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View Full Version : OLD verses NEW



salty72
28th July 2008, 02:34 PM
I have been offered an old WADKIN lathe (the four speed one with motor on the floor) the bed is about 8FT long comes with tool post and outboard floor stand - it's a reasonable new one as the name plate is screwed on. The colour is that Army green (that you see on just about any WADKIN tool ) and it comes with removable bed insert,

he is asking $4000 but I'm not sure it's worth that much... My other option is to buy a NEW lathe upto $2500 with variable speed...

I want to turn large bowls 300-500mm diameters.. as most of the stuff I want to do is natural edge it's nearly always off balance and out of round.
I like the idea of variable speed (you get the best possible speed for balance )
however My thought is HEAVY is better, as you get the lathe stable and FIXED and it ain't going to matter too much about a few extra REVs...

I am open to 2nd hand option and would even consider homemade versions

any thoughts ....?

ss_11000
28th July 2008, 05:27 PM
4 speeds doesnt sound like a good option to me if you want to turn lots of bowls. But that is a massive lathe and you could always put a VS drive on it at a later date. is it worth 4K tho???

When i was looking for a new lathe, i pretty much decided on a woodfast with VS for just over 3K.

salty72
28th July 2008, 05:45 PM
good to see your back in the country, did you end up getting the Woodfast? if so what did you do with your old lathe... What was it ??

ss_11000
28th July 2008, 06:10 PM
nah, i didnt end up getting any lathe. i put the money i was going to spend on the lathe towards the trip.

China
28th July 2008, 10:29 PM
Salty72 if you want a realy realy good top quality lathe then grab the Wadkin you will never break it and you will find that four speeds are all you realy need, I had a Wadkin when I was in buisiness, I wish I had never let it go, It cost Almost $7000 plus freight from Wadkin it was a recon job, basicly it was just repainted