Delta Lathe recomendation needed

[rimo]

14" model 46-715

Does anyone have this model?

I have a friend of a friend looking to sell one for $300.00, which appears to be about half of what it sold for new.

The reviews I could find on it were mixed at best.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[dogcatcher]

It is a good spindle lathe. The slowest speed is okay for bowls that are balanced but an out of balance bowl the speed is a little fast. It has a Reeves drive that is noisy and needs to be kept cleaned and greased. Great power and perfect alignment between centers. Works great for drilling as the quill will advance 3" and has the extra length on the bed. You can drill out lamp bases with no problem. Since I am not a bowl turner I would buy it for $300.

 

[DocStram]

I owned a 46-715 for four years and was really pleased with it. The headstock not only slides down the bed but swivels. It's much more than just a spindle lathe. I used it for pens and a whole lot of bowls.

The only draw back to it was that I couldn't quite slow it down enough for heavy, out of round bowl blanks. It's lowest speed is rated at 450 rpms. You'll need to have your bowl blanks fairly rounded off on a bs before mounting them on the lathe. The motor is powerful and, in my opinion, under rated as being only 3/4 hp. As dogcatcher said . . the Reeves drive is a little noisy.

For $300 . . . I would jump on it. You're going to get a really nice lathe. Check out this review of it:
http://www.newwoodworker.com/reviews/d46715rvu.html

 

[arjudy]

I have this lathe and have been pleased with it. I would second the other comments about unbalanced bowl blanks. The stand doesn't have much weight to it. It might be better if it was bolted to the floor. Other than that I've been pleased with mine. $300 is a pretty good price. The ability to swivel the headstock is great.