Lathes

[John Talley]

I've been looking into buying a lathe and I know nothing about them. I have a friend who has an old craftsman for sale it's in excellent condition. It's a 9"x36" and was built in the 50's. My questions will this do most things like pens, bowls ect.? It's variable speed by moving the belt.

Thanks
John

[ROY DICK]

John,
Welome to the Creek.Without knowing what comes with the lathe it's hard to say for sure. However pens, bottle stoppers, etc. can be done.
If you could give us some details or better yet a picture or two that will help us to better answer your question.

Roy

[Curt Fuller]

Hi John,

That's the same type lathe I learned on. It will turn small things like pens just fine. In fact it will handle most any kind of small spindle work. As for bowls, it will handle small ones, 8" and under, if you prep the blanks first by cutting them round and making sure they're fairly well balance before mounting them on the lathe. Have fun!

[Steve Schlumpf]

John - Welcome to the Creek! I started on a Craftsman mono-tube lathe, in fact I still have it. Depending on the price and what else comes with it - should work just fine for small items. Only problem with the older lathes is the low end speed. Mine went down to 875 rpm and that is too fast when you try and rough out a bowl!

Good luck picking out a lathe! If you have any more questions - someone here will be sure to help you out!

[Jim Kountz]

If he doesnt want too much for it I would go ahead and get it. Like Steve and others said its a good lathe for what it is and a good learner. Besides if you upgrade later you can keep this one and set it up for buffing or something. Wish I had kept my old one just for that reason.

[curtis rosche]

is is a tube lathe or is it one with an actual bed, i have the one with the auctual bed. it works well except for some spindle run out of about and 8th inch, but i am working on fixing what

[John Talley]

Here are some pictures of one like I'm looking at buying. It comes with a link belt and three face plates.

http://www.owwm.com/photoindex/images/1795-C.jpg
http://www.owwm.com/photoindex/images/1795-A.jpg

[Steve Busey]

The first pic shows a pen mandrel mounted, so it looks like that's a possibility. Not sure if it would handle a chuck - that's much more flexible than a faceplate if you want to move into bowls and other items.

[Bill O'Conner]

I have that same one MT 1 and 3/4 by 16 on the spindle. I have made small boxes and small bowls and a bunch of pens with it

Bill

[Gordon Seto]

Just don't put too much money to accessorize. Today's standard on entry level mini lathe is 1" X 8 spindle and Morse Taper #2. If upgrade would be in the future. hate to see you have to re-purchase what you did. You can use adpaters, but I would like to avoid them if I can.

[Dennis Dearborn]

I have one just like it and it works great. I've made lamps, tops, bowls, segmented bowls, pens, screwdrivers, natural edge bowls, etc. I have a face plate and a 4 jaw chuck. It would be nice to get a self centering 3 jaw chuck though.

Have fun

Dennis

[Jeff Nicol]

John, Those are nice old lathes, and you can still get most of the parts for them someplace or have things made. It looks to be in great condition and you will be able to turn anything that you want up to 9"x36" it will depend on what you want along the way. If the price is right and you like the lathe go for it! In the begining of turning some start slow and some jump in and never look back!

Have fun and enjoy turning!

Jeff

[Curt Fuller]

Here are some pictures of one like I'm looking at buying. It comes with a link belt and three face plates.

http://www.owwm.com/photoindex/images/1795-C.jpg
http://www.owwm.com/photoindex/images/1795-A.jpg

That's a great little lathe, much better than the tube bed type. Go for it!

[Michael Short]

John,

That is the same lathe that I started out on and used it for about a year turning pens and small items. It has been a solid lathe for me. I just recently moved up to a jet 1236.

[John Talley]

The craftsman comes with a stand and three face plates.

Thanks
John

[Curt Fuller]

If it all works I think that's very reasonable. About 1/3 the price of a similar but smaller jet 1014.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Good starter lathe, I started with a Craftsman too, but like a lot of people already said, they have different tapers and none of the accessories will transfer over. I had the same problem.
If I may suggest, get the Harbor Freight lathe tool set. Cheap and pretty dang good tools. 40 bucks or so shipped to your door. Tha'ts a great starter for less than 200 bucks.

[Thom Sturgill]

If you get to the point that you need/want a chuck, Grizzly has the $99 chuck in 3/4" x 16tpi. and Penn State has the utility chuck for about $900 (I know - more than the lathe costs :eek:) which comes with 2 sets of jaws and an adapter to go from 1"x8tpi to 3/4"x16tpi. The more expensive Barracuda line has 4 sets of jaws and prices range anywhere from $140 to $220.

Not associated with either one, I own 2 barracuda 2s one with the new (to psi) dovetail jaws.

[Scott Donley]

I sold mine for 150, if I had the room I would have kept it. Was made by King Seeley for cman, If I remember right. Nice little lathe.