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New club lathe

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The Bowler Hatted Turner:
So, today three committee members from the club put the 2 lathes under test.
We subjected each lathe to an unnaturally hard and deep cut, in effect trying to stop the lathe. Although we did succeed in stopping the lathe each time,it was considered that such an extreme cut was unlikely to be made under normal circumstances. This was carried out at various speed/pulley settings.
    As Andy pointed out in his reply here" A good pro turner will accommodate the lack of power with both the project he choses to demonstrate, and the depth and speed of cuts used throughout the demonstration." And I would add that his tools would be sharp too.( as should everyone's tools)
      We did find though that the Bristol levers made of plastic were rubbish so we decided to upgrade them on both machines. We also took into consideration how many times a year the lathes are used(and for what)and weighed up any pros and cons we could think of.(storage etc.).
In conclusion we decided that the lathes we have are fit for the purpose we brought them for and so we would stick with them, save the money which could have been in the region of £600 and book an extra 1 or 2 demonstrators.
I am glad we undertook this test as I am always concerned, when spending club members money, that it is done with the best interests of the members in mind.
So thankyou all for your contribution (PM's too) it has been a valuable and worthwhile exercise. If you are booked to come and demo at my club and use our machines we will now judge how good you are by the number of times you stop the lathe! ;D ;D

Derwent Woodturning club:
Hi John,

Thanks for the comprehensive update on your club lathe assessment. Just out of interest, what lathes are you using in the club? They obviously do the job, but need a bit of consideration as to how hard they can be worked.

If I am down your way, I will try and visit, and try and stop your lathe :o
Regards,
Paul

The Bowler Hatted Turner:
Thanks Paul. The two lathes we have are Axminster AWVSL and AWSL and we were going to replace them with other Axminster lathes which surely must say something about APT.
 I know there are clubs out there with fantastic lathes (I have demoed on some of them)but we questioned the need for  a larger more powerful machine, the likes of which our branch members are never likely to own and the fact that a fairly expensive machine will spend most of it's life stood idle. We also came to the conclusion that more members would benefit from 2 cheaper machines than 1 expensive machine.
     When the club first started in 2008 we could not afford club lathes and relied on members taking their own lathes in for hands on nights, we still do but now we have 2 more. We only use them probably 6 times a year if that and then only 2-3 hours , so for less than 20 hours of use a year we think we have what we need but when we purchased them we got what we could afford at the time.
  As an aside to Paul's comment, if any of you are down in this neck of the woods(Wiltshire) on the 2nd Thursday of the month you are than welcome to come and spend club night with us.
Regards
John BHT

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