Used lathe vent

[Timm De]

New on the forums and I just need to vent if that is okay. My wife does not care about these feelings nor can she validate them.

Your cabinet powermatic delta Craftsman's 12in swing 1/2hp lathe from 1995 is not worth 1500 even if it comes with gen1 carbide tools from Amazon and a duplication tool.

Your nova lathe from 2006 is not worth more then you paid for it two decades agos. That Laguna lathe with risers and a cabinet built into is not worth more now then it was brand new. Slight used jet pen lathe for $900 but comes with a handful boring blanks chuck and roughing gouge??

Maybe it's me I'm the problem here. I just am looking to spend less the $1500 on a 16in lathe with outboard turning, speeds under 750rpm(looking at you grizzly) and from this decade.

Sincerely a broke wood turner who has multiple 20in blanks he cannot turn.

Ps this is not anything I've seen for sale here this is FB marketplace and craigslist

 

[John K Jordan]

Keep an eye out for a used Jet 1642 - variable speed, reverse. If you really want to turn 20” diameter blanks the the headstock can be positioned off one end and buy or build an outboard tool rest. You can sometimes find them from $1000 to $1600. I had two spare 1642s and recently gave one to a friend and the other to a kids turning program. I kept one Jet Mini and my PM3520b.

HOWEVER, it sounds like you are new to woodturning. If so, forget the quest for a bigger lathe for now and start small and avoid a lot of frustration.

My advice: store the big blanks on the shelf for the future. A highly recommended way to start is to learn spindle turning first, then later move to bowls and platter turning. Spindle turning will teach you the fine tool control needed to turn anything. The lathe you have now is enough to learn on. Set your sights on the future but first master what you have.

I have no idea what gen1 carbide tools are but if they are flat-topped carbides used primarily as scrapers, don’t bother - get a few good HSS tools instead, a bench grinder and learn to sharpen. To get started with spindle turning a good 3/8” spindle gouge, a 3/4” skew chisel, a parting tool, a 1/2” round nose scraper, and a spindle roughing gouge are more than enough. I started over 20 years ago with the worst lathe ever made and a set of inexpensive HSS tools from Sears. (I still use them today.) I learned the basics and eventually moved to a better lathe. A little patience with what you have now can go a long way. (Don’t make the beginner mistake of thinking that a bigger and better lathe will make you a better woodturner1)

Buy a good scroll chuck. I start all students on spindle turning and the skew is the first tool in their hands.

If you don’t have one, a bandsaw is a perfect complement to a lathe.

I can’t teach a class in a message so find and join a good club, take advantage of the resources there, and find a mentor who is good with beginners. You can advance quite quickly. Buy and read two books “Fundamentals of Woodturning” by Mike Darlow and “Turning Wood” by Richard Raffan. Read every word, follow all their instructions and exercises, then read it all again and I promise you will become an expert. That’s how I got started. The actual lathe and the power doesn’t matter much when learning.

When transitioning to bowls and platters, before attempting to turn large things outboard start with smaller blanks and turn inboard - far easier to do many things this way. I’ve had students turn beautiful 8” bowls in the afternoon after a morning spindle turning lesson. The real key is finding the right teacher/mentor. And don’t try to do too much too fast. That’s a fast track to discouragement.

JKJ

 

[Timm De]

JKL,

Thanks for the advice I'll keep an eye for the jet lathe that sounds inline with what I'm after. Also it will match my jet wet grinder and jet 14in bandsaw. Both tools have greatly sped up my turning process. I also now have 3 chainsaw saws. 2 for rip cuts and 1 for cross cuts. All purchases made to speed green wood processing times.

I have plenty of tooling(I want more, what's the tool rule, n+1 right?) and just picked up some Thomson bowl gouges. It funny you mentioned a 3/8 skew gouge as that is one of my favorites along with my diamond point. Right now I have 3 1/2 bowl gouges and 2 5/8 bowl gouges to keep me turning when hogging through green stock plus a 5/8 bottom bowl gouge 1 1/2 french curve scraper for finishing.. 2 chucks with different size jaws to not have to spend time swapping jaws. To compliment those I have the holdfast vacuum chuck system which I love but one more chuck with pen jaws would be cool too. And yes those carbide tools are the ones in question.

I have that Richard raffen book and one by David Ellsworth. I love them and big YouTube academy learner as well. Joined my local turning club and all things good. I have heard learning turn through spindle turning then move on but have also heard turn a lot twice turn bowls for good practice. My journey has landed me lots of green wood and I rough turn them before finishing. I have only spent money on wood once for a small present for my wife.

The quest for a new lathe is two fold. I want to turn BIG because I'm a caveman(I say jokingly but Im drawn to it) I regularly max my lathe capacity out. And the second main reason is it has become the bottle neck in my turning process. It bogs down on big cuts on big wet green blanks the torque is not enough. My poor lathe trys to run away when I put a 13x4 green blank it no matter how round it is off the bandsaw. It gets me where I'm going but in no hurry.

All of my purchases have been to speed up the time to get me to the lathe now it's time to speed up how fast I can turn my clean workshop into a pool of shavings!