Silly question about size of the lathe....

[Rick Cicciarelli]

Still a REAL novice looking at getting my first lathe. I posted the question about the Grizzly G0698. The reason I am considering this is because my main interest is in bowls....but on the flip side....is there a limit to how SMALL you can go with this machine? Could this machine be used for making pens and doorknobs or whatever....or is that why they make the mini-lathes? I just figured a small lathe creates limitations when you want to go bigger...but do the bigger lathes have the same limitations when you want to make something small? Like I said...I am a newby...so this is probably a silly question..but I appreciate the insight. :D

[Roger Chandler]

Rick,

You can turn tiny tiny tiny with a huge lathe, but you cannot turn big on a small lathe...........no room. You can do anything on a large lathe you can do on a mini, but you cannot do the same on a mini that you can on a large lathe.

Bowls...........if you use log blanks, then they will at times be out of balance.........nature of the beast............if you have a large heavy lathe it will soak up the vibrations, and you can do most of what you want. I added ballast to mine with a shelf and some weight, which stabilizes the unit all the more!

[John Keeton]

Rick, I just posted in your thread in the General Woodworking forum on the order in which you should equip your shop - and, mentioned the lathe should be last on the list as once you buy the lathe, you may never again use your other tools!!;) You are treading on dangerous ground posing this question here in the Turner's forum. These guys will suck you in, and you won't ever be permitted to say the word "flatwork" again!!:D

[Ray Bell]

John is right. Buy a lathe, a bandsaw, 1 ea. 5/8" bowl gouge from Doug Thompson a cheap HF angle drill, order sanding discs from Vince, and that's all you will ever need.

Yeah right:)

[Steve Schlumpf]

Rick - like Roger stated - you can turn small on a big lathe but not big on a small lathe. A lot of folks get the smaller lathes because of room restrictions, portability or their only interest is in smaller items such as pens or bottle stoppers.

I have a Jet 1642 and have run into problems a few times with swing clearance issues. Really depends on how big you want to turn.

[George Guadiane]

I just came back from turning a 25MM diameter ivory bead for a game on my Powermatic 3520 and that's FAR from the smallest thing I've seen turned on one...

More to the point, the swing of a lathe (the diameter of a bowl/vase) determines how big a piece you can turn. Then there is the length. Mine can turn a baseball bat length max.
A 10 inch swing will almost turn a 10 inch bowl, but the blank has to be true and balanced. On any lathe, the more mass it has, the easier it will be to turn larger or off balance pieces of wood.
In the end, bigger is better - UNLESS you don't call in love with turning like most of the rest of us here. THEN its just another big thing to stub your toe on.

[john snowdon]

Hi, Ric
I'm a newbie, too. I bought a Jet JML-1014VSL mini lathe last winter and I love it! It's great for pens, small bowls, etc BUT I have a beautiful log of spalted birch that won't come close to fitting on this lathe. If you have the space, get a full size lathe. I'm now looking at the Nova DVR or adding the color mustard to my shop. I'll keep the little guy but I wish I had gone big.

[Rick Cicciarelli]

I figured that was the answer. I just wanted to double check myself. :D

[Michael James]

John is right. Buy a lathe, a bandsaw, 1 ea. 5/8" bowl gouge from Doug Thompson a cheap HF angle drill, order sanding discs from Vince, and that's all you will ever need.

Yeah right:)
I find the drill press handy for pens, but you could do that on the lathe if you dont already have one!