Thread: Need a decent wood lathe!

In short F&E, no IMHO.

Trawl through the photos in all Richard Raffan's books and you'll see some marvellous chutes and hoppers, varying by date of publication. I came to the conclusion from that that chip extraction around a lathe is a marginal proposition mostly.

I too use a 'big throat' like yours - with bowl turning it can pick up some shavings when hollowing but really only comes into it's own when sanding ... and it does that very well and justifies the two-horse dusty on the other end.

Originally Posted by Frank&Earnest

Buying lathes is not easy for croweaters, as I have just discovered. Your requirements are not far from what I came up with after looking around these pages and getting advice.

Buying them is easy. Delivery is another thing altogether...

I stand corrected. Buying and paying by Visa= 3 minutes. Final delivery TODAY! = 3 months.

Thanks Ern. After seeing the 2 million HP sucker at TAFE I did not have bigger expectations than that anyway, and you have confirmed that our 2HP will do the job.

Just found out that Jet Australia will be in Adelaide for the wood show.
May be worth a look.

Are you going to be there too Jim?

Am going to Adelaide for my daughters birthday and will catch the woodshow as well.

Yes we will be there on stand 35.

Dont bother looking at the plans just yet as they have not been updated since last year.

Hi F&E

Is interesting that you mention that SA has no agent for the Jet, when this afternoon I was on the phone with Michael Richter from Adelaide Mik International, and he mention to me that he got some Jet models on the floor right now. I started dealing with Mik International a couple of weeks ago, when I order a Nova G3 chuck with inserts model (can be used in other lathes), for my now dying GMC.

Michael last week was prepared to accept my offer on Lay-buy on a MC-900, which I end-up declining when I realise that the MC-900 he had on the floor, wasn't the model with the specifications I was looking for, then.
Interestingly, our Australia Post has major problems, as the same day the chuck was posted to me from Adelaide 21/6/07, I got a Digital Moisture Meter on eBay from the US. Today I received the parcel from the US, and I've not yet received the parcel from Adelaide, less than 100 kilometres South of it.

This was indeed the reason why I rang Michael, to request a search from his side. While on the phone, he mention the possibility of me visiting the Adelaide shop, and have a look at some lathes, including some of these Jet lathes, so it makes me believe, that we maybe have a Jet agent in SA after all ???
I told Michael when I ordered the chuck that,
"I would like to visit your shop, but at the same time, if I do it now, I will be very disappointed, seeing all the things I like and want, and not having the money to buy them...! At near 50 years of age, I'm still like a little kid in a candy store, when it comes to "tools shop's".

I feel that I should visit Michael, it seams to be a fair bloke, and try to work out what I can get and how I'm going to pay for this new lathe, with my great financial limitations living on a disability pension.
Anyway, hope that the chuck arrives soon, so that I can try it on my very "wobbly" GMC lathe. The Digital Moisture Meter works very well, I tried it on various peaces of timber and it read well. Most of "dryish" the timber I got for firewood read about 20%, green and wet pine I cut a few days back reads about 32 to 38%, some peaces of 100x100 mm I got from the hardware store (for turning), read about 15 to 17%, and the vase I made last week out of a peace of old red-gum from hell, it measured 6% moisture.

I knew that the timber was dry, but after all the trouble I had to finish it,( pics on previous thread), a couple of days ago my wife got the vase that was seated on the top of the TV, and show me the "big smile" that the vase developed!!! actually it was a few smiles, the biggest one is a crack right trough the middle of the "belly" near half a inch wide, my little finger fitted in!
So now, I call it the "fluted red-gum vase from hell"!.
Isn't 6% moisture content in wood, and ideal stage to have it turned safely???
Well, bugger me...!!! hahahahahah

Cheers
GV

GV, the moisture meter needs to be calibrated according to the density of particular timber species to read accurately.

Apart from that, yeah, redgum can crack when it's dry since removing timber can change the internal stresses.

Hi rsser,
Yes, you right about the level of accuracy, one can get with these new gadgets, but it's accuracy is well inside of what I was looking for, and maybe well above of what I was expecting, in it's price range.

Well, about my famous "fluted red-gum vase from hell", nothing it will do, I will be surprised with, anymore. Talking about timber been alive, 20 or more years, after been cut and left in the paddock to rot...!!!???

Cheers
GV