Thread: New Lathe for beginner

You might want to look at this one. https://www.timbecon.com.au/woodturn...20mm-woodlathe
I have it but haven't yet used it much. But there are videos of it in action.

Originally Posted by Chrism3

You might want to look at this one. https://www.timbecon.com.au/woodturn...20mm-woodlathe
I have it but haven't yet used it much. But there are videos of it in action.

My Men's Shed has that lathe, as well as a bigger one.

Very nice lathe, changing belts is a bit of a pain as you need a 5mm Allen key for the top and side doors to effect the change. Other than having to use an Allen key changing belts is straight forward.

Doing 300mm diameter bowls is starting to stretch it a bit, especially if there was an odd shaped blank onboard. But that size is certainly doable as one of our members has made a couple of platters around 300mm in diameter.

In the midi lathe world, I think it is pretty close to the best bang for your buck. I would certainly pick up the bed extension if I was buying this. Our unit has the stand shown in the picture, it is surprisingly steady. No one has ever had an issue with steadiness, which we all wondered about when we purchased the lathe.

I would suppose the best recommendation is that there is always a line up to use this lathe, the other bigger lathe is always a second choice.

Teamed with a Vicmarc VM100 chuck it is perfectly safe to use maximum revs. The VM100 chuck is rated to 3,500rpm, which is the top speed of this lathe. I'm not saying you should or would use that top speed, but quite a few other chucks around have quite drastically reduced top speeds.

Mick.

I would note that the speed ranges within a belt position are quite wide, and changing the belt position may not need to be done very often. I could also mention that it is extremely quiet.

Originally Posted by Chrism3

I would note that the speed ranges within a belt position are quite wide, and changing the belt position may not need to be done very often. I could also mention that it is extremely quiet.

That is very true, at the Shed the speed is almost always on the middle speed, which incidently on our lathe goes to a smidge over 1800 rpm. We have checked that speed with a device, so either the computed speeds were done with a different pulley size, or between the original design and the released design, something changed.

Personally, for a first lathe, I would go secondhand, which is what I did. My belief was that if I went for a bigger secondhand unit for the same price as a smaller new unit, I would possibly have more fun testing the water; which is what happened.

Mick.

Mick.

Hi Smitsone

I started with a H&F WL18 in about 2004 and I can add a couple of comments to this discussion.

With the lathe I also bought a Vicmark 100 scroll chuck, without really knowing what I was getting, but which I think made a lot of difference. I still have that chuck, and two others besides, with different jaws on them.

The variable speed arrangement was nice to use - more convenient than changing belts on the Nova 3000 I have now - but after a while sawdust etc built up inside the headstock and the gear change got progressively stiffer - I had to clean it out and re-grease it a few times. I think the problem is that the motor sits alongside the headstock instead of behind or below it, and the cooling fan intake is right where the sawdust goes when you are sanding something. The fan seemed to blow the sawdust through the motor into the headstock, where it clagged up the grease on the sliding pulley shaft. I ended up running it without the belt cover to let the sawdust get away.

Also, the sheet metal stand was quite light - the lathe moved around a bit when you started off with out-of-balance blanks. Like most people who had them I fitted a wooden shelf on top of the leg braces, but I believe people used to put a bag of sand on the shelf to add weight to the stand.

I reckon you can get away with a low-end lathe, subject to the quality checks other forum members have talked about here, if you use a quality chuck and quality tools. If I knew then what I know now, and if I knew I was going to stick with it, I would be tempted to push the budget a bit and get one with electronic variable speed control. I regularly use lower speed cutters like forstner bits, big twist drills etc for boring things like pepper mills, and changing the belt on the Nova several times during a job is a bit annoying.

Hope this helps a bit.

cheers, Colin

Thanks for your reply Colin, great advice which I will take on board

Originally Posted by Chrism3

I would note that the speed ranges within a belt position are quite wide, and changing the belt position may not need to be done very often. I could also mention that it is extremely quiet.

probably a stupid question but.........do all wood lathes need belt changes or are there expensive ones that don't?

Mostly they have belt changes to allow the motor to spin within it's reasonable working rpm range.

If you look at the super dooper really expensive units, they (as far as I know) all have belt changes. Changing a belt for high motor revs to allow high torque low spindle speed, is pretty much the reason you will have a low speed belt. Think speeds from 10rpm through to around 1200rpm or 1400rpm.

For high speed spindle work, where the diameter of what you are turning is quite small, then you will probably prefer higher spindle speed. For that you would select the higher of the two or three speed variables. Most current lathes I have recently seen, top out around 3500rpm, which is blindingly fast.

In short, the answer to your question, is yes.

Mick.