Reply by Bob #2

Mtkate I had a 12 ” from Taiwan similar to the harbor freight one with the Reeves pulley adjustment.
I turned a lot of stuff on it from pens to bowls. The problem I had was that it ran too fast for any large pieces to use safely.
By the same token 12” is barely enought room to turn anything over 9-10”inches with the he “ways”
I now have a Delta 16” variable speed that is serving me just fine.
I saw a similar style machine at BusyBee in the 1200.00 range but was noti mpressed with the run out on the one they had on demo.
If you look at that one, take someone with you that knows about lathes as wobble will spoil all your fun.

Good luck

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