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Originally posted by palmermethod

Grizzly cast iron midi
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Same here. This one , perhaps?

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It is dirt cheap, and I had to replace it once. It is not a great lathe. In fact, it borders on junk, but I have learned to work quickly around its shortcomings. It has one huge advantage, especially when doing CA finishes. It is true variable speed (no pulleys, no switching anything) from 300 - 4750 RPMs. Every pen I've done was done on this lathe. I will get a better one soon ...

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... but I will always use "Ursa Minor" for CA finishes.
 
I got my first lathe the day my wife came home from the hospital after a 5 day stay from bariatric surgery!!! (We went to the horsepistol on the Monday that Katrina hit!! that was a crazy day!!) Anyway, first lathe was a Cummins, full size 4ft. They have sales around here a couple of times a year at a Lyons Club or similar, have a place set up for display, then you get your stuff off a trailer in the parking lot. I bought the display model (mistake) got it home, the tailstock turn handle was broke, no tool rest. Oh well, it was only $100. I called them, sent me the parts right away. Cool, no problem, right? The only thing it has on the headstock is a 16tpi X 1" threaded shaft, no morse taper whatsoever!! Well, got the right fittings from PSI finally, but the threaded fitting TO mandrel (after I made a dozen pens) seemed mis-milled. I made it work. BUT, got my v.s.mini JET the following summer and never looked back. LOVE THAT MACHINE!!!(sorry so long of a reply!!)
 
Odd looking lathe - I take it the Atlas is a metal lathe?

I have been thinking of getting a smaller metal lathe to make bushings, and other small metal items. It seems that the first thing a person does with a metal lathe is to rip it down and rebuild it to get the necessary accuracy needed.

And to keep on topic - I started lathe work on a shopsmith - so that puts me in the other category.
 
UPS on Friday delivered a MicroLux 7"X 14" VSL. Cleaned and put it together Friday night. Have not tried it yet.
 
I got an Excelsior from Rockler with a bed extensions.
Thing runs like a top. the only vibrations and noise happen when I forget to tight the mandrel nut[:p]
 
Originally posted by bradbn4

Odd looking lathe - I take it the Atlas is a metal lathe?

I have been thinking of getting a smaller metal lathe to make bushings, and other small metal items. It seems that the first thing a person does with a metal lathe is to rip it down and rebuild it to get the necessary accuracy needed.
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Brad; I started on a ShopSmith too! Thing built like a battleship. Made in 1968 and I can still call and get parts for it!

The metal lathes made in China should be referred to as "partly assembled kits". The other option is to pay 10 times as much for a lathe ready to go. Of course I keep eye-balling my uncle's Clausing (drool). The chuck on that thing must be 12" across! He also has a lathe he calls a South Bend-10 Heavy.
 
Record Power DML 24X/C, paid $75 for it on clearance at Woodcraft. They had several and said they were new old stock and some had bad bearings. Mine spun quietly with no vibrations, so I snapped it up. :D I later learned that the head stock and tail stock didn't line up very well. I managed to shim it up and get fairly close.
 
I have the Rikon and love it, I read on here about some with a Rikon was on his 5th belt he had to replace on his rikon so I purchased a spare, do not want to be without my lathe for even a few days. It's been a year and a half and still have not changed to the spare belt. I did fry the toggle switch and bent the spindle lock, rikon sent me a new one right away no, the service from the company is excellent. I am mostly surprised how good the bearings are, I have probably made 300-400 pens and over 100 bowls and other large items, some very heavy, odd shaped, and way out of balance, and it still runs true and smooth. For the horse power it's an awesome lathe and would recommend it to anyone starting out. I am starting to make larger items and need more horse power, and a larger swing, so I ordered the Laguna 18/47 it should be here within a week, I will keep my Rikon as a buffer and back-up lathe.
 
A Jet mini & a Grizzly 1495. The Grizzly is one heck of a nice lathe, solid. But I'm the 3rd owner & it's got some wear. If I were to but new--I'd go for the 1495 again. They sure don't need sandbagging.
 
Just took delivery yesterday evening on a Steel City 60100, I cleaned the shipping grease, which was not thick and hard to get off like most Chinese machines, I haven't tried turning any thing yet, trying to figure what height would be safest and most convenient.
It seems like a well built machine, I checked the bedways for surface and parallel and was impressed.less than .002 deviation. it's 10 by 15 between centers, variable speed two ranges, 500-1350 and 1400-3800, I ran it at 500 for an hour last night then ran it at full speed for about 15 minutes, no vibration very smooth I guess the 1/2 hp will be OK for pens and someday small bowls or spindles.
Fortunately everything from my Jet Metal lathe also fits my wood lathe, as far as live centers, deqad centers and drill chucks, Now I have to get a wood chuck, like a Barracuda or Nova, and an Beal ER 32 which will also make it easy to turn bushings on my Jet.
"just when I thought I was out, they dragged me back in"
 
ShopSmith Mk V and a Delta Midi for me. I've been having problems keeping the tail stock on the ShopSmith lined up with the centre of the chuck that I've been using to hold my mandrels...so...I picked up the Delta midi last night on the way home. It didn't hurt my feelings when I noticed a set of 5 mini chisels included in a tool roll, either! I am just getting it set up, but it should eliminate my eccentricity problem...well, at least the one with the lathe...:D
 
One of the many nice things about living in Springfield, Missouri is that Grizzly's largest facility (when you combine the 150k sq. ft. showroom with the 300k sq.ft. warehouse) is just down the street from me.

I love my little POJ Grizzly lathe and I have turned hundreds of pens, round and true, on it. I will always use "Ursa Minor" for finishing pens because it has a true variable speed with no pulley changes. But today I picked up this:



The intro price is nice, no shipping involved, and among its many excellent features it was made in an ISO 9001 standards factory (we'll see if that really means anything soon.) [}:)] Just got it out of the box and it looks sweet. I christened it "Ursa Major."
 
I have both a Ricon, and a PSI. The PSI was my first then I bought the Ricon for my wife to have some turning time. She is into renovating our home so that stays mostly idle. It's a little nicer than the PSI but I find myself still turning on the original. They both get the job done.
 
lathes

I have a General 25-650M1 16" x 42" I love it
Delta Midi
I have used the small Rikon at a pen turning demo at a school and saw no difference from my Delta.
 
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