mini lathe mods

[marksbug]

my mini I bought new is 30 years old or older speedway model 7x14" still looks almost new..from the ones Ive seen lately and the 2-3 year old 9x20 I also bought new , the quality is almost totaly gone now them all. the knurled nuted screws in the vid for the gear cover are nice,I still have allen screws for mine.I think Ill just put 2 studs in it and hand nuts if I need them. the studs would hold it just fine as frogs hair with no nuts. I was going to sell it when I get this biger lathe....but...I had to use little lathe to fix big lathe, I dont know if I will ever sell it or not. one mod I did make that was eazy and fast and helped a lot was to add stand offs for the back splash to be about 1.5" farther back/away from the ways.I allso have extensions for it and my biger lathe, just vynel siding it clips right to it with the built in gorrve in the siding.or some small plastic spring clips. after I get the 9x2o I took off the big quick change tool holders and put on the 9x20,it was way to big for that little lathe but I made it work great, I got one of the cheep ones...yup the $30-40 unit all aluminum... witch wood of been nice if they had made it out of 6061t6 or other hard aluminum even heat treetes cast may of worked better than this soft alumin it's made from. so..do not waste your $$$ on the aluminum setup.unless you just want it for very light work or a pattern to make you own. on a side note....Im into the air cooled vw stuff..12 years ago when building a 2000cc plus engine for my bug I shortened the cylinders on the small 7x14 lathe....Ill be dammed but I cant seem to do it on my 9x20...thus the reason I need to either buy a 10,11 or 12 x?lathe and sell off these or... make spacers to space the head stock&tail stock up a inch....not sure witch way to go,cash is low and Ive done somuch work to the 9x20 to get it dam neer perfect and so quiet running. and the 7x14 is high quality & Ive also done a good bit to it....and unfortunately im in florida...witch has no surplus of machines like up north or cali. so selling may not be a issue but buying may be or shipping will cost!!!!!darn neer 1/2 the machines cost or more.oh well Im in no hurry,and prices wont fall any...
cleaning under the ways on these lathes to get all the bondo out of the way of the tail stick clamp helps a lot with eaze of traveling back and forth, they slap that bondo on, lather it around and take it off in places you can see to make the castings loo clean...but under it's all caked up and nasty on the rough machined serface where the clamp slides.