Pretty good deal

thanks for the review.

-- making sawdust....

Thanks for the review. I have a lathe on my wish list so this review helps.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Yes, very helpful review. Especially for those of us who don’t have an experience but are thing about trying it.
- JJ

-- JJ...... I guess you could say I'm a 54 year old "juniorjock". — Make things with wood.

I used to be a big fan of Delta, right up until I started using one of these. In the first 30 days, after using it for maybe 1 hour, the switch went bad. I hauled it in to the service center and 2 weeks later it was ready to go. I started to turn a pen and the belt started to shred. A big chunk of the pulley had broken off and each time it spun it took another chunk out of the belt. Back to the shop. Brought it home (with a new pulley and 3 free belts) and the head and tail stock wouldn’t line up. Had to grind down the edge of the tailstock to get them to line up. At least the problems occurred while in warranty. It’s been working well the the past year and a half, but I’ve only used it a couple of times since the last repair.

-- NorthWoodsMan

How can you give it four stars and call it a “Pretty good deal” , if you can’t turn a 3.5” bowl on it without it self destructing ???

Kinda defeats the purpose of naming it a MIDI lathe doesn’t it ? LOL !

My MINI Lathe made by JET , can turn larger bowls than that !

-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .

well, I don’t know what the actual intentional size is so I figured that if it works for smaller turnings that’s what it was made for.

-- "We want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!"- Withnail

I have one of these and find it very good value for money I have no problems with sorry to hear of your troubles Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Were you turning between centers or with a chuck? Several of the mini and midi lathes can’t handle a heavy chuck. Over a period of time the bearings just give out. There are smaller chucks on the market that are made for small lathes. Speed can also be an enemy on small lathes if an off centered heavy large piece is being turned.

-- Those that say it can't be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

For my big lathes, I use the Delta 1642 and the Jet 1642 equivelant. They are almost the same, and work very well and are used a lot. For my small lathe I chose the “Steel City” variable speed 10” , and am very very pleased.
I use the smaller “Grizzley” 4 jaw chuck, (Less than $100), which is a real jewel ! You may need more weight on your stand, as even the “Big Boys” will walk away from you if ballance is way out. I added about 75 lbs of barbell rounds to the lower area of mine.

-- Imagination is more important than Knowledge

I was actually using a plate.

-- "We want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!"- Withnail

Sorry, I do not know what is meant by “Using a plate”, unless you mean a Face Plate. In which case the piece must have been really way out, and should be “Trimmed” for turning. ???

-- Imagination is more important than Knowledge

yeah, sorry bout that, I was using a face plate and it was trimmed, I was working on the inside of a bowl and it shook really strangely and then my piece was off center and the spindle was bent.

-- "We want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!"- Withnail

You must have had something way out of wack to do that. I’ve turned 5 and 6 ” bowls on my mini lathe with no problems.

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

was yours a delta midi?

-- "We want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!"- Withnail

I feel fortunate at this stage that I’ve used mine as much as I have without any issues – turned two 6”x26” Mahoghany table legs (with bed extension), two 6”x34” pillars for display stands, and a couple dozen bowls, to include glue-ups 8” in diameter and 10” long and a dozen pepper grinders – don’t get me wrong, I have to secure the lathe to a bench and weight everything but I am also very careful to trim excess wood off with the bandsaw to minimize balance problems. I use a smaller nova four-jaw chuck – perfect size for this lathe.

I keep looking at bigger lathes to do bigger bowls but since I’m still moving every couple of years in the Air Force I can’t justify the weight of a big lathe. For now I’ll hope I don’t thrash this one too bad…Jim

-- Jim

you might try a full sized benchtop like http://woodworking.jettools.com/Products.aspx?Part=708358&cat=333132, that way you can just throw together a baser and when you move you just take it apart. Thanks for your service!

-- "We want the finest wines available to humanity. And we want them here, and we want them now!"- Withnail