For the price I'd hope that the crank mechanism would run smoother. It's quite rough and noisy. The gears are completely dry and a little grease might solve the problem, though I'm hesitant to grease it because I don't want that to cause inadvertent slipping. I did spray a small amount of WD-40 which helped reduce the noise a bit. The table top also arrived slightly damaged which is disappointing. For the price I would have expected a more durable finish.