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This is a follow-up to my 8x16 Lather Buyers Guide located here - 8x16 Metal Lathe Buyers Guide | Canadian Hobby Metal Workers & Machinists
Machine Choice
Numobams – (IMPERIAL) NU210-G. 8X16 Lathe with reverse threading gearbox. Their website states the following: “NUMOBAMS NU210-G High Quality 750W Brushless Motor with Postive & Reverse Auto Feed Function Mini Metal”
The closest cousin to this machine would be the Grizzly GO768 however it has a lower watt motor and a smaller spindle bore. It does however come with a 4 jaw chuck and steady rests which the Numobams did not and needed to be ordered separately.
A side note: Since this purchase a “Semi Automatic” 8x16 lathe has been added which electronically controls the lead screw via a stepper motor. This of course removes any need to gear the lathe and gives infinite possibilities for threading as well as auto feed. Not something I would have chosen due to more electronics to fail and me being an older manual guy but a great choice for many. Probably will become the norm in the very near future.
Warranty – The only implied warranty is for a complete replacement of the control board if it fails within 180 days of delivery. Original must be returned. You may be able to force something through PayPal if you’re within 180 days as well.
Specs in ‘mm’
Added Accessories (not included with lathe)
Steady Rests
4 Jaw Chuck
Threading Dial
Multifix style (A) Tool Post kit. (Create Tool maybe) - This (A) size was chosen to take with me to a future lathe. The (A) kit comes with the 90mm wide (AD2090) tool holder. A better fit for this lathe would be the 75mm wide (AD1675).
Conclusion
Yes, let me put the end at the beginning to help make all of this clear and to save you time. I learned something with this experience, and that is... manage expectations. Most of the 8x16’s have a lot of shortcomings and deficiency's. This has considerably less but still has some. I was expecting very little to none. I was aware that it was a possibility but I thought, for some reason, that this one was going to be different based on my dealings with the company. In all fairness it probably is 100% in their books but considering all the deficiencies that is my 50% where the other lathes would have most likely been around 30%.
The lathe I received could have been good lathe out of the box if more care was taken during assembly. It is probably one of the better collection of parts that form a 8x16 lathe, but of course the damage, severe headstock misalignment and the worlds worst feeling 3 jaw chuck. The chuck was used on this lathe to keep the overall cost down as it has many other higher end parts, so I was told when I questioned it. It isn’t the higher end “Sanou” brand but something less. Sadly the 3 jaw is an integral part of a lathe, having it on this lathe diminishes the entire package BUT... It’s runout is only .0015 consistently, how can I complain about the feel when it’s this good?? It really does feel bad and how it could have been used during testing and not flagged as such goes to show the what was believed to be acceptable. This probably goes hand in hand with the damaged ways, spindle threads and oil fitting, oh and the missing steady and follow rests that I ordered.
The headstock was out resulting in a .010” taper at only 3” length, can you imagine at it’s full 18”. That is something I would hope would be addressed at the factory since it will require almost a complete disassembly to adjust. Two of the four bolts holding the headstock on are buried in the back.
The rear spindle bearing is also heating up rather quickly. Maybe too much preload or maybe a bad bearing.
They are sending me the missing parts and damaged oil fitting. They stated that I would need to pay duty etc on those parts! I stood my ground and said no, it wasn’t my responsibility and they agreed. Just like when you have an issue on auction sites they try and see what they can get away with before they actually do what they should be doing. As far as headstock being out and the rear bearing they, don’t seem to care.
I am currently trying to sort out the headstock alignment issue with the Numobams but they are resistant. They are blaming the taper on everything else and actually said I should use the tail stock to straighten the piece!!!!!
Okay, so back to beginning...
Preface
As you know I spent quite a bit of time researching the 8x16 lathe purchasing options. I eventually purchased one from China and had it shipped via boat which was subject to all the shipping issues that the world is currently facing. This review will be of the initial observations of the lathe, a small amount of operation and the company themselves. I long term update to this review will be posted once I put a sufficient amount of operating time into it.
Price
This is a bit difficult to determine as I received many discounts from advertised prices and the prices seem to be all over the place. The total was around $1660 USD for all above including shipping. $1210 USD for just the lathe and extra bits. The only surprise was an increase in shipping cost of $100 USD extra.
The Grizzly equivalent, GO768 would have been $1695 USD + $299 Shipping to Canada not including duty and taxes at the border. Including the tool post the total savings were in the neighbourhood of $700 - $800 USD. If you’re in the US do the conversion, In Canada, every US dollar saved is good, very good. Important to note that the spindle bore diameter is only 20mm with the Grizzly. My very first project required 25mm round stock that I fed through my 38mm bore. This is a big deal I think and reduces the constant reminder that you’re using a mini-lathe.
Purchase Experience
I first found the lathe on Aliexpress and sent a message inquiring. I was contacted by Sam from Numobams. I was directed to their own website to browse. Their website showed most of their products but it wasn’t as straight forward as it could have been.
NUMOBAMS < Link
The website is full of major grammatical errors. Their own website name is even misspelled. However like most of the shopping experiences from the far east this is to be expected. Communicating via email however was much easier and their English was much better.
Sam ([email protected]) was my contact there and his email is provided on the website. It appears all communication goes through him as in my billion emails back and forth I never chatted with anyone else. He was great to deal with.
If your purchase is simple as choosing and hitting buy on the website then it will be easy. If communication and order tweaking is necessary there may be some frustration. Also keep in mind, as eluded to above, their customer service isn’t really centric to the customer.
Time Time Time...
Below you’ll see my timeline. TLDR – It took forever! If you can’t handle a multi-month delay then this isn’t for you. There isn’t a distributor anywhere near me so direct from China was the only option for this specific lathe.
There was about a 3 to 4 week delay caused by me due to confirming the ‘Imperialness’ of the machine. I ensured that all the required gearing was supplied to cut the most common Imperial threads. This wasn’t very easy for them as this machine has the larger spindle so it’s not quite the same as copying the Grizzly setup. None the less they were able to do it while maintaining a very close accuracy with the Metric threads as well. The entire lathe is Imperial, this is important as many of the Imperial options of your typical 8x16 usually just have the dials changed. Even the tailstock quill shows inches.
If I had chosen a metric lathe off their website and just ordered with no add-ons or questioning emails, it all would have been about 4 weeks faster. Not much now in the scheme of things really.
2021 Nov 6th – First contact
2021 Nov 9th – Ordered and paid
2021 Nov 10th to the 28th – Sorting out the gearing for threading
2021 Dec 12th – Awaiting container
2021 Dec 29th – Advised shipping cost increased, added funds. $100 USD
2022 Jan 6th – Ship departed for Vancouver, BC with a couple Asian stops along the way.
2022 Jan 31st – Arrives off the coast of Vancouver Island and anchors awaiting slot in port with a date of Feb 6th.
2022 Feb 6th – Port date changed to Feb 28th
2022 Feb 10th or so – Port date changed to Mar 10th.
2022 Feb 25th – Port date changed to Mar 16th.
2022 stopped paying attention...
2022 March 19th – Arrived at the Vancouver Port.
2022 March 31st – Ready for pickup at the warehouse
2022 April 1st – Finally got my lathe!!!!!!
Eyes on the Product
It came packed in a very well built crate.
The warehouse staff helped me load it into my vehicle.
Popped the top off while still in the vehicle to remove access weight for easier moving.
There it is, with all the extra bits. It was bolted to the crate obviously, the tail stock was locked, the carriage and post were locked into the chuck jaws to prevent rotation and movement. No handles were bent or broken which was a concern due to all the heavy extras floating around in the crate.
Before you freak out, I was given a color option at the time of ordering but this is their signature color and I felt like being different.
So after researching these 8x16’s in an OCD fashion, I immediately noticed that this lathe looked better vs the others. It is quite similar to the Grizzly in build I would say.
Things of note: The gear table was specifically made for me and for this machine. I wanted all the threading options like the Grizzly, so they had the sticker custom made to suit. They also supplied all the extra gears at no extra cost. Excellent service on their part helping me through all of this. The threading dial and sticker were installed on the machine.
So being a large bore machine (38mm), it also came with a 38mm bore 3 jaw chuck (more on that chuck later).
You can see some decent metal gears stamped with the tooth count.
You can also see a safety cutoff switch in case the panel comes loose or you try and stick your fingers in.
It’s a bit oily and dirty in there from the testing.
Initial Inspection
Good (comparing to other 8x16 lathes)
Seems to be built with better than average parts
Paint and casting finishing is good (see above photos)
Panel gaps are even and straight (see above photos)
Stainless hardware (gib and panel screws)
Control Board heat-sink – This is something new to me, haven’t seen it on any 8x16 before. Being an electronics guy I always love to see the dissipation of heat in circuits and designs. This is something that the Grizzly doesn’t appear to have either. Just to confirm, I had to see if anything was actually mounted to the heat-sink.
Yes the panel came missing a screw. Looking at the board though I can see the capacitors are 105 degree which is good. They are also potted to protect them from vibration. The Mosfets are all mounted on the underside of the board to make use of the heat-sink. There are a lot of old school through hole components which will make this easier to diagnose and repair. Seems like a thoughtful design.
Bad
- Steady and Follow rests missing, adds another month or two to have a complete lathe.
- Damage on the ways
- Damage on Spindle thread
- Oil fitting damaged
- Headstock out of alignment
- Rear spindle bearing heating up
- Screw missing on back heat sink
- Gear spacers missing for all gear setups
- Gears not properly meshed, making a racket while running
- Compound not smooth due to bent gib
- 3 Jaw chuck is low quality, definitely the lowest quality item on this lathe
WAY DAMAGE
Damage was caused after the bed grinding as I was able to find high spots around the dents.
SPINDLE THREAD DAMAGE
Again the damage was caused post nut install as the threads are still mashed over and not cleaned by the nut install.
OIL FITTING DAMAGED
I popped it back out but anytime you touch it gets stuck again. Spring inside must be all wonky.
There was just so much carelessness with this lathe during all the testing. I was afraid all the testing to make sure it was Imperial increased the risk, I should have known better.
3 JAW CHUCK POOR QUALITY
The 3 jaw chuck was awful. The jaws were hard to move, it felt like something was grinding itself up upon moving any of the jaws and I could see brass and other debris all over it. I pulled it off and it looked like this:
Yes, all those extra holes in the back cover AND casting!!! were there along with all those leafy looking bits of who knows what. I have no idea how this chuck made it to market and on this lathe. Zero quality control.
Teeth full of metal shavings.
I took it apart, cleaned and deburred and cleaned some more. It’s about 85% now. There are a couple tight spots near closing, run out is consistently .0015” which is a bonus I guess.
When I questioned Numobams about the chuck quality, I was advised that it was a cost saving measure. In my opinion it’s a great way to diminish your products credibility.
OPERATION
I got the chance to use the lathe to build the Multifix Toolpost fittings required to fit onto the stock toolpost post. I wanted to make sure that I could easily revert as the Multifix will come with me to the next lathe.
The carriage and cross slides are smooth and tight. The compound needs help. The travel is loose in the middle and tight on each end obviously. For now I’ve just tightened it up until I need to move it.
I don’t like the gearing of the carriage wheel, 1” per revolution which is too much for me.
The slowest I can gear the autofeed down to is .006”/rotation. The Grizzly can get down to .0037” due to it’s smaller drive gear which I think is much better for this lathe’s ability. I’m going to work on some mods to maybe get close to that if possible.
CONTROLS
The controls are the same as most other 8x16’s. On/Off, fwd/neutral/rev, variable speed. This machine has a gearbox to switch the direction of the lead screw for left hand threading. The biggest plus of this gearbox is that I can deactivate the lead screw which reduces a bit of load on the motor, makes it a bit quieter and reduces unnecessary wear on the lead screw hardware.
UNDER LOAD
Upon changing the load on the machine while cutting I can briefly see a drop in RPM and a ramp up of the motor which is getting more power to provide more torque. I’m guessing the control board delivers only as much power that is currently needed and no more to prevent overheating and wear. This of course is not ideal when in the middle of a cut as it is impossible to maintain the same finish, at least I can’t. I like the idea but I wish it was twice as fast to cycle up.
THE END
Overall I totally regret making this purchase.
What would you do if this was your experience?
Machine Choice
Numobams – (IMPERIAL) NU210-G. 8X16 Lathe with reverse threading gearbox. Their website states the following: “NUMOBAMS NU210-G High Quality 750W Brushless Motor with Postive & Reverse Auto Feed Function Mini Metal”
The closest cousin to this machine would be the Grizzly GO768 however it has a lower watt motor and a smaller spindle bore. It does however come with a 4 jaw chuck and steady rests which the Numobams did not and needed to be ordered separately.
A side note: Since this purchase a “Semi Automatic” 8x16 lathe has been added which electronically controls the lead screw via a stepper motor. This of course removes any need to gear the lathe and gives infinite possibilities for threading as well as auto feed. Not something I would have chosen due to more electronics to fail and me being an older manual guy but a great choice for many. Probably will become the norm in the very near future.
Warranty – The only implied warranty is for a complete replacement of the control board if it fails within 180 days of delivery. Original must be returned. You may be able to force something through PayPal if you’re within 180 days as well.
Specs in ‘mm’
Added Accessories (not included with lathe)
Steady Rests
4 Jaw Chuck
Threading Dial
Multifix style (A) Tool Post kit. (Create Tool maybe) - This (A) size was chosen to take with me to a future lathe. The (A) kit comes with the 90mm wide (AD2090) tool holder. A better fit for this lathe would be the 75mm wide (AD1675).
Conclusion
Yes, let me put the end at the beginning to help make all of this clear and to save you time. I learned something with this experience, and that is... manage expectations. Most of the 8x16’s have a lot of shortcomings and deficiency's. This has considerably less but still has some. I was expecting very little to none. I was aware that it was a possibility but I thought, for some reason, that this one was going to be different based on my dealings with the company. In all fairness it probably is 100% in their books but considering all the deficiencies that is my 50% where the other lathes would have most likely been around 30%.
The lathe I received could have been good lathe out of the box if more care was taken during assembly. It is probably one of the better collection of parts that form a 8x16 lathe, but of course the damage, severe headstock misalignment and the worlds worst feeling 3 jaw chuck. The chuck was used on this lathe to keep the overall cost down as it has many other higher end parts, so I was told when I questioned it. It isn’t the higher end “Sanou” brand but something less. Sadly the 3 jaw is an integral part of a lathe, having it on this lathe diminishes the entire package BUT... It’s runout is only .0015 consistently, how can I complain about the feel when it’s this good?? It really does feel bad and how it could have been used during testing and not flagged as such goes to show the what was believed to be acceptable. This probably goes hand in hand with the damaged ways, spindle threads and oil fitting, oh and the missing steady and follow rests that I ordered.
The headstock was out resulting in a .010” taper at only 3” length, can you imagine at it’s full 18”. That is something I would hope would be addressed at the factory since it will require almost a complete disassembly to adjust. Two of the four bolts holding the headstock on are buried in the back.
The rear spindle bearing is also heating up rather quickly. Maybe too much preload or maybe a bad bearing.
They are sending me the missing parts and damaged oil fitting. They stated that I would need to pay duty etc on those parts! I stood my ground and said no, it wasn’t my responsibility and they agreed. Just like when you have an issue on auction sites they try and see what they can get away with before they actually do what they should be doing. As far as headstock being out and the rear bearing they, don’t seem to care.
I am currently trying to sort out the headstock alignment issue with the Numobams but they are resistant. They are blaming the taper on everything else and actually said I should use the tail stock to straighten the piece!!!!!
Okay, so back to beginning...
Preface
As you know I spent quite a bit of time researching the 8x16 lathe purchasing options. I eventually purchased one from China and had it shipped via boat which was subject to all the shipping issues that the world is currently facing. This review will be of the initial observations of the lathe, a small amount of operation and the company themselves. I long term update to this review will be posted once I put a sufficient amount of operating time into it.
Price
This is a bit difficult to determine as I received many discounts from advertised prices and the prices seem to be all over the place. The total was around $1660 USD for all above including shipping. $1210 USD for just the lathe and extra bits. The only surprise was an increase in shipping cost of $100 USD extra.
The Grizzly equivalent, GO768 would have been $1695 USD + $299 Shipping to Canada not including duty and taxes at the border. Including the tool post the total savings were in the neighbourhood of $700 - $800 USD. If you’re in the US do the conversion, In Canada, every US dollar saved is good, very good. Important to note that the spindle bore diameter is only 20mm with the Grizzly. My very first project required 25mm round stock that I fed through my 38mm bore. This is a big deal I think and reduces the constant reminder that you’re using a mini-lathe.
Purchase Experience
I first found the lathe on Aliexpress and sent a message inquiring. I was contacted by Sam from Numobams. I was directed to their own website to browse. Their website showed most of their products but it wasn’t as straight forward as it could have been.
NUMOBAMS < Link
The website is full of major grammatical errors. Their own website name is even misspelled. However like most of the shopping experiences from the far east this is to be expected. Communicating via email however was much easier and their English was much better.
Sam ([email protected]) was my contact there and his email is provided on the website. It appears all communication goes through him as in my billion emails back and forth I never chatted with anyone else. He was great to deal with.
If your purchase is simple as choosing and hitting buy on the website then it will be easy. If communication and order tweaking is necessary there may be some frustration. Also keep in mind, as eluded to above, their customer service isn’t really centric to the customer.
Time Time Time...
Below you’ll see my timeline. TLDR – It took forever! If you can’t handle a multi-month delay then this isn’t for you. There isn’t a distributor anywhere near me so direct from China was the only option for this specific lathe.
There was about a 3 to 4 week delay caused by me due to confirming the ‘Imperialness’ of the machine. I ensured that all the required gearing was supplied to cut the most common Imperial threads. This wasn’t very easy for them as this machine has the larger spindle so it’s not quite the same as copying the Grizzly setup. None the less they were able to do it while maintaining a very close accuracy with the Metric threads as well. The entire lathe is Imperial, this is important as many of the Imperial options of your typical 8x16 usually just have the dials changed. Even the tailstock quill shows inches.
If I had chosen a metric lathe off their website and just ordered with no add-ons or questioning emails, it all would have been about 4 weeks faster. Not much now in the scheme of things really.
2021 Nov 6th – First contact
2021 Nov 9th – Ordered and paid
2021 Nov 10th to the 28th – Sorting out the gearing for threading
2021 Dec 12th – Awaiting container
2021 Dec 29th – Advised shipping cost increased, added funds. $100 USD
2022 Jan 6th – Ship departed for Vancouver, BC with a couple Asian stops along the way.
2022 Jan 31st – Arrives off the coast of Vancouver Island and anchors awaiting slot in port with a date of Feb 6th.
2022 Feb 6th – Port date changed to Feb 28th
2022 Feb 10th or so – Port date changed to Mar 10th.
2022 Feb 25th – Port date changed to Mar 16th.
2022 stopped paying attention...
2022 March 19th – Arrived at the Vancouver Port.
2022 March 31st – Ready for pickup at the warehouse
2022 April 1st – Finally got my lathe!!!!!!
Eyes on the Product
It came packed in a very well built crate.
The warehouse staff helped me load it into my vehicle.
Popped the top off while still in the vehicle to remove access weight for easier moving.
There it is, with all the extra bits. It was bolted to the crate obviously, the tail stock was locked, the carriage and post were locked into the chuck jaws to prevent rotation and movement. No handles were bent or broken which was a concern due to all the heavy extras floating around in the crate.
Before you freak out, I was given a color option at the time of ordering but this is their signature color and I felt like being different.
So after researching these 8x16’s in an OCD fashion, I immediately noticed that this lathe looked better vs the others. It is quite similar to the Grizzly in build I would say.
Things of note: The gear table was specifically made for me and for this machine. I wanted all the threading options like the Grizzly, so they had the sticker custom made to suit. They also supplied all the extra gears at no extra cost. Excellent service on their part helping me through all of this. The threading dial and sticker were installed on the machine.
So being a large bore machine (38mm), it also came with a 38mm bore 3 jaw chuck (more on that chuck later).
You can see some decent metal gears stamped with the tooth count.
You can also see a safety cutoff switch in case the panel comes loose or you try and stick your fingers in.
It’s a bit oily and dirty in there from the testing.
Initial Inspection
Good (comparing to other 8x16 lathes)
Seems to be built with better than average parts
Paint and casting finishing is good (see above photos)
Panel gaps are even and straight (see above photos)
Stainless hardware (gib and panel screws)
Control Board heat-sink – This is something new to me, haven’t seen it on any 8x16 before. Being an electronics guy I always love to see the dissipation of heat in circuits and designs. This is something that the Grizzly doesn’t appear to have either. Just to confirm, I had to see if anything was actually mounted to the heat-sink.
Yes the panel came missing a screw. Looking at the board though I can see the capacitors are 105 degree which is good. They are also potted to protect them from vibration. The Mosfets are all mounted on the underside of the board to make use of the heat-sink. There are a lot of old school through hole components which will make this easier to diagnose and repair. Seems like a thoughtful design.
Bad
- Steady and Follow rests missing, adds another month or two to have a complete lathe.
- Damage on the ways
- Damage on Spindle thread
- Oil fitting damaged
- Headstock out of alignment
- Rear spindle bearing heating up
- Screw missing on back heat sink
- Gear spacers missing for all gear setups
- Gears not properly meshed, making a racket while running
- Compound not smooth due to bent gib
- 3 Jaw chuck is low quality, definitely the lowest quality item on this lathe
WAY DAMAGE
Damage was caused after the bed grinding as I was able to find high spots around the dents.
SPINDLE THREAD DAMAGE
Again the damage was caused post nut install as the threads are still mashed over and not cleaned by the nut install.
OIL FITTING DAMAGED
I popped it back out but anytime you touch it gets stuck again. Spring inside must be all wonky.
There was just so much carelessness with this lathe during all the testing. I was afraid all the testing to make sure it was Imperial increased the risk, I should have known better.
3 JAW CHUCK POOR QUALITY
The 3 jaw chuck was awful. The jaws were hard to move, it felt like something was grinding itself up upon moving any of the jaws and I could see brass and other debris all over it. I pulled it off and it looked like this:
Yes, all those extra holes in the back cover AND casting!!! were there along with all those leafy looking bits of who knows what. I have no idea how this chuck made it to market and on this lathe. Zero quality control.
Teeth full of metal shavings.
I took it apart, cleaned and deburred and cleaned some more. It’s about 85% now. There are a couple tight spots near closing, run out is consistently .0015” which is a bonus I guess.
When I questioned Numobams about the chuck quality, I was advised that it was a cost saving measure. In my opinion it’s a great way to diminish your products credibility.
OPERATION
I got the chance to use the lathe to build the Multifix Toolpost fittings required to fit onto the stock toolpost post. I wanted to make sure that I could easily revert as the Multifix will come with me to the next lathe.
The carriage and cross slides are smooth and tight. The compound needs help. The travel is loose in the middle and tight on each end obviously. For now I’ve just tightened it up until I need to move it.
I don’t like the gearing of the carriage wheel, 1” per revolution which is too much for me.
The slowest I can gear the autofeed down to is .006”/rotation. The Grizzly can get down to .0037” due to it’s smaller drive gear which I think is much better for this lathe’s ability. I’m going to work on some mods to maybe get close to that if possible.
CONTROLS
The controls are the same as most other 8x16’s. On/Off, fwd/neutral/rev, variable speed. This machine has a gearbox to switch the direction of the lead screw for left hand threading. The biggest plus of this gearbox is that I can deactivate the lead screw which reduces a bit of load on the motor, makes it a bit quieter and reduces unnecessary wear on the lead screw hardware.
UNDER LOAD
Upon changing the load on the machine while cutting I can briefly see a drop in RPM and a ramp up of the motor which is getting more power to provide more torque. I’m guessing the control board delivers only as much power that is currently needed and no more to prevent overheating and wear. This of course is not ideal when in the middle of a cut as it is impossible to maintain the same finish, at least I can’t. I like the idea but I wish it was twice as fast to cycle up.
THE END
Overall I totally regret making this purchase.
What would you do if this was your experience?
And then having the seller who I truly believed was better than the rest turned out to only be 33.33% better.