Sherwood lathes - anyone used one?

[mickyj]

Just trying to find out if anyone has had experience with Sherwood lathes more specifically the 550 x 320mm model. Or MC-1100 or MC-900 models.

thanks.

[Optimark]

My brother had an earlier incarnation of the MC900 lathe, which I got to use sometimes, plus, I was able to observe him playing with it almost every time I visited (he has an addiction now :D ).

Nice enough lathe but there are some things I would not like in a lathe. First and foremost is the minimum speed, which is 500rpm. This is often too high for starting a job with an irregular shaped piece of wood, think of a bit of tree that you hope to shape into a bowl.

No matter how much cutting on a band saw, or whatever saw you use, to get the rough shape into a semblance of a circle, when you first put it on your lathe, unless you have extreme luck, it will be out of balance. So much so, that my experience has shown that your lathe could start rocking more than a bit.

I do not have a variable speed lathe, my lowest speed is 178rpm, next is 300rpm followed by 570rpm. I have invariably found that I start at 178rpm to get the extreme edges off, before moving up to 300rpm where the majority of my rounding efforts seem to be performed.

With regard to lathe speeds, as mentioned, my lathe has 178rpm as the slowest speed, going up in increments to 3000rpm. I have found I mostly use 570/850/1200 speeds. I certainly use the lowest three speeds when starting any irregular piece of timber. I do not recall ever using 3000rpm but when polishing small spindle mounted stuff, I have used 1800rpm or 2400rpm. The majority of my work is done at 1200rpm.

I belong to a woodturning club and have access to, and use some very good lathes, all with electronic variable speed. Over a period of time I found that I was pretty much emulating the same speeds electronically, as my home lathe. Looking around at other users, almost all seemed to use the same speed sets as I do.

The second thing I am not enamoured about with this lathe, is the position of the motor. The motor cooling input shield is directly in line of any shavings and dust that will be coming off your turning as you get close to the drive spindle/faceplate end of the lathe. Directly behind that black shield with the holes in it, is a fan designed to cool the motor.

I can understand why the design is such, it is neat and certainly enables the lathe to be stuck hard up (so to speak) on the left side against a wall or other machinery. In fact it is a space saving design, but when combined with where dust is coming from, I think it is a bit of a compromise. That said, I have never heard of any of these units suffering motor problems from dust inhalation.

I am not a fan of the speed change mechanism, but it is a reasonable one and providing you change the belt to ensure it doesn’t slip if you use your lathe a lot, it will work very well. It is a type of Constantly Variable Transmission (CVT) system, if you go to this link and look on the right side at the blue coloured animated window, you can see how the movement of the belt, in the case of these lathes by using a lever, one can get variable speeds. Study that animation for a while until you get the gist of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuously_variable_transmission (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuously_variable_transmission)

Now, after seemingly kicking these lathes in the teeth, for their price, they are an extremely good first lathe for the carry away price of $650 or $750 for the larger unit. If you are looking at what to buy as a first lathe that can handle most of the things you think you wish to do, as well as some things you don’t yet know you will wish to do, these are quite good value.

There is no such thing as a perfect lathe, more so in the economy section of the market, but either of those models are very keenly priced and will offer you a good learning curve for your next lathe in a few years’ time if you really get into turning. If you decide turning isn’t for you, then I would suggest you will not lose too much money when you offload it.

NSW is a big place, perhaps if you give your location, someone on the forum may be close by. If so, I’m sure they would be happy for you to have a look at their set-up and give some hands on advice. The best thing for me, was to visit my brother, watch him, then have a go, then watch him a bit more, then have another go. 15 minutes of hands on experience alongside another turner, is worth at least 3 months of online exploring.

Mick.

[mickyj]

Thanks Very much for your detailed reply. Yes 500 rpm I can see why is a bit fast for a minimum speed. The 550x320mm model has a lower minimum speed of 250 rpm than the MC900 model which is better but not perfect. Also the engine is mounted under the bed on the 550x320 model which would improve the dust intake issue a bit you mentioned is on the MC900 model which is mounted up top. Appreciate your comments.

cheers
Mickyj

[BlackbuttWA]

G'day Mickyj.
I have had the MC900, MC1100 & now have the Sherwood 1643. The speed adjuster on the 900 & 1100 I found annoying as the knob tended to get in the way of the stop button, apart from that they were both good lathes. Parts can be a hassle though.
The 1643 is the best of the 3 obviously with great electronic speed control which I love.
The head stock hand wheel is limiting, as I found out when I tried to fit a vacuum chuck. In the end I gave up & made a Lonwgworth chuck & my version of Cole Jaws plus some other jigs.

HTH
Col

[mickyj]

Thanks Col. That's good to know. Yeah I can't see the hand wheel on the headstock of the 900 or 1100 on the retailers website so can't be that big. But bigger on the 550x320mm model.

cheers

mickyj