OPHIR DIY 100W 24V Mini Wood Lathe Milling Machine Tool Grinding Polishing Beads Wood Working

There are a lot of variants of this going around right now, and I think right off the bat, this one looks pretty nice and elegant compared to some of the others. It's a wonderful mini-mini-lathe. It has plenty of pros and cons, but I think the pros will outweigh the cons for most people. It's probably fair to say that lathing is likely not the first type of wood working most people do so if you're like me you're gonna know something about the tools you're using, but if not I hope this review helps. I haven't had the chance to use it as much as I want to but I'm excited, as you can see, I'm almost done making a pawn!Firstly some of the differences between this and other versions:If you're using a mini-lathe, you don't need a crazy amount of power much like people who get a Dremel won't need a crazy amount of power out of it. It spins really really fast. This version has a 100 Watt motor. Others have either a 60 - 80 Watt motor or a 200 Watt motor from what I've noticed. I imagine there would only be slight benefits for upgrading to a 200 Watt motor when you're working at 1000 + RPM. Next, the clear plastic looks very nice on this one. I haven't owned any others, but one thing I'll say, is the shield that covers the tailstock might as well be removed, it's pretty useless and I'm not sure exactly what it's supposed to be for when the majority of the wood chips wouldn't be behind the tailstock. It gets in the way more often than not.The tools:Straight away, you'll notice if you've done any wood working the tools they send you to carve wood with this lathe are actually trash. Out of the 6 tools I can't see using any, maybe just one of them, to take larger chunks out of, before switching to something else. Since I highly appreciate the lathe, this isn't that bad to me, because you can use almost anything. A cheap set of whittling tools is better than the default here. In fact, if you have nice whittling tools, even better, and you will right away notice the amount that you can sheer off and you will have no further problems. But yeah, it's amazing exactly how worthless the blades are they send you.The chuck:I didn't expect a whole lot to fit in the chuck. But it's not bad at all. Like most stuff in life, you have to rig it yourself, and figure out how to make it work for you. Just find the center of your piece, and use something metal to put in there. What I did is actually use small insert nuts, and then cut off the head of a machine screw, and use that as my tool to hold in the lathe chuck while I screw in the wood.How to make it work:One thing you have to keep in mind is you don't want to use something that will slip. You'll notice they provided a small metal piece with a screw head as one option. This may work, but it might slip when you start carving and have a catch, and then you'll notice that your piece won't stay put in the future. It's too bad it didn't come with some something with prongs or something. Still, this isn't a big deal if you just make your own holes with a drill press, and use other stuff. Still though, I feel lucky that I have a drill press. If I didn't have one, I think the convenience might lead me to rate this as 4 stars, as it's going to be difficult to rotate around the center without one.Tailstock:I actually like this little tailstock. You can see it's very sharp, and I believe it should rotate freely. Just remember to get rid of that plastic shield. Also find the place exactly across from the center of the chuck. In terms of putting the tailstock up against the piece, always nice to leave room for a sacrificial part you can cut off at the end. You can see I didn't really do that in my picture, but that's fine. I have ways. Just, drill a hole in your piece only like 1/4 inches deep, and put the tailstock up against it. Screw the feet in place and you're good to go!Speeds:I haven't gotten a chance to test out other speeds, but speed is controlled by feeding it more power, via the power adapter, which is pretty cool. The lower speeds are probably best, for most things wood working. But I imagine high speeds might make your life easier too.Closing thoughts:I can see myself making a lot of little things with this lathe. You can easily sand, and work from it closely. It's decently loud and makes plenty of dust so use PPE when you can. I believe issues with noise can also be somewhat fixed by either repositioning, or making sure things aren't vibrating somewhere nearby, and you can fix squeaking quickly with oil or lube of some kind. I'd also find a way to clamp this thing to a table when using it. It's tendency to move isn't a big deal though, as you can easily hold it down with one hand, and use a tool in your other hand. I'm sure plenty of people will run across all these issues I brought up, but for me they don't quite outweigh the benefit of this extremely lightweight machine that can make pretty good standard quality stuff. I also got this on sale at sub 50 bucks which I thought was a steal, so for me this wasn't a bad choice at all.Takeaways:- Awesome lathe that spins at high rpm for small projects.- Rig your own chuck insert- Need to use your own tools

This product would get 5 stars, except the way it is designed you lose about 40mm of length. This limits the dowels you can shape.

I recieved the item and the casing and guard was scratched and I read the product info and it said the chuck size goes up to 6.5mm witch is what most of my tools are.. no happy

So, It worked great for about 5 seconds, then no power. The power supply/converter decided it wasn't worth it's time to live so it killed itself. in the trash it went.. Thanks for nothing I do not even want a replacement..

it's my first wood lathe and so far I love it. I don't have a lot of room so it's compact size was a major selling point

Make sure to read the dimensions. This lathe is a joke. Smaller than my forearm and producing enough power to give a hamster in a wheel a run for his money. The chuck is stationary. And the jaws of said chuck don’t open wide enough to put a 6mm size object in them. I won’t return this, because the dimension s were listed and it’s my own fault for buying this CCC without paying attention. But don’t buy this junk