I want a lathe

[Retired]

Hi,

A Record DML 24" lathe is a nice bit of kit to start on. 3 speed nothing fancy but a good solid lathe and a set of three basic wood turning tools to play with. I've owned my DML 24" for over 30 years and will never part with it because it was a Christmas present from my lovely wife. Pop round to your local joinery company and offer to pay for any hardwood offcuts they have; I've had lots of car loads of oak; ash & meranti at £25 cash per load.

I've also owned a huge Dominion 3 phase lathe; a Jubilee and I currently own my fully restored 3 phase through VFD Union Graduate. It's surprising though what can be turned on the DML without the need for variable speed.

Watching YouTube video's is always interesting and gives a novice something to aspire to but a good wood turner doesn't need masses of tools or fancy chucks; start with a decent good quality lathe and ignore the flimsy Chinese with their variable speed and low power.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[The Gray Man]

I've been wrestling with this question too. Would absolutely love a lathe, but my workshop is now pretty full, and my wallet pretty empty. The conclusion I've reached (although happy to hear views from people) is that - at least as a starting point - I'll make one! There are a gazillion YT vids about that, and I know some of them are incredibly sophisticated and would end up taking as much space and money as a shop bought one, but some are very simple. Patrick Sullivan in particular built what he called "The disappearing lathe" which looks great as a starter. At least I could try it, and then either work out how to fit/afford a bigger unit, or realise that turning wasn't for me - or even be happy with just that DIY job for the occasional handle.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

... I've added weight to the midi lathe by sitting paving slabs and sand bags on the rails of the lathes stand ...

I've a hundredweight of sand and the bricks from eight night storage heaters under mine.

 

[RickG]

@The Gray Man , I've not seen the videos on making your own lathe. You would need a good motor, pulleys , to get the speed and torque, and a method to mount turning centres. You'd also need to be confident of being able to get the headstock and tailstock aligned. You also need to be able to have all this not come to a bringing halt every time the gouge hits a bit of which grain in the timber.
I picked up my small Axminster, with a few tools and a chuck, drive centres and live centre, for about £120. Why go to the trouble?

 

[Cooper]

I use a very old 3 phase Union graduate with an inverter from single phase to 3 with variable speed, which Bob Minchen, of this parish, made for me. I use the variable speed all the time.
I have been able to make anything I want, from big bowls from logs to whistles. If I was skint and didn't mind working out of doors I would build a pole lathe. I've seen domos, arranged by the Worshipful Company of Turners at the Carpenters Hall in the City, where they made brilliant pieces, bowls and between centres. Its worth a google: Pole Lathe.
Good luck

 

[Retired]

Hi,

It's worth considering the long term. About a year ago I started to turn finial lidded boxes enjoying every one of them but then what; they quickly multiply with space running out in the bungalow and giving a number as prezzies to friends; I've never attempted big bowls or platters etc they would take up too much space. Most of my woodturning has been useful items like furniture legs but now we've got all the furniture we need or even want.

At the age of 16 way back in 1963 I was let loose with fellow mechanical engineering apprentices on a bank of brand new Colchester lathes at Crigglestone Colliery Training Center; from the very first job on the lathe I've been addicted to lathes; at one point I had five lathes but now only have three lathes; a DML 24"; Union Graduate and an extremely rare Lorch Schmidt precision engineering lathe. Even after so many years I still never tire of lathe work; I've even learned metal spinning doing this on my much modified Graduate.

With winter now iminent I plan to do more wood turning so to save space I'll make these as Christmas presents just for the fun of it.

When I retired in 2000 I adopted restoring vintage valve radios and ten years later had at least 70 of these radios all occupying lots of space; I ended up closing my radio shack and disposing of all the test equipment and coil winders together with most of the radio collection; the same thing happens with wood turning; start off with the odd item and the hobby takes over.

I've got lots of expensive turning tools but strangely I only use about three of them;

Patriot Chuck

Above is just one of the chucks I have; I've also got collets and drawbar. The tooling quickly mounts up in cost; for a novice though a faceplate and wooden "jam chucks" take some beating costing very little indeed.

My Graduate lathe was virtually scrap when I bought it from an academy but being a mechanical engineer I like to buy such machinery deriving a lot of pleasure from restoring/upgrading them; the old cast iron machines are definitely best they can be restored with just a hand full of tools; bearings and drive belts are cheap.

For many years I dreamt of owning a Graduate and drooled over the new Graduate on sale at John Boddy's costing then around £3,000 but I could dream on. Now I have the Graduate I'm not disappointed; it's a wonderful lathe after it's rebuild and upgrade; it's now on 3 phase through a VFD and 1.5hp inverter rated top quality Brook motor; new SKF headstock bearings and drive belt it runs very sweetly indeed but most of the turning I do on the Graduate I could just as easily do on my DML 24". It's so easy to be awestruck watching turners with every must have bit of kit but how much is just for show?

Once a wood turning lathe is bought and nicely installed then comes a bandsaw and sharpening machines; I have a double ended bench grinder but also a home made 2" belt tool grinder; HSS tools are best for a novice these can be sharpened easily enough.

Good luck; once you own your first lathe it's unlikely you'll ever be without a lathe in future.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Cooper]

Re pole lathe, I would think that there complete kit could be made from old logs.
Cheers
Martin

 

[Ron Tock]

I've been watching various turning videos on youtube, particularly wortheffort, and hells bells I want a lathe, but wow they're expensive. Add in some decent gouges and a chuck and it really starts getting painful.

Buying the biggest and best you might ever use is not practical given what they can cost, so a mini is probably the place to start, and accept it won't be able to do everything.

At the lower end it probably becomes a trade-off between quality and features. Greater sizes (length and diameter) and variable speed control seem like the features to consider.

The cheapest Axminster lathe (AC205WL) says only " up to 200mm diameter. " and it's probably much less than that once you actually want to put your banjo in position, so it's perhaps completely impractical? It does have that variable speed though.
The next one up (AC240WL) gets a touch bigger, "240mm diameter", but loses the variable speed.
From there it's 400 quid and upwards which my wife might start raising an eyebrow over right now.

It doesn't sound like anyone would recommend a Clarke lathe, and generic Chinesey ones on the usual sites are probably a bad idea.

There seem to be very few used available.

I'm a bit stuck. Hopefully I'm wrong about some of my assessments and some options can open back up?

I bought a Record Power DML305, which, at £299, was the best quality lathe in my price bracket and a Record Power RP2000 scroll chuck back in July 2019. Prior to ordering the lathe, I had been buying used gouges on Ebay as and when I could afford them (in fact, I bought the chuck before I bought the lathe as that was only a little over £70). Like you, I had been watching YouTube videos, including Worth the effort (he is very informative even though he does deliver instruction like a drill sergeant).
The DML305, however, does not have a variable speed. But, in my case, this was a plus. My reasoning is that shifting the belt across the pulleys to change the speed takes only a few seconds and the only problems I am likely to encounter is a worn belt, which is cheap to buy and easy to replace. I might have gone for a variable speed if I was sufficiently conversant with electronics to fix a variable speed unit in the event it starts idling or racing. This is a problem that is far too common for my liking. In most cases, it will continue to function okay but the number of examples when the speed control fails and renders the lathe unusable until the unit is replaced at considerably more expence than the cost of a new belt is enough to justify my decision to go for a totally user serviceable machine. It is a 'midi' lathe with a maximum bowl diameter of 305mm (12") and a maximum of 393mm (15.5") between centres. It's a cast iron lathe and very solid.

Whichever lathe you go for, enjoy turning. It's pure joy. You will soon find yourself looking at trees as a butcher looks at cows

 

[Retired]

Hi,

I recently bought a 3hp single phase 240V motor speed controller similar to the one in the picture; I'm experimenting with a 1,950W commercial microwave transformer but thought it worth adding the detail because these motor controllers come in lots of sizes and are cheap enough to try. Perhaps other members have more information because I've not yet had time to play in the workshop.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[jamchuck]

@westwardho have a read of my tutorials on choosing a lathe - www.turnadowoodturning.com/tutorials. There’s a 12 buying criteria to help you consider what’s important vs what’s a nice-to-have. And maybe help convince Senior Management that spending a bit more is better for your safety. It’s not that the cheaper lathes are bad, they’re lightweight and can’t absorb the vibrations when cutting a large bowl blank, for example. Have a read and post me any questions you have or give us a call and we can help.

 

[jamchuck]

When I started, I found Wyoming Woodturner Sam Anderson very good at explaining sharpening and methods. Also Mike Peace is equally as good. Mike Waldt does beginner basics reasonably well.

 

[Anthraquinone]

When you do decide on a lathe I would suggest you post the make and model here and ask for any feedback on it.

 

[westwardho]

I've been looking at various - a Union Graduate (500 quid, and a bit of a distance), a Scheppach DTM 450 (fairly local).

I was talking to my neighbour today, who has a Record lathe, and after looking at the used ones he suggested perhaps

https://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+power...ning-lathe-with-variable-speed-rutlands+r2000

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The Graduate and the Rutlands offering don't belong in the same universe. Take the Graduate, you can always upgrade it a while down the line if needs it.

 

[westwardho]

I do like a nice strong opinion

 

[Doris]

Got my Coronet CL3 (the predecessor to the record lathes) for £170 off of gumtree years ago. This came with 2 chucks, screw chucks, 2 Jacobs chucks and 3 centres. The lady I bought it all off if was the widow of the original owner.
My point being if you do but second hand a lot of the time chucks etc are thrown in which saves you even more money in the long run. Some might not be great but it's a start.

Also would recommend checking out www.lathes.co.uk if you see a particular second hand lathe you like as it has tons of information and gives honest opinions on the lathes if they are well built, thread sizes etc.

 

[TheTiddles]

He’s not wrong!

 

[westwardho]

What is a record power model no 0, and why can't I find anything about it online?

 

[okeydokey]

Hi
Possibly Record Coronet No 0 lathe try searching that name
Its Record from long time back, well before the Record Power name existed - sort of the same company though

 

[okeydokey]

I think Coronet were absorbed into Record Tools in the 1970's