alex carey
01-25-2009, 12:37 AM
Ok so about 10 days ago I ordered the Powermatic 3520B. Shout out to Toolnut for the great price. I recommend them to anyone. On Wednesday the lathe arrived, I picked it up with a friends pickup truck, it wasn't a full size bed but it still fit. I didn't have to do a thing, they loaded it and everything.
I set it up that night, didn't take more than an hour or two. Boy was I excited. Sadly the electricity wasn't set up yet. It is even more hefty than I thought. I was busy thursday and couldn't finish everything. Friday I didn't have a lot of time so I didn't get to finish it, I did however make a ballast out of an old solid door I had stored. I had to remove a leg off the lathe to get it in there but now it's perfect.
Today I finished everything up. First I put some casters on my table to make it much easier to move. Something to put my tools and other stuff on. I put a 220V plug in the wall, as well as a 110V. I decided to spring for the 20amp breaker as recommended by many fellow creekers. Peace of mind is nice. I extended the 6 foot wire that comes with the lathe and made it 20 feet, plugged it in and it worked perfectly. It was 7:00 at night when I finished setting everything up so I couldn't finish a piece but I decided to rough something out, I couldn't wait until tomorrow.
My god that machine is a dream. Plenty of power, plenty of stability and I havn't added a lot of weight to the ballast yet.
You'll notice I don't have the tailstock connected. I wasn't actually turning anymore, I had the camera on a timer and had to run back to make it look like I was turning.
You can see my table with some of the tools. You'll notice I made some tool extensnions, some out of plastic and some out of metal. These extensions really make turning a lot smoother. I havn't gotten any chatter with the metal tools yet either. I know for some metal thats a problem.
Alex
I set it up that night, didn't take more than an hour or two. Boy was I excited. Sadly the electricity wasn't set up yet. It is even more hefty than I thought. I was busy thursday and couldn't finish everything. Friday I didn't have a lot of time so I didn't get to finish it, I did however make a ballast out of an old solid door I had stored. I had to remove a leg off the lathe to get it in there but now it's perfect.
Today I finished everything up. First I put some casters on my table to make it much easier to move. Something to put my tools and other stuff on. I put a 220V plug in the wall, as well as a 110V. I decided to spring for the 20amp breaker as recommended by many fellow creekers. Peace of mind is nice. I extended the 6 foot wire that comes with the lathe and made it 20 feet, plugged it in and it worked perfectly. It was 7:00 at night when I finished setting everything up so I couldn't finish a piece but I decided to rough something out, I couldn't wait until tomorrow.
My god that machine is a dream. Plenty of power, plenty of stability and I havn't added a lot of weight to the ballast yet.
You'll notice I don't have the tailstock connected. I wasn't actually turning anymore, I had the camera on a timer and had to run back to make it look like I was turning.
You can see my table with some of the tools. You'll notice I made some tool extensnions, some out of plastic and some out of metal. These extensions really make turning a lot smoother. I havn't gotten any chatter with the metal tools yet either. I know for some metal thats a problem.
Alex