# Central machinery harbor freight lathe review



## RUINTUIT

If it makes things round and appealing to your eye, who cares what name is on the machine that helps you realize your dreams.


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## MrRon

I have the same lathe (8 years) with no problems. Not fancy, but it gets the job done.


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## Gunnyb4

That is the goal to make them round. I think if more people know about it we will start grabbing more of our younger generation. A lot of them think they need to spend 1k or more to turn good quality items.


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## woodworm1962

I have seen your YOUTUBE I have seen and read people think the LOWEST sped is way too fast and there really is no way to slow it down


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## Gunnyb4

I have not tried it but you can use a smaller belt(thinner) to slow it down.


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## jimintx

> I have seen your YOUTUBE I have seen and read people think the LOWEST sped is way too fast and there really is no way to slow it down
> - woodworm1962


How slow does somebody want it to go? I think the low speed on this one is 500 rpm.


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## Gunnyb4

I think for finishing purposes. I've seen quite a few videos of that as well as turning screw threads. I have no use for that but I can see the benifits. 
On that note so I'm trying this whole YouTube thing but it's not easy getting subscribers. I've got a new turning video coming I hope will boost it up a bit. Something I haven't seen yet so I think it will be a hit.


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## michelletwo

this lathe is ok for spindle turning, but for bowls, the lowest speed is way too fast..even a smaller block of uneven wood will make this light lathe jump across the floor, or at least shimmy badly. Be careful


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## Tennessee

The biggest hits on this lathe are:
In the past, people have complained about the tool rest snapping if you get a catch.
Too light - I have seen pictures of it with the stand and sandbags on the bottom. You cured that with your huge wooden stand.
Not slow enough - like michelletwo said, big hunk of wood, off balance, it will do the shimmy.
That crazy tool rest extension, which looks like a really good idea, complaints about it snapping since the load on it could get really heavy if you had it extended and were out on the outboard part of the tool rest. Blame bad cast iron from HF.

Other than that, the drive has played to pretty good reviews, fairly sturdy, decent motor, and outstanding price.
I know my HF, couple times I was in there, they were on backorder.


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## jimintx

> this lathe is ok for spindle turning, but for bowls, the lowest speed is way too fast..even a smaller block of uneven wood will make this light lathe jump across the floor, or at least shimmy badly. ...
> - michelletwo





> ... Not slow enough - like michelletwo said, big hunk of wood, off balance, it will do the shimmy. ...
> - Tennessee


What is the slow speed desired for turning bowls? Is it 50 rpm, 100 maybe? Less than that? 
Thanks


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## Gunnyb4

I have had good luck turning several bowls down from raw wood into blanks and into bowls after drying. I do have an advantage being bolted down.


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## jimintx

I don't have the personal expertise to comment on lathe speeds. I am a beginning turner, and have been just that for several years now. However, i do somewhat resist when I read statements about "data" that apparently have little date around them. That doesn't relate to the posts and LJ members in this thread about lathe speed. It likely does relate to the info sources that lead to those posts.

I believe you can do a lot or internet research and not produce a huge amount of data saying you ever really need speeds below 500 rpm. From what I can find, if you have such a large and unbalanced blank that you need to turn well below 500, then you really should clean that up with a saw or other cutting devices. (Or, maybe, turn something else, I realize.) Thus, I believe that a min speed of 500 Rpm is not going to impact my turning.

One oft repeated formula for lathe speed estimating, for a starting point to try the turning project, is to multiply the diameter of the piece in inches by the rpm lathe speed. That product should fall between 6,000 to 9,000. The advice always wisely says to start at the lower end of that range.

For example, a 10" diameter piece at 600 RPM yields a product of 6,000. At 500 rpm, you'd be below the range, which should be a good starting point. It you have a 12 inch diameter blank, then the 500 RPM still puts you at the starting point-range, at product of 6,000.

One site, http://www.docgreenwoodturner.com/lathespeed.html publishes these formula in graphic form, and I have added it below.

Another site, Craft Supplies USA (a 35 year old business serving woodturners) explains the use of this same formula in write up titled "Determining Safe Wood Lathe Speeds".










I am now putting away the soapbox that I drug out on this topic. 
;-D
.


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## Tennessee

I tell you what, jimintx…
You take a 10" diameter log not knowing what was branch sections, what was sapwood, what was heartwood, cut it with your chainsaw, bandsaw, whatever, so that it is fairly round, knots and all, center it and mount it on your lathe and turn it on at 500 RPM.
Oh, by the way, stand off to the side… Been there, watched it fly.

Your graphs are nice, but my personal experience is seeing a log fly off a 3HP 3520 Powermatic lathe running at about 490 RPM before I even got a gouge tool in hand is my go-to experience. I don't want to go there again. I can rough cut at about 275-300 RPM and be safe, or crank it a bit and watch wood fly around my shop.

And my smaller lathe, a Turncrafter Commander 12" midi lathe, I had a less than four pound piece of raw wood in it, fairly well centered, turning around 495, and it was walking all over the place. It dispensed itself onto the floor before I got anything even remotely round. I think I managed maybe…15 seconds of cut time?

Your experience may vary.


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## jimintx

Tenn, I opened by saying, "I don't have the personal expertise to comment on lathe speeds." I they are not my charts, as you saw, I even gave attribution to other source on the web.

But my question originally was how slow does someone want a lathe to go? Simply that. 
I figured if I did some basic research and showed it here, there would be some pushback and we might get an answer. So there ya go, that's what I was seeking input on.

And if you read everything above, you can see that no answer to that was suggested prior to you now saying you want 275-300. I'd appreciate knowing, what is the slowest speed you have run your lathe to cut into some piece?

That example you gave, that's a good one. And, it is not something I would be doing in the first place.


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## michelletwo

I do have personal experience. 34 yrs of turning and furniture making as my career. Each piece of wood is differently balanced. Wet?Dry? Orientation? Charts are swell, but experience beats it all. THis lathe is too light to turn bowls. You may get away with it by bolting to the floor/the wall, or sandbagging it. But one day that piece will fly off there and knock you silly or go thru a window. If you want to turn bowls, get a lathe that has enough heft to do the job.


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## Tennessee

Well, jimintx, I sincerely apologize. I guess the memory of that wood flying around kind of stuck in my mind. If I had not been reaching for a bowl gouge….. Wood came right over the tool rest.
BTW, my Powermatic comes in somewhere in the 600+ pound range so it was not shaking. I'd have to look at the manual to see the actual weight. New ones weigh even more, over 700 lbs.

Oh, and when I do anything like that now, I tend to use my Powermatic 3520 in slow range, which I believe is something like 15 to 1200 RPM. I will mount the wood, and turn it on as slow as it will go by turning the speed dial to 0 and then turning on the big red button. Then I move the speed dial up slowly, starting at the aforementioned 15 RPM, until I reach a position where I feel I am somewhat safe, things will not go flying, and I can still use a very sharp tool to take light cuts until things are fairly balanced. My guess would be somewhere less than 300 RPM.
What that speed is, I don't know, since my Powermatic is an older one, with no speed readout. Since most of my turning life I've never had a speed readout, I tend to ignore them anyway. On my Turnmaster, there is a speed readout right there, just to the left of the chuck. Nice, but I just don't use it. Once I bought one of those cheapo HF speed readout tools. Cool tool that collects dust on the shelf by my lathes. Used it once, twice, checked it against the speed readout on my Turnmaster, (which mostly matched), and put it up. It will come in handy for something down the line, just don't know what yet.

Oh, and my Powermatic 3520 is a 2HP, 3phase, and that lathe comes with a single phase converter to run on 220VAC single phase. I incorrectly put 3HP, in my previous post. Still, quite a horse that I have proudly owned for sixteen years. Works like the day I bought it.


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## Stew81

I've got one of these lathe's and I've turned quite a few bowls in the 10" to 11" range without anything flying off of it. Would it be nice if it went slower? Sure. But I don't see what the weight of the lathe or stand have to do with material holding. If you have bowl blanks flying off your lathe at 500rpm maybe you should take another look at how you are attaching the wood to the lathe or spend a little time at the band saw balancing your blank.

All that being said, a Powermatic lathe that can get down to 15 RPM would be awesome! If I could get one in the $200-$300 dollar range then count me in. I'm not gonna hold my breath though.

I wouldnt turn any beginner away from this lathe because of the speed limitations. I would reccomend building your own base with a little more mass to it. Also when working on ANY lathe, be smart about what you attach to it and how you attach it and you will be fine. This is a great lathe for the price.


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## Tennessee

Stew, with all due respect, it's not the attachment, it's the weight distribution of the wood. And to be honest, any wood joint can crack off the best holding device. I've had totally round pieces crack out of the chuck when I took just a bit too much wood at once. And if a lathe is vibrating, flexing or even walking due to the out of balance wood, you are in dangerous territory, no matter how good your attachment method.

To be honest, it is not if you will lose wood off the lathe, it is only when.

Take a look at this lathe video. Note accident number three, where the mounting holds just fine, but…well, you'll see.


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## Stew81

I agree. At some point things like this will happen and its probably better that it happen at 200 rpm rather than 500 rpm. When I was reading the comments it started to sound like there was a higher risk of material being thrown from this lathe than others due to the speed and weight of this lathe… Since this is a tool review I wanted to point out that there is no flaw in the design of this lathe that causes things to fly off of it.


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## Tennessee

That is completely correct, Stew.
Unfortunately, most instructions that come with these lathes, and most others to be honest, do not address the problem of "when is too much wood just too much?" They always talk about starting at the slowest speed, but I don't remember ever seeing anything on weight, balance, etc. I guess they just assume you know.

As long as it will clear the bed, that is the only thing I've ever seen. You just have to use your common sense. If it looks like it will shake your lathe and possibly fly off, chances are it will.


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## CyberDyneSystems

I've not looked at one of these in person, how hard would it be to swap out one of the drive pulleys to get a lower speed?


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## PPK

What 3-jaw chuck do you use on the headstock? (Or anyone else that has this lathe) I'm looking for something to chuck up a rolling pin from the end.


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