Another Satisfied Customer!

This was sent in by Neil Wyatt who was also kind enough to include a short video of his re-vitalised Mini Lathe parting off a chunk of 2" MS bar.
Hi Ketan,
I fitted the roller bearings to my lathe a few weeks ago, and I've written up my experiences for Model Engineer.
To be honest I was pretty happy with my lathe as it was, so I wasn't expecting a significant improvement.
I was wrong! The machine has been transformed. The first change was how smoothly it rotates at low rpm, even down to five or six rpm it turns smoothly without the stutter that was there before. More importantly I am getting much better surface finishes than ever before, even with heavier cuts. In particular, parting off has become easy, even on tough steels or large diameters.
I put a 2" diameter mild steel part in the chuck and span it at 310 rpm. I was able to feed a 3/32" tool straight in. It was like cutting brass with little chips (actually short coils of swarf) flying everywhere - no chatter or strain, just the spindle slowing a bit.*
Please put me down as one very satisfied customer for the cost and effort involved this is a modification every mini lathe owner should make.
Regards
Neil

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