New Lathe

[thefixer]

Took a drive down to Carbatec this mornin' with every intention of buying the MC900 and a few extra bits. I Had been fortunate enough to earn a little extra cash recently,( for gawds sake don't tell costello or howard). But after much deliberation and a lot of advice from the very helpful staff at Carbatec I finally decided on the MC1100 and the teknatool G3 Scroll chuck. For the extra $100 it was worth the change of mind. I can't even begin to explain the difference in feel from the shake rattle and roll of the GMC. The young bloke Jack was more excited than I was, I probably won't get near the thing now unless I break his legs:U . This is a fantastic machine considering the price and will post some pics as soon as we turn up something worth showing. Won't take long I reckon.


Cheers for now
Shorty

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Took a drive down to Carbatec this mornin' with every intention of buying the MC900 and a few extra bits. I Had been fortunate enough to earn a little extra cash recently,( for gawds sake don't tell costello or howard). But after much deliberation and a lot of advice from the very helpful staff at Carbatec I finally decided on the MC1100 and the teknatool G3 Scroll chuck. For the extra $100 it was worth the change of mind. I can't even begin to explain the difference in feel from the shake rattle and roll of the GMC. The young bloke Jack was more excited than I was, I probably won't get near the thing now unless I break his legs:U . This is a fantastic machine considering the price and will post some pics as soon as we turn up something worth showing. Won't take long I reckon.

Good choice. :)

Personally I would've gone for the MC-900 & Teknatool SuperNova2 instead, but that's 'cos I know what best suits me.

May she keep you joyfully entertained for years to come. :D

[thefixer]

That was my original path but I felt the extra horse power and heavier bed was worth the cost. Can always get a better quality scroll chuck later which is cheaper than a new lathe. It never hurts to have two chucks but I don't have enough room for two lathes :((

Cheers
Shorty

[hughie]

Good choice. :)
Personally I would've gone for the MC-900 & Teknatool SuperNova2 instead, but that's 'cos I know what best suits me.



Yep. I would have gone for the SN2 as well. But at the end of the day you've got a lathe and a good chuck. The beauty of Teknatool tool stuff is the the jaws are all interchangeable across the range of chucks. Except I think for the Titan and you can never have too many chucks. :U:U:U:U:U

Good choice of a low cost entry point lathe.

[rsser]

The Titan is supposed to take all the jaws; only the Titan Powergrip jaws won't work on the other chucks cos they've got three screw mounts.

[Tornatus]

I agree with the others, Shorty - you have made a good choice of "entry-level" lathe. I have an MC900, mainly because of available space, and I am overall very happy with it - it might be a bit rough around the edges, but it's robust and can handle just about anything I throw at it. (If ever I want to turn something too big/heavy for the MC, I have the advantage of a good woodworking club which has several large Vicmarcs for members to use.)

My main reason for joining the thread was to alert you to a number of very helpful posts on this forum which deal with "tweaking", or fine-tuning, the MC900/1100. I keep dropping hints that it would be great if someone could pull all these references together, for the sake of new owners like yourself and others who strike a problem for the first time. Not that the lathes are problem-ridden, but they do have some well-known quirks which are fairly easily dealt with. Just do a forum search on MC900 and MC1100, and most of them should show up.

Probably THE most important, though, BEFORE YOU BEGIN TURNING is to THOROUGHLY LUBRICATE the shafts of the Reeves pulley system which constitutes the variable speed mechanism, and to keep doing that (as well as cleaning out any gunk) regularly thereafter. This will save you a heap of grief, extend the life of your belt, and keep the speed control moving smoothly. I prefer INOX as the lubricant, as it will not harm your wood.

Above all, enjoy yourself!