Why 30mm x 3.5 Spindle thread size in Australia?
My current lathe has a 1¼" x 8 TPI thread on the spindle, which is alright as long as I don't visit my brother and wish to use my chuck or accessories on his lathe. Also, as far as I can work out, most lathes bought in the last 10 years in this country have 30mm x 3.5 as the spindle thread size, so I cannot take anything anywhere to anyone with a current lathe.
I am at the moment looking to upgrade my lathe, mostly, everything I see is 30 x 3.5, however today I received the Record Power 2018 catalogue. The lathes in their catalogue that I looked at as possibilities, are all supplied with 33 x 3.5 spindle threads.
Looking on the Vicmarc website I see that depending upon where a lathe is being sent you will get a default size of 33 x 3.5 everywhere in the world, except Australia; where the default size is the smallest spindle thread size of anything listed. My current lathe with the 1¼" thread size which is 31.75mm is also bigger.
As I have been into wood turning only a short few years, I was wondering how we in the so called lucky country, are saddled with what may eventually be the odd size out, anyone know how we have ended up with this odd size?
Mick.