Just a thought, the mustard will do everything and more the vega will.
Yes and no. I have been using a Vega for four years now. I often get calls from people around the country asking about it because I featured it in one of my videos, and because I am a reference for Randy at Vega. I am not a yes man for him either, but rather speak the truth. No one needs to sell someone a lathe they won't be happy with.
The Vega is a great lathe for bowls and hollow forms. It is fantastic for those people with limited room in their shop. It is powerful, sturdy, and has excellent customer service behind it. It has a larger swing than the Powermatic
between centers. The speed control is mounted on a movable pendant. Those are the good points.
There aren't really any bad points to the lathe, but there are some shortcomings. It won't turn spindles longer than 17", unless you get the new bed extension. That doubles the length if I recall correctly, but I have no experience with the new one. I have an older one which does fine for holding captured hollowing rigs, but does not have a tailstock option.
It is slow compared to some other lathes. The top end is a little more than 2000 rpm. That is plenty of speed for bowls and hollow forms, but it is way too slow for small spindles. You don't really want this lathe for turning pens and bottle stoppers. But it wasn't designed for that. It was designed to turn bowls up to 26" in diameter, and it does that very well. So to say that another lathe will do more isn't necessarily accurate. It will do some things better and some things not as well. There are times when someone has called me and I have told them they should buy a different lathe. But lots of times this lathe is exactly what the person is looking for. And as the OP intends, spending time on a machine like this is extremely important. It is a much better indicator of how one will like and use a machine that all of our opinions combined.
