lathes

[slemishwoodcrafts]

the time has come...

with moving into a new workshop i want to upgrade my trusty Rexon wl924a lathe. I was looking to spend about £300. I would like one with variable speed controlled by one of those levers than changing the belts. Rutlands sell a fox lathe i looked at but thought I may ask here first.

regards,

michael

 

[The Shark]

Hi Michael,
Sorry I can't offer an opinion as I have no experience yet in this area, but it will be interesting to see what other people think.

Malc

 

[TEP]

Have a look at this one Michael, it's not the most expensive yet quite a good machine for the money.

Or look around for a second user lathe, they are about.

 

[robo hippy]

The Perform lathe shown looks like a Jet clone. I have turned on one some, and it is a nice little lathe. The lever speed change is what we Yanks call a Reeves drive, where the pulley changes in steps. This type of drive is still stepped pulleys, and they have a reputation of needing some fine tuning from time to time. Also to me, the motor is on backwards. The air intake is right where all the dust will go when you are sanding. I also had a problem with a natural edge bowl on it as the motor was in the way as it sticks out past the headstock. A true variabe speed lathe, with a 'dial a speed' is frequency controlled. There are DC motors, 3 phase motors with converters on them so they can run on house residential current, and the Nova lathe which is some thing else (no experience with this one). This can cost more money, but once you have it, you wonder how you lived without it. I need speeds down to 10 rpm or less because I turn green to final thickness, then let the bowls dry and warp. When I remount them for sanding, some are so badly warped that anything beyond that speed and I can't keep the sander on the wood.
robo hippy

robo hippy

 

[davegw]

Have a look at this one Michael, it's not the most expensive yet quite a good machine for the money.

Or look around for a second user lathe, they are about.

I've got the SIP version of that one michael and I think it's very good. One thing to look out for if you get it - make sure it has a firm and flat base to stand on, see another thread in this forum for the reason behind that

Have fun

Dave

 

[CHJ]

........ Also to me, the motor is on backwards. The air intake is right where all the dust will go when you are sanding. ........

I got round the dust distribution problem by the motor fan when I had mine by using the motor fan shield to mount a dust hood which stayed on for 90% of my turning.

 

[big soft moose]

The Perform lathe shown looks like a Jet clone..

most of the perform range are chiawanese built clones of the axminster range (actually perform are imported by axminster then reworked to give a better quality of essential parts such as belts)- the CCL is a clone of the M900.

Mind you i have also seen identical lathes from charnwood, jet, and draper so it seems likely that they all come from the same chaiwanese factory and are just badged differently

 

[davegw]

The Perform lathe shown looks like a Jet clone..

most of the perform range are chiawanese built clones of the axminster range (actually perform are imported by axminster then reworked to give a better quality of essential parts such as belts)- the CCL is a clone of the M900.

Mind you i have also seen identical lathes from charnwood, jet, and draper so it seems likely that they all come from the same chaiwanese factory and are just badged differently

I think we need to be careful about the "all come from the same chaiwanese factory" approach. As BSM suggests, Axminster make some post manufacture upgrades, as does SIP, so I think there are changes (some more minor than others) between what essentially looks like the same models.

 

[pete honeyman]

I started with a Sealey SM900 which looks almost identical to those above - it did the job, I turned bowls up to 24" on it with no problem - the only vice was that changing speeds was slow and tricky, but generally a lot of lathe for the money, in fact I sold it after two years for 40 less than I paid for it.

Pete

 

[slemishwoodcrafts]

thanks for the replies. I would also like to be able to turn rather large bowls say 24" and I know the fox can allow this.

regards,

michael

 

[big soft moose]

my axminster 900 (and therefore the CCL which is essentially the same thing but with more chaiwanese bits) can swing 24" (not over the bed but it has a rotating headstock.)

in fact by taking the tool rest off and using a free standing one i have swung 30" dia without a problem.

one thing to bear in mind tho is that if you are doing big deep bowls or coring out with a kel mcnaughton these lathes all lack power. mostly you are looking at 0.5HP max - but you wont get anything more powerful without going way outside your budget.