Any advice welcome

[Peter907]

I've just bought a cheap new lathe to get me started. It is a Clarke cwl325 13" with variable speed. I have never used a lathe before so spent several days watching YouTube videos to get an idea what I was doing. Today I set up the lathe and mounted a small piece of pine about 40x40x300mm long to have a practice on using my set of carbide chisels. During the first couple of minutes it stalled momentarily on about 4 occasions as I was obviously applying too much pressure, though I felt I was being very careful and gentle. At about the two minute mark it stopped and wouldn't turn again. I studied the troubleshooting section of the manual and found the small glass 5 amp fuse. The fuse was all shades of brown and black inside the glass. I've ordered the very same fuse, actually a pack of 150 for quick delivery tomorrow morning from Amazon! Hopefully the damage will not be any more serious than needing a new fuse.
I know I have bought the cheapest available lathe which is probably false economy, but I would like to read any of your comments and advice on my experience as a newbie with this lathe. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or perhaps I should have spent more money.

 

[Orraloon]

It is only 250w so you will have to take things easy. Perhaps a sharp gouge or a smaller carbide chisel would be easier on the motor. I had a look at a youtube vid and the guy was turning on one with a small gouge without stalling it. Thing should get easier as you get a feel for it and that takes practice. If it feels like stalling then back off a bit.
With the new fuses if it blows another in short order then I would be taking it back for a refund. A 40x40mm workpiece is not big and even a small lathe should handle that.
Regards
John

 

[Paul Hannaby]

The lathe is stalling because it lacks the power to keep the wood rotating through the force of cut you are applying. Either that or you are experiencing a catch with the tool which is stalling the lathe. When the lathe stalls, the surge current is probably reaching 10 amps or more because wire cartridge fuses are generally only guaranteed to blow if you double their rating.
The solution - lighter cuts and a better technique or a more powerful lathe!

 

[sawtooth-9]

250 watts !
No wonder you are having ( and will have ) problems.
250 watts is great for juicing apples, but not much good for turning wood.

 

[DavidConnelly]

I've just bought a cheap new lathe to get me started. It is a Clarke cwl325 13" with variable speed. I have never used a lathe before so spent several days watching YouTube videos to get an idea what I was doing. Today I set up the lathe and mounted a small piece of pine about 40x40x300mm long to have a practice on using my set of carbide chisels. During the first couple of minutes it stalled momentarily on about 4 occasions as I was obviously applying too much pressure, though I felt I was being very careful and gentle. At about the two minute mark it stopped and wouldn't turn again. I studied the troubleshooting section of the manual and found the small glass 5 amp fuse. The fuse was all shades of brown and black inside the glass. I've ordered the very same fuse, actually a pack of 150 for quick delivery tomorrow morning from Amazon! Hopefully the damage will not be any more serious than needing a new fuse.
I know I have bought the cheapest available lathe which is probably false economy, but I would like to read any of your comments and advice on my experience as a newbie with this lathe. Maybe I'm doing something wrong or perhaps I should have spent more money.

Don't know where you are, but we run courses for new lathe users. Usually 3 hours on a Saturday and 3 on a Sunday. It's all about set up and safe use of a lathe. Then you make a simple box or Candle holder or the likes.
It's only £50 then you get £25 off membership. Which last year was only £100. It may be slightly more this year. We have about 10 lathes and other machines.
www.woodturning.club

 

[Yorkieguy]

It's difficult to make any headway without either attending a course of tuition or joining a Club, many of which provide 'hands on' tuition and have professional demonstrators, who explain the fundamentals of woodturning such as safety, choice of timber, which tools to use and how to use them, how to mount the wood on the lathe, what speed to run the lathe at, how to sand and finish and so on.

As with any skill, we come at it with a mixture of enthusiasm and inexperience and can easily become discouraged.

As you are located in Mansfield, the clubs which I think are nearest to you are:

Dukeries Woodturning Society:

Meet at the Jubilee Hall, Wellow Road, Ollerton (NG22 9AP) on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 6:30pm.

www.dukerieswoodturning.org.uk

Trent Valley Woodturners,

Kegworth, Derby DE74 2FH

Meet 2nd Wednesday of each month. 6.30 to 9.30pm, ‘Hands on” the following Saturday, last Thursday and first Tuesday of each month. 9.30am - 4pm

Trent Valley Woodturners – Turning the East Midland into shavings one tree at a time

Erewash Valley Woodturners Association:

We meet the second Wednesday of each month. Some months we also meet on the fourth Wednesday of the month for a hands on. Several lathes will be on the go so that we can all have a try. Items made in these sessions will go towards the clubs charity events. Meet in the church hall attached to St Mary’s at Greasley. This is situated on the B600 six miles North-West of Nottingham city centre.

The venue is a centrally heated pleasant hall.

100 Church Rd,
Moor Green
Nottingham
For those relying on Sat Nav the post code is NG16 2AB.

www.evwa.org.uk/wordpress/

Hope that might help.

Best wishes.

David.

 

[alex robinson]

250w is quite low power, but are you sure the motor is stalling, not the belt slipping? 40mm is very small - I agree with the other replies that it should be possible. Perhaps a gouge would be easier?

Teaching is great and will be the better option if you can, but I am self taught and with a bit of looking up and trial and error you should be able to make progress.

 

[MorrisWoodman12]

Some of the chaps at my local Men's Shed were very helpful when I needed to turn up a couple of finials the other month. Sussex is far too far for you but your local MS may be an idea.
Have fun
Martin

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Put it in perspective - 250w is a quarter the power of my food mixer. Don't expect much from it.

 

[Duncan A]

As others have said, tuition is the key as such a low powered lathe will be easy to stall.
For now though, how fast was the lathe going? At low rpm, it will be even more prone to stalling.
As a matter of interest, the Clarke website says it's a 0.2hp/250W motor. Something wrong there as 0.2 hp is around 150W.
Duncan

 

[Richard_C]

Making square stock round is a clunky process for a raw beginner - I remember it well. You could get a cheap-as-chips small diameter rolling pin (Asda, Tesco ...) and mount that between centres to get some practice and a feel for the tools. Likley to be beech (a hardwood) but its round already. Or, if you happen to have any, offcuts of things like wooden curtain poles. Turn some 'ups and downs', make it all flat again, do it again. You can get a lot of practice out of one rolling pin as it gets smaller, and you end up with some light pull string knobs As you go on, you get a feel for tool angles and presentation, then you go back to making square stuff round. You might avoid fuse blowing, but as others have said its a pretty lightweight lathe.

Another thought, assuming it is belt-drive, detension the belt a bit so if you get a catch it slips before the fuse blows. Pull the tool back and the workpiece should start spinning again.

 

[Peter907]

Thanks very much for your interesting replies, I didn't expect such a great response.
Amazon are brilliant and my fuses arrived at 10am this morning barely 15 hours from ordering on a Sunday evening! The new fuse blows with a pop as soon as the lathe is plugged into the mains without even pushing the start button. A light press on the start button causes a momentary buzz. The third fuse I put in came out broken with part of it still inside the machine. After trying to shake out the remaining bits of fuse, blowing and poking around gently, there is still a bit of fuse inside preventing further fuses from going in. So, sadly it will have to go back to Machine Mart. My very short first practice yesterday was on a slow speed. I had turned the dial up a bit from the minimum 890rpm probably to something like 1400.
Before I had even unboxed the lathe I found the website for the EVWA wood turners and sent them a request for information about membership and courses. Didn't know about the other two local groups, one of which may be even closer to me, so will look into them. I have previously been to my local Men In Sheds but not for over a year, but remember they do have a lathe, so may re-connect with them as well.
So my lathe might only be 150 Watts, if it actually worked!! Just pulled out my juicer and blender hidden away at the back of a kitchen cupboard, and to my surprise even they are 700 and 1000 watts! Maybe I should swap out the lathe motor .
So taking some plus points here, you lot may have set me on a new healthy eating kick as well as spurring me on with your wood turning enthusiasm. I will join a group and hopefully get some tuition and find out how best to get to grips with this little Clarke lathe or upgrade from it.
Any suggestions for reliable, more powerful but reasonably priced entry level lathes to do small sized work would be appreciated.
Thanks everyone.

 

[TRITON]

So sharp tools are the order of the day.

You should start a thread on whats the best method...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Enough already!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you could find a way of getting it -
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/thread...lathe-price-reduced-again.141673/post-1647773

 

[Peter907]

Thanks @Phil Pascoe that looks a great buy and within my budget and I have been known to travel such distances to collect items. However, it is way too big for my single garage workshop which is shared with other household storage. I need a mini or midi bench top model which I can manhandle to the floor under a shelf and swap with other bench top tools like my table saw or router table. I would love to have all my equipment available for use at the same time, but my limited space doesn't allow for that luxury. I'm sure it sounds like an odd way of working, but needs must. I have also had to learn to be very tidy and have a place, just one , for everything, otherwise things would quickly descend into chaos.

 

[Peter907]

Just returned the lathe to Machine Mart and I must say that the staff were excellent. After they made a quick phone call to the powers that be, they offered me a replacement or refund, so I took the refund and have my options open again.
I like the idea of dealing with someone locally in case of problems like this, and may even consider the Clarke 18" 550w lathe at double the refunded cost. But then may possibly go for a secondhand alternative without any warranty.
Has anyone experienced much unreliability in lathes or perhaps the more powerful ones (say 500 watts) are just more robust. Maybe I was just unlucky and got a Friday afternoon model, or broke it due to my inexperience.

 

[mwinfrance]

So sharp tools are the order of the day.

You should start a thread on whats the best method...

you are a very naughty person.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Try to steer clear of Clarke - they haven't exactly got a good reputation for lathes.

 

[Peter907]

Try to steer clear of Clarke - they haven't exactly got a good reputation for lathes.

Are Draper any better? They do a 550w model that looks virtually identical to the Clarke apart from the colour for £30 more.