Poolewood 28-40 Superlathe

[Froggy]

Hi everyone.

I was lucky enough today to receive a Poolewood 28-40 Superlathe from a friend. I've done very little turning and know very little about turning or lathes, but this new toy might just inspire me to rectify that. It came in bits and I haven't put it together yet, infact it took a while to get the motor started. It's about 20 years old (but apparently only done about 50 hours work) and comes with all the origonal paperwork and advertising bumph. It's a monster of a machine and the mid range one of three, with a massive 50" between centres! It has a capacity to turn bowls in access of 30"! It has a variable speed that you can change with a turning handle without actually stopping the lathe. I'll try to get round to taking some pics. tomorrow.

Does anyone have any experience of this machine and if so how do you rate it?

 

[CHJ]

Link to The Members Lathe List in the Stickys

 

[Froggy]

Thanks for that CHJ. Do you rate highly?

 

[CHJ]

Can't fault the 3Phase electronically speed controlled version I use regularly.
It is a slightly lighter weight version of the mechanical drive version you have (castings have been slimmed down a little) and the bed spacings are a fraction smaller. And of course it is reversible.
Apart from being a little noisy compared to the 3ph version the mechanical version works well as long as you have the muscles to move things around.

One word of advise re setting it up, make sure that the bench/bed that you set it up on is level and true and substantial enough to take the weight.
The reason I say level and true is that the long bed bars rely on the supporting bench to hold their alignment to the headstock, any twist can prove annoying when trying to use a drill in the tailstock, it does not affect turning between centres of course but best to avoid it if at all possible.
Before bolting down the tailstock bed bar mounting casting do all you can to check the alignment through the tailstock and headstock bores, if you have room to get to one end then eyeball through the hollow shafts is relatively easy.

 

[Froggy]

Thanks for the advice - I'll bear it all in mind when I set it up at the weekend.