it slips if the tool catches too much material al low speed. there is no slip at higher speeds and the motor controller will overload if too much material is removed. it has MUCH more torque capability than the old toothed belt direct to the motor. i can machine about 4mm doc on aluminum 3/4 od...
i would imagine its probly plain old hot roll cut to length for a dowel. hot roll machined ok in that it is soft, but it likes to gum up and rip off and make a rough surface unless you take a cut of about >0.100 in. or have nice sharp tools.
if it died when moving the head up and down it could be a wire going from the controller to the motor got broken.
my mini mill and mini lathe (both brushless versions) spin on there own sometimes because the potentiometers are so cheap they wear out. if i fiddle with the pot they stop turning...
i have the littlemachineshop set. i love it. bought 2 boxes of inserts on ebay for about $50 (20 inserts total) bought tcmt 21.51 and 21.52 for different nose rad. the minilathe likes the sharper tip because it generates less cutting force. the large nose tools make a nice radius on shoulders...
thats normal when soldeing brass or other copper aloys. the jewelers method of getting rid of it is to take some used pickle, and add some hydrogen peroxide. the oxygen turns the raw copper(the red stuff) into a copper oxide which is something that the pickle can remove. pickle cant take off non...