Thinking about turning.

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Pvt_Ryan

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Some of you may have seen me in the other section, one of the few power tools I was going to allow myself is a Lathe.

As it's Christmas I was going to get the family to chip in for it.

is this a good deal, bearing in mind I only want to do fairly basic stuff (the odd bowl, and mainly chair/table legs).

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-aw ... rod833373/

Thanks in advance.
 
Its a good lathe for a begginer ( I had an M900 which is very similar for 8 years), however i'm not so sure about the package deal - the grinders okay, but you'll want a better dust mask, the visor is a bag of bobbins, and i dont hold with buying sets of tools - better to buy individually what you need.

imo buy the late seperately - or work out what you want and ask ian or richard to do you a deal on all of it together
 
big soft moose":1l0o3jiu said:
... and i dont hold with buying sets of tools - better to buy individually what you need.

Unless you go for the Robert Sorby boxed set, it's a cracker, and I use all the tools regularly. Definately the best starter set out there and great quality to boot.

Cheers

Aled
 
@BSM: Don't really want to through a lot of cash at this (and £350 is pretty much my limit). I need the lathe on a stand as I have next to no bench space left, even fitting the lathe in is gonna be tight. I'll probably resell the grinder as I have a rubbish one and I use waterstones anyway.

Not wanting to appear lazy but, I know actually nothing about this, would you or someone else mind putting together a list of what I need from Axminster to get started with £350 as the limit (or slightly more if you reckon I can talk Ian or Richard down to that price) bear in mind I am a hobbyist and not doing this for a living.. :D

@Aled: Are you offering to buy me the Robert Sorby boxed set? ;)

@PeterSK: What about the tools are they "good enough"?

Thanks for the input so far.
 
I started out with one of these lathes and those tools and they will certainly do the job reasonably well.
The lathe is pretty good for the money the downsides being the locking handles on the tailstock and toolrest height adjuster are made from some form of chocolate and don't live long(well mine didn't but I can be heavy handed :oops: ) but this is very easily sorted. The stands are a bit light as well but are improved by adding some weight to the shelf. The toolset is fine and will do what you are wanting to do with no probs, its obviously not the best in the world but is definitely adequate.
The deal with the other bits and bobs looks great value and if it were me looking to start out turning for a reasonable cost I would have it, simple as.

HTH JT
 
I suppose the nub of the question is what do you want to turn, given your space concerns I suspect that you might be better off with one of the smaller lathes like this one. That's got enough space over the bed to let you turn something thats around eight inches wide, and enough length to turn a reasonably sized spindle, plus you can get an extension for the bed if you want to turn longer things. Electronic speed control is also quite a bit nicer than the mechanical speed control on the AWVSL1000.

You'll find that if you try to cram the AWVSL1000 into a space only as big as the lathe is, you'll have to slide the headstock up the bed to get proper access to the workpiece, as you need a reasonable amount of space around the toolrest so that you can move yourself and the tool with ease. The further up the bed the headstock comes, the less point there is in buying a big lathe like the 1000.

The tools are certainly good enough for you to make a start with, I've got the skew, spindle gouge and parting tool in that range and they're all perfectly functional and a good jumping in point if you're just looking to get into turning. To be honest if I hadn't been given a bunch of gouges for my birthday I would have just bought that set myself. I've certainly seen fantastic pieces turned with them at both of my local turning clubs, so the tools needn't hold you back.

You'll want to keep hold of the grinder, you'll ruin waterstones sharpening gouges on them and it'll take forever and a day to do so. The objective of sharpening a turning tool is to give it a reasonably sharp edge in as short a time as possible with a consistent bevel. Turning is very different to using hand held chisels, in that the wood is hitting your chisel at anywhere between 20 to 50 miles per hour. This will knock off any sort of carefully ground and honed edge in seconds, so you needn't waste your time sharpening to a razor edge. Use the white wheel and ignore the grey one, and check out this site for a good sharpening jig setup that's cheap and easy to make.

Speaking to your package, if you got the little lathe I mentioned above (£173) and the set of Axy chisels (£63), that leaves you around £100 left to play with. Other things you'll need are some abrasives, these to start with and then for finishing Micromesh is good. You'll also want some sanding sealer (try Chestnut Cellulose Sealer) and some wax (again Chestnut do good stuff, I use their microcrystalline wax). That should leave you somewhere around £50 under budget, which you can go and spend on some nice turning blanks once you've got a feel for it.
 
Chatted to Ian and he reckoned I should get the one I mentioned in the original post. So placed the order today, I'll have everything except the grinder before christmas and the grinder in Feb :shock:
 
Good choice, I'd still recommend picking up stuff like abrasives and sanding sealer if you don't already have them.
 
If you don't like the grinder and want to offload it yourself then I might be interested, I'm after one with a wider wheel.
 
Well Axminster went above and beyond.. I got the whole lot this morning.. However I still have to reprimand them.

I was half way to work when the missus calls me, "Your delivery is here, but there is no room in the garage". I was very confused, the lathe isn't due (in stock) till the 13th at the earliest. "Can he put it all in the house and I'll sort it when I get home?" "No it's too heavy and he is on his own." "Ok, tell him to hand on and I'll be home in 5". I arrive home. No delivery guy, 3 boxes outside the garage door. I lift the 1st 2 into the house, no problem. The 3rd package is 97Kg, nearly double what I weight and what I can lift, I clear a space in the garage and then end up heaving and draging it inside. Finally get to work an hour late, not good since I am the only IT guy in the office this week.

Now I am glad he didn't put it in the house as I have no idea how I would have got it out to the garage on my own but with big items that will take more than one person to lift it would be nice to arrange a delivery date (and time slot where possible). I did get the dispatch email but I had assumed it was just the small items and the lathe would arrive later on it's own.

Anyhow thanks to Axminster for the very quick (if completely unexpected) delievery.

Ryan
 
Hello to all,

I am new to this forum, so I would like to greet you all first. I am Hungarian, so my English is not flawless. Forgive me, please!
Dear Ryan, I bought some of those “Perform” turning tools you have got today. These are quite well-made tools, but the “bowl gouge” resembles a “long and strong” spindle gouge more closely, and the flutes on the three gouges I have (spindle, bowl, roughing) are rounded over at the cutting edge, so I have found it hard to sharpen them properly, especially because I do not use power grinders.
I sanded the grime of varnish, polished the surface of the metal with SiC sanding paper, an rounded the edges.
The spindle and bowl gouges are interesting pieces: they were sold as 3/8” tools, but the spindle gouge has a flute of 5/16” width, in a 11 mm diameter bar, the bowl gouge has a 3/8” flute in a 13 diameter bar. The bowl gouges (I have two of them) are quite peculiar: the flutes of them are twisted in the length. How could they do that?
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Have a nice day,

János
 

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Holy smoke it's big.. Not quite sure where in the garage it can go..

Can I put castors on the legs so I can move it in and out of position or is that unsafe? or could I get a way with 2 castors and 2 blocks of wood so it would need to be lifted up at one end in order to move it?
 
Pvt_Ryan":js54v9p0 said:
Holy smoke it's big.. Not quite sure where in the garage it can go..

Can I put castors on the legs so I can move it in and out of position or is that unsafe? or could I get a way with 2 castors and 2 blocks of wood so it would need to be lifted up at one end in order to move it?


Always best if possible to have it fixed to the floor in a permanent position , this stops vibration and movement
Have fun with it , O and I see no photos ? :ho2

be safe
 
No photos because I am ashamed of the state my garage is in (currently less than 3'^2 free floor space due to rubbish, tools and gym equipment.) :D Going to gut it on sat and hopefully finish off assembly..
I am building it on my own, so i need to rig a pully to help lift the bed I think.

I notice you said "best" and not "it's not safe" so can I take from that, that it is preferable to have it statically fixed however there is no danger in attaching castors and making it mobile?
 
Pvt_Ryan":5vdlkyn5 said:
No photos because I am ashamed of the state my garage is in (currently less than 3'^2 free floor space due to rubbish, tools and gym equipment.) :D Going to gut it on sat and hopefully finish off assembly..
I am building it on my own, so i need to rig a pully to help lift the bed I think.

I notice you said "best" and not "it's not safe" so can I take from that, that it is preferable to have it statically fixed however there is no danger in attaching castors and making it mobile?

Some turners have lathes on wheels :?

Have a think about it , big heavy lathe :mrgreen: , WHY :?: , to give it substance and bulk :mrgreen: , bulk / weight is good in a lathe , stops movement , then add wheels , why were wheels invented :?: to make thing easy to move :?

If you can find a position to fix it to the floor it will be a lot better , maybe make a movable work bench to fit over it instead , so when the lathe is not in use , slide off the tailstock and tool rest then roll the bench over it :ho2
 
Hello,

lets put on those wheels! My lathe is on wheels too. Just be sure to use "full stop" wheels, with brakes stopping the roll and the swivel action at the some time.

I wish you good work!

János
 
First of all BIG disclaimer. I am very ashamed of the state of the garage we are in the middle of a clear out & I missed my bin collection. It will be a lot cleaner on sat!!!

Here are the pics of the lathe assembly.
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