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

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.👍

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.

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.

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$$$$$$$

Congrats on 100 subscribers

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

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 video. I look forward to seeing more.

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)

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.