Thread: Advice

By the time you’ve raised headstock, replaced the toolrest and raised the tailstock you’d be better off just buying a bigger lathe. Ignoring the expense and hassle, the lathe will not really be suitable for larger work.

Just because you can die doing something you love doesn’t mean that you should be trying to. And you don’t want to do a half-arsed job of killing yourself.

Jarrah, 1/2hp, I hope it is only a little chunk of Jarrah, also I agree with Colin 62

Tony

I reckon it would be far too much trouble to raise both the head and tailstock and then to get them functioning again properly. The headstock would be easy enough but getting the tailstock to align, slide and the clamping mechanism to function again would be a headache.

Besides, if he is in his mid-eighties I can't see him getting too many more years out of all that trouble and effort. We had a 90yr old still turning at our men's shed, but he had been turning since he was an apprentice, so still had some of the residual muscle strength and dexterity required... and was turning better than he was walking...

Anyway, how much larger than 260mm/10" swing does your friend think he would like to go up to?

Looking at options, a 12" is the next common available step up from there and 14" after that. At his age he could start to get himself into trouble with a 14"/350mm if he hasn't done a lot of turning before this.

Is space also an issue for him? For example, does he need a bench model? Does he have budget constraints?

I'm sure there will be lots of suggestions here on what he could buy if he did decide to upgrade from his 10" lathe.

Anyway, talk to you Wednesday.

I had one of those lathes; what you are considering is difficult to achieve and I wouldn’t consider it to be stable. Plus the longer belt you’d need would be very tricky to find; it’s a ribbed belt.

He can still swing a piece of timber 10” diameter in it; the largest things I ever turned on mine were some kauri platters and the finished size was 245mm.

Is there a men’s shed or guild nearby that he can join instead of buying a new lathe?

Saved by the bell or rather stroppy son who rarely shows up but rants when something happens without him knowing.
It also turns out that dear old George is early dementia, so I have agreed to pull the plug on any lathe alterations.
The son is reluctantly agreed for me to contact a carer I know qell who enjoys woodturning and see if we can use his professional services at the men's shed.