Hi William,
I'm sorry I cannot help with a supplier as I am in the UK.
The mini-lathes are built to a price so the bearings are not the best and often the spindle is not properly fitted and adjusted at the factory to get the best of what is there but in the majority of cases it should be acceptable from the box or capable of adjustment.
Mine was OK from new so it has stayed that way for the last 10 years.
If you find you have bad run-out and it cannot be adjusted to a decent level, or if you simply want a better result than can be achieved with stock then the taper bearing mod is fairly common (and has been for many years), reasonably easy and reasonably cheap (provided you don't go mad with the grade of bearing - top grade bearings can be VERY expensive and the rest of the lathe? will prevent you getting he result the bearings would be capable of)
Here is a link for a very good illustrated article on how a bearing swap is done
Gerry W
Leeds UK
To: 7x12minilathe@...
From: bemac502000@...
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2013 06:57:25 -0800
Subject: Re: [7x12minilathe] Re: chatter
?
Who is a good source for the tapered spindle bearings for mini lathes? I have a micromark 7x16 it is brand new very little use is this mod explained how to do somewhere I would have no idea how to replace spindle bearings in the headstock and is this needed on a new lathe? I haven't checked the runout of the spindle yet.
gerry waclawiak