AUDIO steel gears mini lathe

Mindless Boring: Audio/sound of steel gears running in a mini lathe. I have replaced all of the plastic change gears in my big dog 7x14 mini lathe with steel. Yes the metal change gears are definitely more loud, but let's face it is a machine tool. The big dog metal cutting mini lathe (bd-7x14) has all steel gears in the headstock, but uses plastic gears for the threading change gear ratios. On my lathe, I needed to set up 2.5 tpi, the manufacturer (max) rating for thread cutting under power feed is 8 threads per inch, so my set up is a approximately 350 percent over the rating for the machine.
The the tumbler mechanism that controls forward and reverse of the lead screw immediately pitched 4 teeth. Not because the machine was loaded but because of its location on the aluminum belt cover was effecting the mesh/lash. The casting was of poor finish, and had obviously shrunk during cooling. This was quickly remedied by big dog metal works and I would recommend their product to anyone who was looking into a 7x14 mini lathe. The stock plastic change gears showed signs of hair-line cracks while still new and unused. These could be seen looking at them under a magnifying glass. I suspect this is another cooling issue with the injection molding process. Eye and ear protection is recommended while operating any machine tool, and while I certainly wear safety glasses operating the lathe, I rarely use ear plugs in my shop. The addition of steel of gears to any mini lathe will certainly increased its reliability not to mention adding a bit of weight which is always a bonus on any lathe. This video shows the steel gears running on my machine with the audio zoomed for you're listening pleasure. I never knew cutting metals and steel to be a quiet job but it is certainly less noisy than running a power saw. = SHARE ROCKNTV1