Recommendations of short, flat bed lathes.

[adrspach]

I am fishing for upgrade of my coronet consort machine to more substantial lathe.
I ma looking into Twister FU-180, Wivamac DB 6000, Woodfast C450 or simmilar short bed possibilities on second hand market. Tried to look online but that proved to be tough going to find specs and independent feedback.
Do you have any experience with those or anything simmilar to them?

 

[Linus]

I have the Twister 180 which I got from Simon Hope and can highly recommend it, and his services. I cannot comment on the other lathes you mention but if you want the spec for the Twister let me know and I can send it to you as PDF.

 

[adrspach]

The Twister is the only one which so far I had chance to physically see working when I did my course in Simon Hope's workshop. Looks to the eyes of begginer great the same could be said about his Midi Pro which i forgot to mention at the beginning of this thread. For these I was looking more for feedback e.g. How long I can expect bearings to last?, Is it difficult to change bearings? I want to buy proven solid machine and that hopefully will last me as hoby for next 20 years.

 

[SkyBlue63]

+1 for the Twister. If you have any queries try giving Simon a ring, I've always found him to be helpful and honest with his answers(even if it does him out of a sale).

 

[SVB]

Vicmarc 300 if you want a forever lathe - love mine and cannot recommend highly enough.