odie
TOTW Team
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2006
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Yep, purchased new in 1992 from CSUSA. 
This is the original Australian made lathe......not one of the Chinese knock offs that were available a few years back.
It's been a faithful lathe over the past three decades. Originally, I changed belts to change speeds, but upgraded about 20yrs ago to a VFD......and that was a great upgrade.
About 10yrs ago, the headstock bearings were replaced......not a difficult job, and I have another set of bearings on hand, if it comes to that.
The one and only thing I would change, if I could, would be to have a rotating headstock for doing extreme undercut rims on my bowls......but, even at that, I've made up detachable hip braces that eliminate the back problems of leaning over to do this one thing. Virtually everything else on this Woodfast lathe is no different than any of the new lathes now on the market. (For me, a sliding headstock just won't cut it, because it would be such a hassle to move all my stuff out of the way to do that.....sort of like a ShopSmith......great way of consolidating functions, but such a PITA to change between functions repetitively.....over and over and over again!)
Other that those things, there's nothing else that can wear out on this 525lb cast iron lathe, with it's well designed all heavy steel support frame.
In her original glory:
.....and as she is a few months ago:
-----odie-----
This is the original Australian made lathe......not one of the Chinese knock offs that were available a few years back.
It's been a faithful lathe over the past three decades. Originally, I changed belts to change speeds, but upgraded about 20yrs ago to a VFD......and that was a great upgrade.
About 10yrs ago, the headstock bearings were replaced......not a difficult job, and I have another set of bearings on hand, if it comes to that.
The one and only thing I would change, if I could, would be to have a rotating headstock for doing extreme undercut rims on my bowls......but, even at that, I've made up detachable hip braces that eliminate the back problems of leaning over to do this one thing. Virtually everything else on this Woodfast lathe is no different than any of the new lathes now on the market. (For me, a sliding headstock just won't cut it, because it would be such a hassle to move all my stuff out of the way to do that.....sort of like a ShopSmith......great way of consolidating functions, but such a PITA to change between functions repetitively.....over and over and over again!)
Other that those things, there's nothing else that can wear out on this 525lb cast iron lathe, with it's well designed all heavy steel support frame.
In her original glory:
.....and as she is a few months ago:
-----odie-----
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