Anyone know of a good quality mini-lathe for not too much money? I found a Grizzly 4"x6" for $350, but that's a bit high for such a tiny lathe... I'd expect to pay that much for a 7"x10" or 7"x12".
I don't want one of those cheap Chinese things that use the 12 volt motor... I hear they burn out after a few uses.
I want to be able to custom-turn my own variator weights... once I get good at doing it, I could even make them for anyone here who wanted to experiment with their variator weights... for far cheaper than buying new weights... a 12 foot section of machinable brass to lathe the weights from is only ~$63, and you can make about 12 to 14 weights per foot of round brass rod. Lathe them to the correct OD, excavate the inside to get the weight near where it's supposed to be, then use a Dremel and a gram scale accurate to hundredths of a gram to tweak the weights so they're all within 0.01 grams of each other.
It'd make it easy to try out odd-weight sliders or rollers to fine-tune the variator to exactly how you want it to perform.
Just press out the brass center of your slider or roller, freeze the new weight to reduce its diameter a bit so it presses in more easily, press in the new weight, install the slider or roller in the variator, and go for a test ride.
