Have been looking at getting a new wood lathe for my pen turning and couldn't quite make up my mind whether to go for a full size one or a mini. Wanted EVS, but wasn't that impressed with the Woodfast M305 with EVS, too much side play on the tailstock, very disappointing. Then 2 things happened almost simultaneously, I picked up a 1hp 3ph motor with a VFD on Ebay at a reasonable price and texx put up his thread on the purchase of his Carbatec Mini Lathe MC1018.

Went to Carbatec yesterday and inspected the 10x18 on display. The side to side play on the display model was as bad as on my MC900.

Asked whether they had some in stock, bloke went to have a look and came back with one still in the box. We took it out and there was zero side to side play in the tailstock, so bought that one.

By the time we came home it was too late (and I was too tired after a 500km round trip) to play with the new toy.

This morning took it out of the box and started playing with the new toy, first impressions were favourable, bit rough but this is not a top notch machine and everything seemed to work as advertised. It runs quite smoothly and quietly, certainly much quieter than my MC900 that's for sure. Tailstock travel is about as texx indicated, tailstock wheel seems a bit loose and wobbly, but what the heck it is on the MC900 as well.

Next step, put my ER25 collet chuck in the headstock, start her up and to my horror you could see the run-out with the naked eye, no dial indicator needed here! To quantify it, I put my trusty dial indicator on it and to my horror found a run-out of about 25thou, not nice Virginia.

Have a call in to Carbatec now, not sure whether they have more of these in stock that I can swap over, otherwise it will be a return. Another 500km round trip coming up, just as well the car is on gas.

Must say the service I got at Carbatec was excellent, Ian couldn't do enough for me, top marks.

Also had a look at all the other lathes on display, the stand-out one was the Woodfast M910 with EVS, on sale at $2495, a bargain in anyone's language. Total overkill for turning pens and way too high for a short *rse like me, even higher than the Vicmarcs. The quality on this machine is far superior to that on the small Woodfast, almost looks like they come out of different factories. I suppose one could build a platform, but I can see myself stepping back and breaking my back.

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Cheers Fred
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They may well come out of different factories, but only Woodfast could answer that.

Some years ago-3/4 - I went to a fellow turner's place for some advice. He had a Small Woodfast and the thing was a shocker. He sent a few bickies to get things straightened out, but it still wasn't the best.

Thought I would post the pictures I took of the tolerances on the headstock spindle.

First we have 4 shots of the outside deviation of the headstock spindle, a very impressive result for a $279 lathe and I am happy with.

These shots were taken at 4 different positions around the outside circumference.

Attached Thumbnails

       

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Cheers Fred
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The female Morse taper of the headstock is unfortunately a different, and less impressive, story.

Exchanged some PMs with texx and he suggested that perhaps there was some dirt or packing grease inside the spindle, even though I had cleaned in there I cleaned very throughly again with turps. Unfortunately, it made no difference.

First pair are are done with my MT2 dead centre, a deviation of 23thou.

Second pair with the 4 prong drive centre supplied with the machine, almost 24 thou

Third pair with my ER25 collet chuck, 26 thou

Final pair shows a visual comparison of the dead centre and the supplied live centre, first lined up as well as I could achieve, then rotated about 180deg. As you can see there is quite a deviation, certainly far too much not to cause out of round in a pen.

Attached Thumbnails

         

     

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Cheers Fred
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Fred is that the yellow coloured one on their site??

Its out a bit between and with run out included you could make 3 sided pens without a problem Fred

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Yes, it is, they probably changed it to the Blue and Grey to distinguish it from the Woodfast one.

To be fair, the only problem is the internal taper, the rest is fine. But as I do 95% of my work with the collet chuck it makes it useless to me. If you were using it with a scroll chuck you'd be fine. Put my Nova G3 scroll chuck on with the new 30x3.5 adapter and it ran true as.

__________________
Cheers Fred
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Fred, the M910 maybe over kill for turning pens, but gee it's a nice toy. . . I still haven't used mine in anger, but I got my Nova Morse Taper aligner straight in

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Pat
"I think a man ought to get drunk at least twice a year just on principle, so he won't let himself get snotty about it."
- Raymond Chandler

Pat, couldn't agree with you more, I was in awe of that machine, so well made and finished, it would be a joy to use

Only criticism, for me any way, is that it is way too high for me.

But for the price that Carbatec is selling it for it would be hard to beat, $2495 buys you a lot of lathe indeed, I'm sure you will be very happy with it.

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Cheers Fred
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Rub it in Pat we'll all want one. Still not one item turned on it yet

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Fred, I think a Vic Marc VL100 would be good!, but even there you may find some small difference. Amos

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Starting to think that perhaps I should go that way Amos, should have had a look at yours yesterday.

Trouble is, the last time I looked at a VL100 it wasn't really any better than the little Woodfast as far as tailstock side to side slop was concerned. Now I have a mini lathe with absolute zero side to side tailstock slop, but 25thou off centre MT2 female in the headstock spindle.

Probably coming down to Melbourne again on Wednesday to go to Carbatec so might stop in on the way. Carbatec don't have stock of the VL100 without the motor either (or any VL100 for that matter).

Perhaps I should have bid on theVL100 on Ebay a little while ago, but they wanted about $400 for that and it looked well used and was in Sydney

__________________
Cheers Fred
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Fred, I had two pen lathes(Jet) and one midi (Jet), finally got rid of them and got a Vic Marc, much, much, much better but I still have some issue with not turning round and that is very frustrating. ,;
Probably to get the results we want we need a larger Metal Lathe with the Tail Stock mounted firmly on the rails, and a free standing tool rest , basically turn the Metal lathe into a wood lathe!, Amos

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Hope it all works out for you fred. I have a MC 1100 and its the only woodlathe i have ever used so i wouldn't know any better. When you go back to carbatec you should take dial gauge with you, check the other one and swap the tail stocks. You might get the best of each and have a good one. I would pity the person who gets all the leftovers though. I bought a 6 inch square from mitre ten once and returned it and another for they were both out by 2 - 3 mm at the end. Was looked at like I had 2 heads when I explained my issue and they asked me to prove it with doubt in there voice. The third one was okay. Sometimes pushing the issue can pay off. Good luck with the lathe.
Kim

Amos, I find it sad that even with a $2300 little wood lathe one doesn't get precision.

I almost bought another metal lathe off Ebay exactly like the one we have, the Steelmaster SM0920V. It has everything I'm looking for except tailstock travel is a bit on the short side, so I procrastinated and someone else snapped it up on Buy It Now for $900 with a lot of extras.

I know I have said this before, but when you see how these (relatively cheap) metal lathes are engineered and then compare them to a wood lathe like the Vicmarc VL100 you have to wonder where the money goes.

Vicmarc VL100 - EVS - $2295 - minor tailstock slop

Hafco WL36 - EVS - $1650 - minor tailstock slop

Woodfast M305 - EVS - $1100 - substantial tailstock slop

Steelmaster SM0920V - EVS - $1200 - absolutely no tailstock slop

Some of the wood lathes also still require belt changes to get the full range of speeds, the Steelmaster goes from 0-900 and from 110-2000 with the flick of one dial on the gearbox, motor is 1hp. When you look at the features and egineering of a metal lathe and what they cost and then look at the features and engineering of your average wood lathe and how they cost, both Chinese and Australian made, you wonder where the difference goes?

The average metal machinist wouldn't look at a wood lathe and buy one I reckon.

The metal lathe has a finely ground double V bed, tailstock slides smoothly and precisely along its' entire length, headstocks are heavy and precise, have big spindles (even my little 9x20 has an M39x4 spindle and 20mm inside through capacity with an MT3 female taper). The metal lathe has power feed on the X axis, a precisely engineered cross slide plus compound slide, it has reverse - you could go on. And all that for little more than the price of an MC1100!

Like I said above, the Woodfast M910 is an impressive machine, but at a list price of nearly $4000 have a look how much metal lathe you can buy for that price. I know Carbatec is selling them for $2495 at present (incidentally about the same money as a little Vicmarc VL100EVS), but even for $2495 you can buy a lot of metal lathe.

I'll get off me soap box now

__________________
Cheers Fred
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Fred, I will be truthful here, I was very happy to get the VicMarc, I should have got it first up, its quality out strips the other toys I used. BUT, again on the truthful note, I was dissappointed that it turned slightly out of round. After paying so much for quality and thinking I had it, it was not to be. I still stop the lathe and turn the blank Half a turn round. But, as my last two Sierras proved, still not perfect.
When, you spen that amount you expect quality, and to a certain extent I did get quality, but not to what was expected. Now it is my turn to get off the soap box!!! Amos

__________________
Good, better, best, never let it rest;
Til your good is better, and your
better, best.