The average price of one of these lathes is £160 (as of August 2001)
In the jaws is a candle stick I am making a nice bit of spindle work in ash
My Lathe
Well after a while just going to the club was not enough for me so I went and got my own lathe. It is not as expensive as you might think to get this equipment and well worth it if you seriously want to turn some wood. I will add pictures in here as I go along of the lathe and projects underway.
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Well here it is my first lathe, an Axminster
Perform CCL, with variable speed control (no playing with belts and pulleys),
a rotating head so I can turn really large bits of wood. The largest
spindle or plate I can turn over the bed is 12" Diameter and the
longest I can turn is about 36" which is plenty for me. The ½ Hp
motor is plenty to be getting on with as well. with the head turned 90
degrees I can turn pieces up to 36" in diameter which is far more
than I will ever need.
The average price of one of these lathes is £160 (as of August 2001) |
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The business end of my lathe showing the controls the lathe is so easy to use its a delight. |
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The Supa Nova Scroll chuck. Nearly as expensive
to buy but worth every penny. This versatile chuck will cope with most
jobs and there is a huge range of additional jaws to expand its functionality
still further.
In the jaws is a candle stick I am making a nice bit of spindle work in ash |
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Here I am with my lathe. Just goes to show how small the lathe is and yes it will fit into a small conservatory !! |
Well as it turns out the lathe wasn't big enough for me as I have taken up turning professionally and so I have now bought a professional quality lathe, the Hegner 2000XBL. This is a real monster of a lathe and will turn 16" x 44" over the bed and its construction and electronic speed control mean that I can turn large greenwood bowls with no problems at all even if I can only just lift the blanks !! This lathe also has much better outboard turning facilities via a dedicated bowl turning attachment
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This lathe still fits into my conservatory but only just.
The bench is very heavy to absorb vibration. The top is constructed of
2" thick Iroko, the top rails are 6"x4" Iroko and the
bottom rails 4"x2" Iroko. The bench legs are ¼" plate
steel and come with the lathe
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