Thread: Some advice on lathe purchase

I hate to be the one to give this advice, but, as with any tool:

"Buy the best one you can afford"

I did the "go cheap and see if I like the hobby" route and ultimately regretted it. If you're uncertain about whether you want to pursue turning as a somewhat serious expenditure of your time, perhaps consider finding a local club or men's shed and use their lathe, and if you find yourself still wanting one at home, drop the cash on one that you won't outgrow.

Now, for the advice I think you may have actually been looking for...

If your main interest was spindle work, which is small diameter turnings where the grain runs along the length of the lathe (pens, chair legs, knobs, finials, etc.), then I would say this one is a winner. But since your interest is in bowls, I would say that this lathe is probably going to be inappropriate.

Regarding the swing, the largest bowl this lathe will turn is probably going to be around 295mm in diameter, which, taking into account the rim thickness, isn't all that large in the realm of wooden bowls. It's kind of an off size. It doesn't work great for fruit bowls or multi-person salad service bowls. So you're likely to end up limited to either decorative stuff less than 12", or limited to medium to small bowls for practical use.

Also, the lathe will need to be mounted to something very substantial like a heavy, wooden cabinet in order to limit its vibration. If you start turning large, heavy, green wood blanks without having it super stable, then it will jump all over the place.

With the lowest RPM being 400, you're doing alright for small to medium bowl turning I suppose, but a bit slower would be really valuable for bowl turning in some cases with large blanks.

Those limitations aside, I think that the main thing you would regret about this lathe for bowl turning is the power. A Taiwanese lathe rated at 0.75Hp is going to struggle with dry bowl blanks larger than around 5-6" diameter, particularly if you start using some of the harder woods which you'll inevitably encounter in Australia. As the radius of the workpiece increases, the leverage at the cutting edge increases, which increases the torque. You'll have to take very light cuts in order to not bog the lathe down (which is kind of bad for it), and this will increase your time and decrease your efficiency, but, more than that, it will frustrate the absolute bejesus out of you. I'm speaking from experience here. You want to be able to hog off material from bowl blanks. You should want to reach a point where you can rough out the bowl in a couple of minutes and spend the majority of your time refining the shape and getting a flawless finish.

If I was going to buy a lathe for turning bowls (and I've done it twice with a third one around the corner), I would look for:

-something on a cast iron base with some kind of means for adding more weight if necessary.
-an absolute bare minimum of 1.5Hp, and preferably 2Hp
-at least 16" swing or some sort of mechanism for increasing the swing like a sliding headstock or outboard turning
-lower RPM settings

and honestly, I will never go back from Electronic Variable Speed. This is kind of the benchmark for a good lathe in my opinion. You can dial in the RPM perfectly for any turning application. If I can only give one piece of advice it's to get one with EVS.

That said, all of that costs money, so it's ultimately going to be your call. Nonetheless, I hope that advice helps your decision. Bottom line is that I would seriously consider a larger lathe for bowl turning.

Good luck,
Luke

Awesome advice, thanks.

Do you have a lathe that you would recommend? It will be mounted on a bench which is pretty heavy duty and stable.

I had a Gary Pye lathe that was just a rebranded equivalent of a Jet 1642 with 2HP. I got a killer deal on it from a Gumtree seller. It's normally quite expensive. I sold it prior to moving from Australia a while back. Nonetheless, it was a great lathe and I would have brought it home with me if the power supply wasn't different here.

The Laguna Revo 18-36, which is available from Gregory Machinery in Brisbane (not sure about Perth) also looks like a winner. I'm in the US now and I'm considering getting that one or one of the larger 20-36 or 24-36 lathes.

Teknatool also makes good lathes.

That said, it's hard to go wrong with an Australian made Vicmarc lathe. You pay more for it because they pay their workers a livable wage, but they're fantastic machines with great support and they will likely outlast you.

I would check on Gumtree and see what's kicking around Perth. There's a Vicmarc on there now with all the gear you would need. It's a lot more than the Carbatec lathe but it includes the entire turning operation's worth of tools so it's worth considering the extraneous expenditure you'd make on tools, a scroll chuck etc. I'd post the link but one of the admins doesn't like that and he would flag it. Just search Perth 6000 on gumtree. It's in the Baywater area. I honestly think the price is fairly high for second hand so maybe the seller would come down considerably?

Lathes are one of those things that sometimes people get super excited about and use for a couple of years and then they sit for a couple of years and they just want them gone, a la my previous lathe. I've seen a Vicmarc with all the fixins go for $1500. It's all about timing.

To get all of the specs I mentioned on a brand new lathe, plus turning tools, chuck(s), grinder with toolrest and, ultimately, a bandsaw, is going to be a couple grand bare minimum, or maybe slightly less on the second hand market if you score big time. Probably closer to 3 or 4 all new. Just something worth pointing out. That's kind of why I said that you may consider joining a club or men's shed for the "I'm not sure if this is my thing or not" phase.

Cheers,
Luke

Forget all the advice about buying a lathe it is all well meaning and helpfull find your local woodturning club and use theirs till you work out what you really want to do

You will then find out if you really want to do turning and then look for the appropriate lathe to do the work.

Contact these guys to find your local club

That was all great advice from Luke Dazn but just in case it's needed the one thing he said that I believe is super important is get variable speed.
Cheers, Ian

A small voice crying in the wilderness, you don't really need variable speed. If you are going to be doing mostly bigger bowls - 300 - 500 mm, you will rough out at the slowest speed and finish on one higher speed.

I do 90% bowls on a 5 speed 350mm swing Hegner, and a 6 speed with added variable speed DC drive 500mm swing 20 some year old Woodfast. Most of the medium size bowls are on the Hegner with 800 rpm minimum speed.

The variable speed is nice with a big out of balance stump, but the slowest pulley speed is slow enough.

As Jim Carroll says, get some practice before you buy anything.

My progression with no previous instruction or experience:

7 X 12 Chinese metal lathe, screw driver and bench chisel sharpened on a belt sander, free Delta 12 inch swing sheet metal bed,$500 Hegner 175, $850 Woodfast, a $250 home made 28 inch swing lathe, and several free, $10, and $50 lathes I couldn't resist.

Hegner came with a Oneway chuck and a slow speed grinder with Wolverine set up and jigs. Then came a slow accumulation of used gouges and chisels, one at a time and small sets. A new $70 5/8 inch Crown bowl gouge when I had some Christmas crazy money. Then a new big $250 Oneway Stronghold chuck, then a slightly used $120 Stronghold chuck.

A little instruction and practice would have saved a year or more of trial and error, and a pile of money.

Originally Posted by Dazm

I'm thinking of getting myself a lathe, I haven't used one since school some 30 years ago but I enjoyed making bowls which is what I want to do now.

I don;t have a lot of room (or tons of available $$$), I was considering one of these Jet Midi Lathes from Carbatec https://www.carbatec.com.au/woodturn...the-1-x-10-tpi

Just after some opinions and advice.

Cheers

Darren.

I am in exactly same postion. I have joined a club RDWS, and will get my feet wet using club euipment and go the buy route if still interested.

When/if I do buy it will be Vicmarc, for all the reasons mentioned elsewhere.

All good advice above. To add to that, from my experience if you are patient you can get a perfect lathe for your needs and for your budget as well if you go the 2nd hand route. Join a club and meanwhile keep your eye on the classifieds. You will find some excellent Vicmarc and older Woodfast lathes come up for sale in the usual places quite often and sometimes selling for a song. I watched for 6 months before finding my lathe, but for less than the Jet you are considering I purchased a far more capable lathe, complete with a bunch of quality turning tools, chuck, faceplate, assorted drive centres, and a ton of turning blanks. The lathe was not electronic variable speed, but that was a cheap do it yourself upgrade if you have the know-how or an electrician friend to help you. Lots of advice on here also about upgrading older lathes to EVS.

Darren
I notice you are in Perth
So am I, you can either;

a. Come down to Secret Harbour and have a play on my lathes (x3) and we can have a chat or
b. Join Wood turners of WA. I am a committee member at Wandi, which is just off Ankatell road. We have fantastic new facilities, awesome instrucots, cheap wood and lovely members, Google WAWA
Sincerely
Willy
Jarrahland

Thanks Willy. Yeah im going to look up that WAWA group and go along.

Originally Posted by Jim Carroll

Forget all the advice about buying a lathe it is all well meaning and helpfull find your local woodturning club and use theirs till you work out what you really want to do

You will then find out if you really want to do turning and then look for the appropriate lathe to do the work.

Contact these guys to find your local club

Now that is darn good advice, because at the moment you dont know exactly what you want.

Just to follow up on what Willy said, go to one of the WAWA clubs. I am a member at Wandi also and there are a number of lathes you can try your hand on. Once you try the Vicmarcs you may find it hard to step down to the cheaper smaller lathes. I personally couldn't afford a Vicmarc, so I recently purchased a WL-46A from Hare and Forbes. https://www.machineryhouse.com.au/W387
It is not in the same league as a Vicmarc, but for my purposes and budget, I couldn't be happier.

I second the advice on variable speed.

Also joining a local club

I am a lathe addict .... last count was 17 or 18.

My favourite is my Laguna. Word is they are bringing out a new mini lathe in the next 6 months. I will be looking very seriously at that when it comes out

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

Originally Posted by DaveTTC

.......

I am a lathe addict .... last count was 17 or 18.

My favourite is my Laguna. Word is they are bringing out a new mini lathe in the next 6 months. I will be looking very seriously at that when it comes out.....