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G'Day from Canada on Christmas Eve,
My father-in-law is a woodturner and he's looking at upgrading from his Shopsmith lathe system to a dedicated wood lathe for turning bowls. He does nice work but his Shopsmith hasn't been perfoming as he would like. He's been looking at the Vicmark shortbed model 300(?) and would like your opinion on it's performance and downfalls. Also, is there a better lathe for less $$$ or a comparable product out there.
Merry Christmas,
B-Daddy
Fascinating set of questions very little info.How much are lathes so far away from Brisbane that you mention? Why not do a comparison with Oneway on the net or Craft Supplies on the net all relatively close to you and your Dad.Get reviews from the Canadian dealers and look up the American Associations seek out WW Clubs in Canada then review your question as if you were purchasing anything,how small,large,do I turn pens,bowls.verandah posts,table tops,year model,second hand,how much money do I have to work with,my budget. May Santa bring you the answers to all of your desires,sure to get plenty of advice from others. Peter:)
Dedicated bowl turning lathes aren't that common, and yes a shortbed VL300 comes close and will do some amazing work with the right nut behind the wheel.
If memory serves, think about VB36 (sp?), or else a Stubby 1000 or 750 depending on how big he wants to go.
But Penpal is spot on: you have lots of info and material resources north of the border. Not least Oneway. Get your pop in law to join a club, go to shows, talk to salesmen and women etc etc. The hardest part is to figure out what compromises you can live with!
Best wishes for Xmas.
(Sposed to be hot down here so I got in smoked salmon, smoked beef, salads etc. What happens? Snowing down to 900m for heavens' sake.).
Ho Ho, :D Merry Christmas
It also depends on how much you want to spend, below are some of the best around 4-7k roughly [USD] The list is not exhaustive, but it'l give you some where to start from
http://www.hegner.co.uk/system/index.html this is one of the dearest and its a dedicated bowl lathe par excellance.
http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/catalog/vb36.html US of A site
http://www.oneway.on.ca/lathes/index.htm this is from your neck of the woods and from all accounts a darn fine piece of equip.
http://www.stubbylatheusa.com/cgi-bin/index.py An Aust made lathe with a US of A web site and local agents, well recommended piece of gear.
Mark Salusbury (Canada)email: [email protected]
Vicmarc lathes ex US of A vl300 link Oz made and very popular down under
http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/catalog/vl300.html
Teknatool Nova Lathe NZ design. A very good reputation both in NZ nad overseas
http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/ca...novadvrxp.html
Of all these perhaps the Nova DVRXP would be the least expensive. This does not mean its in anyway a bad design or poorly constructed,they market it with out the base.
A smart marketing idea, lower freight costs, lower puchase price as well. Recognising that most Woodies can and do make their own bases and for those who dont, the base is an extra.
Teknatool Nova Lathe NZ design. A very good reputation both in NZ nad overseas
http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/ca...novadvrxp.html
Of all these perhaps the Nova DVRXP would be the least expensive. This does not mean its in anyway a bad design or poorly constructed,they market it with out the base.
A smart marketing idea, lower freight costs, lower puchase price as well. Recognising that most Woodies can and do make their own bases and for those who dont, the base is an extra.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
__________________
I'm the happy owner of a new Nova DVR XP.
(New Nova is a redundancy.) I built my own base, used sandbags for ballast.
It was about $2000 US on sale at Woodcraft. I paid zero $ freight because I was willing to drive 200 miles to pick it up.
The cost of shipping a heavier high end lathe was prohibitive for me.
I am very satisfied with it. It is quiet enough for me to listen to music or
talk to myself :eek: while running. Because my hand function is somewhat impaired, the speed control system is a huge plus for me. It has fewer moving parts and the centers line up spot on and it is rock steady.
I spent the money I saved on shipping and bought a few tools and more exotic woods from around the planet to help feed the demons.
tm
Way to go.
I nearly opted for the DVR a while back; nice electronics and motor, but chose the Vicmarc 175 instead. More solid IMO but having to change pulley for the higher range was an irritation.
When I was looking years ago to upgrade, the Vicmarc VL300 long bed was at the top of the list. As I began to dig deep into the lathes and how they're built it fell to second. At that stage I had been turning for over 20 years and knew pretty well what I wanted.
Remember this is only personal opinion and may not be absolutely "correct." Some of it is speculation as to what may be a potential problem based on my years of experience and what I wanted out of a lathe.
Your mileage may vary
It had features that I really wanted. The long bed and excellent price were a very big plus. I'm not fond of short bed lathes casue of their limited use. If you plan to do any deep hollowing (200mm and deeper) a long bed is essential. I had at that time owned other Vicmarc products (chucks) and knew from them that Vicmarc had very high standards and quality.
What caused it to drop were:
Being an Australian made lathe parts availability in North America has to be a consideration. At that time I lived in Victoria BC. Not a problem for me know, I only live an hour away from the factory :D
Foot print. It's relatively (700mm) wide but it's not centered. I've had other lathes with similar dimensions that weighed much more and could still have them wobbling all over the place with a relatively light block of wood and bolting it down is not an option for me.
Headstock bearings. Tapered roller bearings are by far the strongest bearings in any wood lathe on the market and Vicmarc (as far as I know) are the only ones using them. They can take incredible forces. But! They're not suited for high RPMs, especially sustained high RPMs. I wanted one lathe that could do everything well and I knew there would be a lot of high speed turning (1800rpm plus for 5 hours or more a day) that the lathe I bought would be doing as well as a lot of low speed work. Sustained high RPMs tend to heat up the bearing quickly in any lathe but with tapered roller bearings that heat is much higher and would wear them out quicker. It also causes the shaft to grow in length as it heats up. Not a great deal but enough to cause a slop in the bearings that would affect my turning. I don't know for sure but I can't see how Vicmarc could get around this because it would have to have a floating rear bearing which as far as I know isn't incorporated in the VL300 because they use the tapered roller bearing. I already had a lathe that I was changing the bearings every month so I didn't want to risk having another. I also do a lot of aluminum turning on the lathe so even the minutest bearing slop will have serious consequences. I guess it would be possible to "crank" the bearings up so tight that they "squeezed" the headstock so as to "absorb" any shaft growth. The bearings would be up to it but I don't know about the headstock.
Cast Iron construction: Until you have used a lathe that is made from steel you probably won't have experienced the difference between cast iron and steel. I had a Powermatic model 90 and an Oliver. Both had the heaviest cast iron construction of any lathe I have ever seen - 1/2" thick. You'd think a lathe built that heavily would be very sturdy. Not so, I could measure an amazing amount of flex in both lathes. A well made steel lathe has no flex. A very important feature I needed for the work I was doing.
In the end I bought a Oneway 2436 because it solved the short comings that I have mentioned above. A nice wide ballanced foot print. The bed wasn't as long as I wanted but it was easy to make a 3 foot bed extension for my deep hollowing work. It has preloaded ball bearings in the inboard and outboard ends. And the outboard bearings float. It also has a 44" outboard bed available if I wanted to go really big and have a short bed lathe. It cost much more but it's steel construction has taken everything I've thrown at it, not sure the Vicmarc could have and I wasn't willing to find out after the fact that it couldn't.
For the average turner I don't think you could go wrong with the Vicmarc but if you're the type who's always pushing the boundaries I suspect you'll grow out of it fairly quickly.
Stubby is another option you may look at. At the time I was looking they weren't around.
Hello B-Daddy,
have a look at the attached link, a review of the Stubby 750. I saw a comparison between the Oneway and the Stubby, may have been on that site but could not find it. Stubbies and short bed lathes are designed for bowl turning. Long bed lathes are very well suited to turning longer spindles. The advantage with shot bed lathes is that you can work from the end of the lathe as well as from the side. Longer beds can get in the way thus limiting access. Stubbies offer more bowl turning capacity than most other lathes. When hollowing I find that it is a pain to lean over the bed, far easier to work from the end of the lathe although I must admit as to not hollowing any deeper than about 450mm, not deep hollowing really I suppose.
Vicmarcs are also very good lathes. I've seem "massive" blanks turned on Vicmatc 300s, took two men to lift it onto the lathe.
http://www.kestrelcreek.com/toc.htm?id=25&cat=review
Peter
Thanks gents for the info. I'll print it out and have him consider your responses. Happy turning!
B-Daddy