Mini Vertical Slide (90 x 50 mm) for instant Milling Operation on Lathe Machine

Perfect little gadget helped my get a job done on the HF Mini Lathe. Used a small plate to mount it to my cross slide and was able to consistently make the same cut over and over to the same stock. Great price and it works really well. It would be nice to find an mini vice to mount on this instead of the t-slot blocks to make it even more usable.My plate is a 2" x 5" 1/4" steel plate, tapped the 3 holes to mount the plate instead of the cross slide, then drilled and tapped 2 holes in the plate mount the Mini Vertical Slide with M5 x 14 bolts to the plate. Very solid. First time milling on the lathe and it went well.I printed the holder for my keyed shafts and used that between the T-Slot blocks to home my work piece.

Needs to be striped down, given a good cleaning and stoning of any parts with burrs.I stoned all mating surfaces as well. Re-assemble, lubing as needed. Operation will still be somewhat stiff.You will need a small vice, trying to use just the jaws provided is a test of manhood. Capable of holding arounda thou. accuracy. Old saying : If you need more, spend more.

The bad:Slide was filthy with grit and machining gunk, not just the usual cosmoline. Complete disassembly, cleaning with mineral spirits, adjusting and reassembly required before use.The face side mounting hole's cap screw recess was drilled off-center from the hole itself. This is not easy to fix, I suspect if I'd used M5 cap screws the screw's cap may have sat properly in the hole. I wanted to use M6 cap screws so I had to slowly drill the recess larger on a drill press.The good:The slide itself has a very tight feel when the gib screws are adjusted properly, this is good since rigidity is needed for milling operations.Brass gibs are a nice touch, that they're retained with two tiny cap screws is also nice.I would have rated 4 stars were it not for the mounting hole concentricity issue. For the cost, it's a decent value.Attached a few pictures showing the adapter plate I made for mounting it on my mini late cross-slide. I used 1/2" thick 12L14 steel.Pic 1: Finished adapter mounted to cross slide.Pic 2: Adapter bottom showing 3 holes for cross slide stud, in the middle, and for M6 bolts, 2 holes for mounting vertical slide.Pic 3: Adapter top showing 2 counter sunk holes for mounting to cross slide, 2 for mounting the vertical slide.Pic 4: Vertical slide mounted to adapter with M6 cap screws.Pic 5: Vertical slide ready for work.Hope this helps someone out.

UPDATE: I managed to fix the slide. The lead screw is 1/4-20. So I added 2 1/4-20 nuts locked together beneath the black painted plate that sits on top. That keeps the lead screw from moving linearly while allowing it to rotate freely, whereas before the lead screw spun and didn't move the slide and just unthreaded from the nut. I clamped the base plate and angle plate together and drilled them about 1/2" deep with a 1/2" drill bit to allow space for those (locked)nuts. I still had to turn down those nuts until round to have sufficient clearance. Now it works like butter.Previously:I drilled a hole in the base to mount this to my 7x14 mini lathe. Then I ran the slide all the way down, then up, then... snap. The collar underneath the handle snapped off of what it was attached to(black painted plate). The handle still turns with the lead screw, but the base plate no longer moves with the lead screw. Because it free-floats with the loose lead screw it won't even holds firm in one position. Since I drilled a hole in the base I assume that I can't return it. otherwise I would. I guess I will have to repair it.

Super fast next day delivery. Well machined and designed unit for excellent price.Disassemble,clean and reoil. Adjust grub screws for smooth operation.

I know for the money "I shouldn't be complaining", but for $60 I was expecting a lot better than this. This level of quality is a $20 item at most.I dont know if I got a dud, or a different model than than everyone else but the operation of the slide was not "smooth" by any means. Out of the box it was stiff to the point I had a hard time moving the wheel at all. At first I thought no big deal, many import tools need to be taken apart and cleaned up before you use the. Well it only got worse as I started taking it apart. Dovetails had a chip in them (not from transport it looks like they nicked it during machining), the surface finish on some of the non-visible "machined" surfaces looked like they were cut with a chainsaw, they got paint on the "machined" surfaces, and nothing was even close to aligned. I'll be lucky to get any use out of this for even the most basic operations.P.S. I have low standards. I'd be happy with a harbor freight mill for my immediate needs. Because of my low standards and its low price I'll still give this 2 stars. If I buy another one at a comparable price and get a similar result I might even bump this up to 3. But I warn you, If you have any need for this that is related to machining... just don't.

The delivery was on time from the supplier, good quality tool in the price rangePerfect for small milling jobs using a mini lathe.

Perdón, no tengo en este momento el producto a mi alcance pero responde a lo publicado y la entrega se realizó dos días antes de lo previsto. Excelente

When buying this product, as with the mini lathe that it fits on, one is not expecting professional quality. The lathe, and this milling attachment, are products designed to give home DIY types the ability to do some basic machining without spending a lot of money. In that capacity, it does what it advertises.Mounting this attachment on the lathe either requires a bracket (sold separately,) or some home-made substitute. For now, I simply drilled and tapped the top of the cross slide (with the compound removed) to mount this square. As simple as it is, it works quite well and may become permanent. The first significant project will be to make a small vise. The little 3-screw work holding arrangement provided is not very useful, although the little T-Slots can receive some mini hold-downs - to be designed.Part of the fun of owning the mini lathe, and its accessories, is trying to make rather junky machine tools work reliably enough to produce some decent parts. This is a tool that can be made to work, at a very affordable price, and I'm quite satisfied with it.

As other people have mentioned it is not ready to use out of the box, the reason I gave this a four star is that the main components are true and at a perfect 90 degrees. the screw mechanism needed some extensive work, they installed a set screw and this stripped the threads when removing the lead screw holder. I redid the threads and used blue lock-tite instead of a set screw. I machined the surfaces and installed a thrust bearing for the elevating screw. I had to use some grinding compound on the slide. the base comes with two 4mm screws so I re-bored for 6mm screws.