General Category > General Discussion

New club lathe

<< < (2/3) > >>

The Bowler Hatted Turner:
Thanks Doug,
                 food for thought.
Regards
John BHT

Andy Coates:
when considering "club lathes" Vs the reaction of "Pro Turners" you need to keep in mind that most of them (myself included) will work on 2 or 3 HP lathes in their own workshops. So stopping a small lathe mid cut is far from unusual. 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.

If you are trying to provide a lathe of sufficient capacity and power to suit all "pro" turners be prepared to spend a lot more money, upgrade your insurance, and provide a bigger storage facility.

Dave Atkinson:
Hello john
our club noughtbyhe axminster 1416vs after seeing mine in action.  I am very imoressed with its performance.
cheers dave

The Bowler Hatted Turner:
Thankyou all for your replies.
         
I am always conscious that as chairman of my branch one of my duties is the safeguarding of the member's funds,and alongside the treasurer ensuring that those funds are spent with full consideration to the members and the situation in hand.
To this effect it has been decided to test both of our existing club lathes on each speed and assess the suitability of them for club purposes. This will allow my committee to make a valued judgement as to whether we will replace them or not, perhaps we/I should have done this in the first place.
     I may already know the answer as one motor is 375W and the one we are after is 500W but as you buy the best you can afford at the time that is what we had/will get.
I will give a report about our findings.
Regards
John BHT

Derwent Woodturning club:

--- Quote from: Dave Atkinson on October 04, 2013, 12:38:35 AM ---Hello john
our club noughtbyhe axminster 1416vs after seeing mine in action.  I am very imoressed with its performance.
cheers dave

--- End quote ---
Hi John,
I totally agree with Dave Atkinson. Our club has two Axminster 1416VS's, a Record 305 and a Charnwood variable speed and the Axminsters are far superior. The key difference is the 1416's use three phase motors with frequency control to vary the speed, giving virtually full power at all speeds. The Charnwood uses a DC motor with pulse width modulation for speed control and consequently can't deliver true full power as the speed is lowered. And bear in mind most lathes specify the motor power as the input power, not the output power, so don't just compare the numbers.

If you can't afford a three phase variable speed lathe, ( I do appreciate they are a lot more expensive) I would save your money and buy a better pulley speed-change lathe. Variable speed is a nice luxury but other factors may be more important - larger swing, longer bed, better build quality.

I also agree with one of the other posts about not having an outboard handwheel, one reason I don't like our Record 305.

In my opinion the best advice given was to ask suppliers to loan lathes to you and give them a try. That's good PR for the supplier, as members are likely to go for the same/similar lathes when they are in the market for one, so the supplier is likely to pickup lots of future business.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page