice then to by those machines to have a lathe, I just really like the vintage tools, all built with so much pride to last seems like forever,
Yes apologies for the sound on this video, but I didn’t want to turn it all the way down so people didn’t realise how loud these things are! Crazy for the size. Definitely will be going for a vintage UK or USA lathe next, but I am happy with this for my current setup!
@@BadE30 it's better then most imports I've seen for sure, but once you get your hands on a vintage lathe you will understand why I feel the way I do,,,l just picked up another 6 x 18 atlas 3 days ago,, built 1955 and dail indicator dosent move on spindle and I can slide micrometer and caliper down all ways and there all perfect as with all 6 of my vintage lathes,, l have had better luck with the Atlas, it was sold as a hobbyist lathe and never was in factories are classrooms like the more expensive lathes were,, but it shows when you buy them,, many machinists put down the Atlas for its cast gears and flat ways,, but I have 6 and only a few gears show wear and none of my ways,,a v-ways lathe is scrap metal when they wear,,,but you can easily grind flat ways smooth again like new,,and hell there making plastic gears that hold up now,, and will protect the lathe from a craah,,,change out your drive gear to a smaller less teeth and you can slow down your feed rate, easy remedy my friend.
Did you have to pay import duty to the UK?
Phil Marshall Because I bought it from a UK seller on ebay, I didn’t have to pay import duty! Obviously you can get them cheaper from china etc but I don’t know how bad the import duty is.
You made the right choice from buying it from the UK
As you would get charged 20% VAT from china
So I buy from the UK where if I can
lol, she sure is noisy!!! Grease is your friend when it comes to noises like that hehehehehe. I'll be bying one too in the near future.
I have literally just gave the lathe a mini service, lubricated what I can, and it’s running much quieter now! Will be making a follow up video of my experience with the machine and more upgrades!
Yours must have been out of a good batch. I've never seen a mini lathe with enough rigidity to part that far from the chuck right out of the box.
Looking back at the video, i see it was pretty far out!! But yeh, no issues with the lathe so far..
@@BadE30 Not criticizing, just impressed.
good evening a question this lathe can also make threads in inches or just metric ??
this lathe came as metric, however I’m sure I’ve seen a conversion kit to imperial of the thread cutting gears
Couldn't find a used Myford ML7 anywhere ? Much smoother running than that thing .
It was actually a toss up of a Myford or a Chinese lathe. Due to the constraints of the first uk lockdown, I was unable to travel to collect a used lathe. So i went with something i could easily get delivered! I am happy with this lathe for my personal use, but when I start progressing I will look to upgrade to a Myford for sure!
@@BadE30 thought as much , I like the huge range of accessories available for Myfords especially for doing short repetitive production runs , the availability of spare parts and the headstock clutch is really good for screw cutting internal threads or up to a shoulder so I'm biased.
@@bigsmoke6189 exactly yes! Definitely next. Luckily for a beginner like myself, there is a lot of information around for the lathe I have, which has really helped me get going!
Man i swear this minilathe of yours may even be noisyer than the heidenrreich and harbeck VDF V3K that i started my apprenticeship on
Totally agree with you haha! The thing does sound janky, hopefully sorting that with new drivetrain mods. Hopefully..
Can this cut stainless steel?
I have not needed to yet work with stainless, but I feel with the right tooling and a well adjusted/maintained machine, there shouldn’t be an issue
Get good quality cutting oil and use slower cutting speeds and feeds , you'll have no problems.also look at getting carbide inserts for stainless steel from your tooling supplier.
@@bigsmoke6189 That’s awesome! If I can get my hands on carbide tips for this cutter, that would be amazing!! I need to start working on my engineering project.
@@iamlegend712 I agree with the above, it will work with slower speeds and feeds. I'd recommend first giving the lathe a thorough inspection of all the ways etc to make sure it is as stiff as possible!
the threads magically appear lol
I have 6 vintage lathes now,,damn thing's are addicting,,and I can't pass up the prices I'm paying here in the USA,,, they was all built when quality mattered,, no offense towards your choice,,l almost bought a Chinese lathe before I found my first classic vintage lathe and compared them and the import lost hands down,,,accurately,, smoothness, quieter and even better looking,,and not to mention I can buy 2 for the price of the import,
Very cool! I totally understand your thoughts. Price and availability were my main priorities with my first lathe!
@@BadE30 most of the lathes I find was handed down are out lived the owner and being sold by family that know nothing about lathes like there grandfather are father did,, the metal lathe changed the whole world in 1755 and affected almost every aspect of industry..thsts priceless my friend
Please loose the watch while you're running the lath don't want to see you injured, "First Rule, Safety!
Good eyes! Usually I won’t during big batches, the operations in this video were just for to put on youtube. Will make sure next time!
You will NOT be disappointed. Those things are addicting. Don't be afraid to adjust and modify this thing. Do some research on gib mods. The most aggravating thing about these lathes is the poor quality weak gibs.
Very agreeable! I do plan to modify in the near future, I will look into gib mods, thanks
It's eating itself apart
Does sound like it! Going to be stripping it down soon and upgrading