I did this same mod to my 9x20 and it makes a huge difference! The only thing I did differently was to put the plate on the bandsaw after machining and saw off the degree wheel side just far enough back to open up a 3/8” window to read the degree wheel. It’s MUCH easier to read than looking down a tunnel, and doesn’t seem to affect the rigidity all! Best wishes!
Hi Matty, Thanks for the great post. I have the same lathe here in NZ. It's pretty frustrating with the flex in the standard compound. I made a solid tool post using a sandwich of 100x20 gauge plate and it worked a treat. Parts off steel now without any complaints. 40mm is a better height when using a Chinese axa-111 qctp too. Keep up the great work. Cheers Rob
Like I told someone else looks like you have seen how I use plates in the lathe. Excellent workmanship and hopefully it will stiffen up the crosslide and compound area
Gday, overall you can do a lot on these lathes, I highly suggest you take the cover off the headstock and give it a really good clean and make sure there’s no casting sand left in there that will get into the bearings, also in the saddle, there’s a video I did on repairing the apron on mine, cheers
Yeah, I just stripped down the 3 jaw chuck ‘cos it was a bit rough, it had a few bits of swarf swimming around in there. Cleaned it out and oiled it, smooth as now. I’ll take your advice and check the rest of it too.
Gday Peter, definitely an improvement, those chips where quite hot, I put a new insert in out of a new packet so I thought I’d see how they would hold up and it did really good, thanks for watching
THe 4 bolt mod is worth while. I used a 1/2 inch plate for stock. I had to cut down the bolt areas to make room for the compound to move over the Tee bolts. You might consider eliminating the compound and makinfga solid block tool holder that would mount on the cross slide to hold the cut off tool . Tightening the gibs will help the cut off operation. I find my 9 x 20 needs the slow speed for parting off. Thanks and good luck
Gday Dennis, I have thought about a solid block tool holder and I’m still toying with the idea, this maybe a really good project, have you done any other modifications to your 9 x 20?, thanks for watching, Matty
Nice upgrade Matty. The original clamping ring is probably cupped only clamping in two opposite places allowing your compound slide to rock. Your newly machined clamp applies pressure all round. Great improvement. Roll on the test video parting steel off Matty lol.
Nice job Matty. That is the number one essential mod for 9 x 20 lathes. You would think that by now they would have corrected the design - they've sold tens of thousands of the things over the years. You can actually buy an after market mod kit same as you made. I'm sure it will be a LOT better. One other cause of the flex is that the cross slide is "T" slotted full length. I did a video on this issue not long ago pointing out how this is a retrograde step. They don't do it on heavier lathes that can take it, but are sticking it on virtually every current small asian lathe out there - crazy as it just weakens the cross slide. At least yours is a lot better than some I've seen. Cheers Rob
Gday Rob, I seen your video on that, not a good design that’s for sure, I didn’t know there was a kit you could buy, I only seen other people doing the modification with parts they made themselves, thanks for watching
@@MattysWorkshop Hi again Matty, I saw that kit a long while back and just had a quick look to see if anyone still made/sold them. I found this one: deltronproducts.com/products/heavy-duty-4-bolt-jet-lathe-compound-clamp-kit Bit expensive, but at least it's available for beginners who want to get up and running quickly. Those 9 x 20 lathes are really popular and have stood the test of time well. Not perfect, but good little lathes. Cheers Rob
Gday Rob, I did a search myself last night and there bloody expensive, I think $185, way to much, your right the lathes are far from perfect but better then nothing, I think with a bit of stuffing around they can be improved quite a bit to be not a bad lathe, I’m surprised with a few things I’ve made so far, I really would have liked to brought a top quality lathe but the budget just wasn’t there, just have to make do with what I have, thanks for info mate, talk again soon, Matty
Hopefully that will sort it out . If it doesn't slide your tool post to the rear of the cross slide & see how the tool goes running upside down from the rear , it's a common set up . Cheers .
Gday Max, I’ve seen that before, today I machined up a leg that goes between the bottom of the tool and the cross slide, now just waiting on some inserts to arrive, I think I’ve got it by the balls now mate, thanks for watching
@@MattysWorkshop Hi Matty, I did this mod on my 1985 Taiwanese copy of an Emco Compact 8, much better rigidity. I went a step further & made 2 long one piece "T" nuts to spread the load. I happily part off pre-hardened K245, EN36 etc with HSS parting blade no problems. I do use the HSS M2 "P" type parting off blades from M&G Productions in Derrimut VIC. www.mag-pro.com.au/goods.php?id=240. These are cheap chinesium but they do work. Cheers Peter.
I'm sure there will be more upgrades to come... I've had my lathe a couple of years now (smaller version) and I keep finding things that need improvement 😂 excellent video tho. Look forward to the next one 😁
I have recently purchased the hafco al 51g lathe and the problem I am having is with the disengagement of the power feed. When taking a power cut to disengage requires excessive force I have reduce the load by rotating the hand wheel movement in the direction oh the chuck. It will not release smoothly even under no load. The release requires a sliding movement of the gears. Have you experienced this with your lathe and if so can you suggest a fix which will be most appreciated. Love your work.
Gday, yes that’s a problem I had with the lathe, I took the saddle off and basically lined bored and bushed the hole where the lead screw goes, the problem I found is the lead screw was flexing, I used brass bushes, I didn’t have any bronze, after doing this it really worked well really no effort at all to disengage the power feed, I think I have a video up on that repair, please let me know how you get on, cheers The video is called Al51g Apron repair
Hi Matty, how do you like that lathe? I’m thinking about getting the same one. It looks like it works Great to me. Anyway just curious. If I do get it, this Video is going to be really handy upgrading the Lathe.
Gday, this lathe isn’t a bad machine really, I did have a lot of trouble with sand in the headstock and carriage which chewed out the bearings and half nuts, a mate here in town also had the same issue on the same model lathe, I’ve since give this lathe away, also the drive belts leaves a lot to be desired, way to small, Peter from PGS got mine and I believe he’s doing a belt upgrade so might pay to keep an eye out on he’s channel,hope this helps mate, Cheers
Gday Greg, doing this modification really did help, also I put a leg under the parting tool which improved parting off 10 fold, appreciate you watching, cheers Matty
G'day Matty Sam here. I'm watching this on January 2nd 2023 a couple of years down the line. How has that held up so far? It looks a great job. Have you had to do anything to it at all? I'm surprised the hold down bolts were only 6 mm threads, as I've a chink 12"x19" chink lathe / mill combination rig and the compound is held down with M10 tee slots bolts mine is also quite unstable when parting off, and as the top of the cross slide has two tee slots running parallel to the ways and two small ones connecting the two long ones at ninety degrees from the slot out to the back and the same to the front in the centre over the cross slide lead screw. I had a block of machined steel that came from my late brother before he died more than 45 years ago now and it is about 3 X4 X 7" sand I made it into a rear tool post just for parting off, running the lathe in reverse. It's a lot more stable than using the cross slide, and I'm pretty happy with it. One question mate, was that lathe new or second hand when you got it? 'Coz it looks pretty clean even now two years later. Any way I will sign off now mate, sorry it was a bit long winded lol. Happy new year to you and your family. Cheers Sam UK
Gday Sam, I brought this lathe new and since given it away to a follow RUclips creator in Sydney, the modification I did to the clamp worked great, it’s was a lot more rigid, in saying that it still wasn’t the best at parting off, what I ended up doing was putting a screw type jack that picked up on the threaded hole on the underside of the parting tool, it then could be screwed out to touch the top of the cross slide and made the whole setup quite rigid, I think you can see this in a few of the earlier videos, parting off was super easy after this modification, I hope I explained this ok, if not please let me know mate, cheers
I did this same mod to my 9x20 and it makes a huge difference! The only thing I did differently was to put the plate on the bandsaw after machining and saw off the degree wheel side just far enough back to open up a 3/8” window to read the degree wheel. It’s MUCH easier to read than looking down a tunnel, and doesn’t seem to affect the rigidity all! Best wishes!
Hi Matty, Thanks for the great post. I have the same lathe here in NZ. It's pretty frustrating with the flex in the standard compound. I made a solid tool post using a sandwich of 100x20 gauge plate and it worked a treat. Parts off steel now without any complaints. 40mm is a better height when using a Chinese axa-111 qctp too. Keep up the great work. Cheers Rob
Like I told someone else looks like you have seen how I use plates in the lathe. Excellent workmanship and hopefully it will stiffen up the crosslide and compound area
Nice job Matty. That should make it nice and rigid. regards from the UK
Thanks Gary
Well done mate. Nice idea to improve my cheap lathe. Cheers from South Africa.
Gday, this made a big difference to the rigidity, definitely worth doing, Cheers
I think you are right that is tight and better now great job Matty God bless and have an awesome week.
Thanks Anthony.
Just got my hands on one of these lathes, this looks like a good project to upgrade it a bit, I’ll be giving it a go. Thanks for the vid!
Gday, overall you can do a lot on these lathes, I highly suggest you take the cover off the headstock and give it a really good clean and make sure there’s no casting sand left in there that will get into the bearings, also in the saddle, there’s a video I did on repairing the apron on mine, cheers
Yeah, I just stripped down the 3 jaw chuck ‘cos it was a bit rough, it had a few bits of swarf swimming around in there. Cleaned it out and oiled it, smooth as now. I’ll take your advice and check the rest of it too.
G’day Matty. Excellent improvement something I need to tackle one day. You were spitting out some very hot chips. Keep up the good work, cheers.
Peter
Gday Peter, definitely an improvement, those chips where quite hot, I put a new insert in out of a new packet so I thought I’d see how they would hold up and it did really good, thanks for watching
Always look forward to your videos Matty.
Thanks Dale, I’m glad you enjoy what I get up to here. Thanks for watching
Thanks Matty I will be doing the same thing this week.
Gday, this does make a difference, a lot more rigid mate, Cheers
THe 4 bolt mod is worth while. I used a 1/2 inch plate for stock.
I had to cut down the bolt areas to make room for the compound to move over the Tee bolts.
You might consider eliminating the compound and makinfga solid block tool holder that would mount on the cross slide to hold the cut off tool .
Tightening the gibs will help the cut off operation.
I find my 9 x 20 needs the slow speed for parting off.
Thanks and good luck
Gday Dennis, I have thought about a solid block tool holder and I’m still toying with the idea, this maybe a really good project, have you done any other modifications to your 9 x 20?, thanks for watching, Matty
Nice upgrade Matty. Will certainly improve ragidity. Regards kevin
Nice upgrade Matty. The original clamping ring is probably cupped only clamping in two opposite places allowing your compound slide to rock. Your newly machined clamp applies pressure all round. Great improvement. Roll on the test video parting steel off Matty lol.
Gday Tony, I’m just waiting on some more inserts to arrive in the mail then I’ll bang up an update, thanks for watching, Matty
Nice job Matty. That is the number one essential mod for 9 x 20 lathes. You would think that by now they would have corrected the design - they've sold tens of thousands of the things over the years. You can actually buy an after market mod kit same as you made.
I'm sure it will be a LOT better. One other cause of the flex is that the cross slide is "T" slotted full length. I did a video on this issue not long ago pointing out how this is a retrograde step. They don't do it on heavier lathes that can take it, but are sticking it on virtually every current small asian lathe out there - crazy as it just weakens the cross slide.
At least yours is a lot better than some I've seen.
Cheers Rob
Gday Rob, I seen your video on that, not a good design that’s for sure, I didn’t know there was a kit you could buy, I only seen other people doing the modification with parts they made themselves, thanks for watching
@@MattysWorkshop Hi again Matty, I saw that kit a long while back and just had a quick look to see if anyone still made/sold them. I found this one: deltronproducts.com/products/heavy-duty-4-bolt-jet-lathe-compound-clamp-kit
Bit expensive, but at least it's available for beginners who want to get up and running quickly. Those 9 x 20 lathes are really popular and have stood the test of time well. Not perfect, but good little lathes.
Cheers Rob
Gday Rob, I did a search myself last night and there bloody expensive, I think $185, way to much, your right the lathes are far from perfect but better then nothing, I think with a bit of stuffing around they can be improved quite a bit to be not a bad lathe, I’m surprised with a few things I’ve made so far, I really would have liked to brought a top quality lathe but the budget just wasn’t there, just have to make do with what I have, thanks for info mate, talk again soon, Matty
Nice work mr Matty
Thanks very much mate, cheers
Hopefully that will sort it out . If it doesn't slide your tool post to the rear of the cross slide & see how the tool goes running upside down from the rear , it's a common set up . Cheers .
Gday Max, I’ve seen that before, today I machined up a leg that goes between the bottom of the tool and the cross slide, now just waiting on some inserts to arrive, I think I’ve got it by the balls now mate, thanks for watching
@@MattysWorkshop Jake the peg with the extra leg ! i think that's how it went !
That’s how it went.
Nice job. 1 tip, (if they are hex head), make some square head bolts, or proper Tee nuts. Hex heads apply a lot of pressure at the edge of Tee slots
Gday Phil, they are only hex head bolts, tee nuts are on the “to make” list, thanks for watching
@@MattysWorkshop Hi Matty, I did this mod on my 1985 Taiwanese copy of an Emco Compact 8, much better rigidity. I went a step further & made 2 long one piece "T" nuts to spread the load. I happily part off pre-hardened K245, EN36 etc with HSS parting blade no problems. I do use the HSS M2 "P" type parting off blades from M&G Productions in Derrimut VIC. www.mag-pro.com.au/goods.php?id=240. These are cheap chinesium but they do work. Cheers Peter.
I'm sure there will be more upgrades to come... I've had my lathe a couple of years now (smaller version) and I keep finding things that need improvement 😂 excellent video tho. Look forward to the next one 😁
Gday Russell, a hobby lathe will always keep the hobby alive, Thanks for watching
Nice upgrade. And it looks good too.
Thanks Rustinox
Nice fix 👍
Thanks very much, cheers
I have recently purchased the hafco al 51g lathe and the problem I am having is with the disengagement of the power feed. When taking a power cut to disengage requires excessive force I have reduce the load by rotating the hand wheel movement in the direction oh the chuck. It will not release smoothly even under no load. The release requires a sliding movement of the gears. Have you experienced this with your lathe and if so can you suggest a fix which will be most appreciated. Love your work.
Gday, yes that’s a problem I had with the lathe, I took the saddle off and basically lined bored and bushed the hole where the lead screw goes, the problem I found is the lead screw was flexing, I used brass bushes, I didn’t have any bronze, after doing this it really worked well really no effort at all to disengage the power feed, I think I have a video up on that repair, please let me know how you get on, cheers
The video is called Al51g Apron repair
Hi Matty, how do you like that lathe? I’m thinking about getting the same one. It looks like it works Great to me. Anyway just curious. If I do get it, this Video is going to be really handy upgrading the Lathe.
Gday, this lathe isn’t a bad machine really, I did have a lot of trouble with sand in the headstock and carriage which chewed out the bearings and half nuts, a mate here in town also had the same issue on the same model lathe, I’ve since give this lathe away, also the drive belts leaves a lot to be desired, way to small, Peter from PGS got mine and I believe he’s doing a belt upgrade so might pay to keep an eye out on he’s channel,hope this helps mate, Cheers
thats a good job. enjoyed.
Thanks Emma
Nice work Matty, iv got a AL-51 lathe myself and having the same rigidity issue.. how much improvement do you think you gained from the 4 bolt plate??
Gday Greg, doing this modification really did help, also I put a leg under the parting tool which improved parting off 10 fold, appreciate you watching, cheers Matty
G'day Matty Sam here. I'm watching this on January 2nd 2023 a couple of years down the line. How has that held up so far? It looks a great job. Have you had to do anything to it at all? I'm surprised the hold down bolts were only 6 mm threads, as I've a chink 12"x19" chink lathe / mill combination rig and the compound is held down with M10 tee slots bolts mine is also quite unstable when parting off, and as the top of the cross slide has two tee slots running parallel to the ways and two small ones connecting the two long ones at ninety degrees from the slot out to the back and the same to the front in the centre over the cross slide lead screw. I had a block of machined steel that came from my late brother before he died more than 45 years ago now and it is about 3 X4 X 7" sand I made it into a rear tool post just for parting off, running the lathe in reverse. It's a lot more stable than using the cross slide, and I'm pretty happy with it. One question mate, was that lathe new or second hand when you got it? 'Coz it looks pretty clean even now two years later. Any way I will sign off now mate, sorry it was a bit long winded lol. Happy new year to you and your family. Cheers Sam UK
Gday Sam, I brought this lathe new and since given it away to a follow RUclips creator in Sydney, the modification I did to the clamp worked great, it’s was a lot more rigid, in saying that it still wasn’t the best at parting off, what I ended up doing was putting a screw type jack that picked up on the threaded hole on the underside of the parting tool, it then could be screwed out to touch the top of the cross slide and made the whole setup quite rigid, I think you can see this in a few of the earlier videos, parting off was super easy after this modification, I hope I explained this ok, if not please let me know mate, cheers
@@MattysWorkshop no mate that explains it perfectly! Cheers
@@samrodian919 definitely worth making the post up that goes under the parting tool, makes a world of difference mate