Zerk Fittings. Zerk fittings. No wrench. No thread locker. No milling machine. No depth gauge.   Pump some grease, rotate a bit, pump some grease. The act of gears meshing will get the grease where it needs to be.

I’m an over thinker, too. It’s very easy to get hung up on every detail and lost in the minutiae. It’s good to ask what it is that you’re trying to accomplish before beginning a project, how you intend to do that, what is/are the most important aspect(s), etc. Then, I write a list of the steps or everything I have to do to get it done. Everything in life is a trade off. Quality vs Efficiency. Time vs money.
Time trumps money, always. You can make a ton of money, spend it all and make more. Time, however…is finite. At least in the linear sense which we perceive and measure it.
Remembering that, quality vs efficiency becomes a balancing act. What is perfect, what will work and what is best that I can live with.
Zerk fittings. I can live with Zerk fittings.

Thank you for creating this video, and I wish you continued success. I enjoyed watching your video.
While installing the bearings, the rear bearing was installed correctly, but there was an error in installing the front bearing. I felt it necessary to send this correction so that others do not make the same mistake.

While this operation,  when installing the front bearing, the outer ring of the bearing should first be pressed into the housing, then the bottom of the inner ring should be supported from below with a tube, and the shaft should be pressed into the inner ring from above.

When installing bearings, never applied any force from one ring to another, through the rolling parts. This will cause the bearing's lifespan to end before it is even installed and used.

That headstock sure is rough sounding with steel gears.

I had a problem that everyone should know about. It’s an Einhell mtb3000 mini lathe, basically the same as in this video, although branded differently. I switched to angular bearings, and it was impossible to set preload properly. The shaft was - even before reassemby of the chuck - bouncing at least 1-2 mm. My suggestion is the following. There is a gear on the shaft, and two spacer rings on the sides. These give out the full shaft length available, making it impossible to approximate the bearings ( preloading) beyond a certain point. I think I have to disassemble the whole thing again, and remove some of the spacer ring widths ir replace them with some thinner metal rings. Guys there, what is your opinion or experience? Thanks!
Update: I was right. I changed one of the spacers to a simple rubber o ring and that is it! I could preload the angular bearings.

Colchester used Gamet tapered bearings in their head stocks for many years, and Lilkey still do. They are oil bath, and on a small lathe may cause design issues.

I installed a set of sealed angular contact bearings but replaced the plastic spacer between the bearing and the nuts.  The plastic spacer will deform over time and increase the backlash in the spindle.  Now that you have the lathe back together it would be an easy task to make a steel spacer and install it in place of the plastic one.  I tried the steel gears in drive train and had the same excruciating noise your lathe has from them...very poorly made gears...went back to the plastic gears and have not had any trouble with them (lathe is 39 years old).

Where can I buy those metal gears friend?

5:34 i did the same holes with my WEN 7"X12" mini lathe  to lubricate the new steel gears  with liquid grease WURTH LPC200, and works very very good.

Sealed angular would be nice, a small rat tail file made quick work of the thickness difference on the plastic spacer making about 3/32 room for the key. felt goes a long way to seal the bearings and some aero shell clayed grease. Not to mention a 5000lb vehicle goes 100k miles on a single lube session so It’s highly unlikely it would ever be an issue. But we’ll see. YMMV. Now to get some gib strips that don’t suck…lol

Way too much woffle .......Get to the point !

Excelent video. Thanks

Very Nice Job! I am copying your design, Implementation.  I too had bought the tapered roller bearings from Timken and realised the same and then bought the angular contact bearings. I just wasnt happy  running the tapered rollers without an oil bath or way to grease them.  Nery nice work sir. Now I am off to find 5/8 x 1/2" fine thread headless allen bolts.

I fitted angular contact bearings to my lathe. The headstock is the same as yours. I no longer use the gears as i run the lathe vi a 3/4hp 3 phase motor and vfd. The gears are still in the headstock, but are locked in Neutral as the spindle is now driven directly by the motor.
The bearings have stood up well and  have been in about 3 years and still seem fine. I check the preload occasionally but they have not needed adjustment so far. I have a lot of projects awaiting my attention, but lack of time and cold weather means i am not spending a lot of time in my mini workshop at the moment.  I have the same mill as you  as well and the larger x2.7 mill as well, also a slightly larger lathe than yours, All of which get used. Keep up the good work you have a good channel.

Very informative. Thanks

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Wonder where you got your metal gears  I got mine at LMS and even after a second set they had way more backlash than rhe nylon originals. Just a lot of noise and affect cuts more. The weak part is the belt and plastic motor pulley. Such a pain to keep the belt tight. Tear everything down to get to the motor bolts.

There different types of grease, just thought like to help and works very very well,  motor bike chain have this spray that it's very stick as motorbike chains need this type of grease. There great on the gearing as it doesn't fly off the gears and bearings and for shore no mess.

For anyone doing this, It may be a lot easier to just use brass tapered pipe thread plugs like 1/4" or 3/8" NPT and tap then shallow, so they don't intrude deep into the case. If they do intrude at all, just file them down as much as needed.  (If your in north America and don't have a mill to cut down the 5/8-18 plugs.)  I just ordered the angular contact bearings for mine, and ran across your video. Thanks for putting it up. The speed control chart and dial control backplate is a excellent idea as well!

Could you share the name and/or where you purchased them so I could try this mod? Thanks, excellent video!