I want to learn to make bowls and hollow vessels on a lathe. I know from reading about the subject it’s important the lathe be stable. What is the least expensive lathe that will allow high quality results? I don’t plan to do table legs or the like. Just vessels and bowls. Thanks
Ken Palm Desert CA
Replies
I think you will have to decide on the throw that you need .Then you will find that most inexpensive lathes and some expensive ones need plywood boxes attached to the base and filled with sand to stabilise them . Bowls tend to be more out of balance than spindle turnings as they are often green, burls, uneven density, etc
Turning is addictive, be warned
Jako
I'm only a beginning turner myself but in the year or so that I've been at it, I can say ....
Any lathe will do the job but the lesser expensive ones need to be well anchored to a heavy base. Most stamped metal stands offered for them are painfully inadequate by themselves. I'd spend the time to build a sturdy base from heavy timber, knock down for ease of movement but with good tight joinery secured with bolted connections. A platform on which to put bags of sand or concrete blocks to add mass. Use lots of dense but manageable pieces of stuff, again for the sake of mobility.
A lathe with a limited throw (size of object that can be turned over the bed) is overcome by 'outboard' turning. That is, mounting a face plate on the outboard end of the headstock. Thus if you're budget only allows a smaller lathe, be sure either (1) the headstock will accept the faceplate on the outboard end or (2) the headstock swivels to allow turning larger diameter pieces away from the bed.
With smaller, less massive machines you can approach turning larger pieces by spending more time getting them somewhat round before mounting them on the lathe. Anything from using a chain saw while the log is still in the woods to splitting off chunks in the driveway to spending a little more time at the bandsaw truing up the shape. This won't do much for wood that varies considerable in density from one side of the log to the other, though.
Before anyone can offer a suggestion for the 'least expensive' lathe, I think you need to define 'high quality'. The cheapest tool at Ace hardware, in the hands of some of the highly skilled people lurking about this place will produce far better work than I can only dream of producing even with the most expensive tool(s) on the market. I would suggest buying an inexpensive bench-top machine, practice, learn and when you're ready you'll know what you want and/or need.
Dennis in Bellevue WA
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