Thread: Reviews on the hafco mini lathe el-14v-mini wood lathe

Hello I am a Woodturner I’ve been Woodturning on a Vicmarc lathe for quit some time now at my local club. I am in need of buying a lathe to get started at home I do own an old Durden but that is manual belt change and you need tools to move the tailstock and banjo, my budget is $1000 for everything I was going to purchase
the hafco mini lathe

WL-14V - Mini Wood Lathe

The lathe is $572 including gst or around $472 near the eofy sale the lathe is equiped with variable speed and has a .75 HP motor, does any body have any experience with this lathe and suggestions on other brands by chance?

i was going to go with the hamlet 6 piece boxed set from timber it’s for around $220 the reason why I will chose these tools is because I like the way the handles feel sure the steel and the grinds on the tool are important, but I suppose if you don’t like the way the handle feels you won’t want to work with it one day I would like to upgrade to Thompson tool steel obviously.

(so far my total price is $692 with sales on)

i suppose you you need a way to sharpen the tools to do I may go with the Carbatec Wide Stone Bench Grinder- With LED Light | Sharpening Machines - Carbatec is this a good grinder?? It seems good on the website? If any one owns this one and has suggestion please share. Th price for the grinder is $150

(now my price is $842 with the eofy sales)

Now I need a hug to sharpen my gouges I’ve heard many good things from this one Oneway Wolverine Grinding Jig the one way jig from rockler with in the budget and will be a lifetime investment sitting at $158 hopefully this jig works for what I need

(The final price is $1000 aud on the knocker)

you may notice that I haven’t included a chuck among all this I’ve been turning in between centres for ages and have needed a chuck, yet but the chuck I was going to go with is inebriate of the Vicmarc chucks around $250. again another lifetime investment and I’m only 14 so yeah that should lathe a while ok it taken me 30 minutes to write this and do the research but yeah any advice respond back.

,regards Chris