Hello, Looking for advice

[Steve Toth]

Hello all,

Long time forum reader first time poster. Figured I would introduce my self. I'm a middle school tech-ed teacher. I teach a little wood working, a little graphic arts, and everything else in between. I am looking to purchase a lathe for myself for a small summer business venture I am starting. My life long passion has been baseball and I have been hand turning bats on lathes for quite sometime. I have finally decided to purchase a lathe for myself for the sole purpose of turning baseball bats. They are quite litterally the only thing I will be turning on this lathe. I am absolutely impressed by the amount of craftsmanship displayed here by all of you master turners. The bowls and other large objecs simply put are AMAZING. They are just not my cup of tea as a project. At this point of my business I just can't spend more than 1000 on my lathe and have startup capital for other necessities. I already have a vega duplicator so my lathe needs to be able to accept that. In addition all of the blanks I will be turning are already round so i can't imagine the stresses will be that great.

I have been leaning towards the grizzly g0462. From everything I have read it is a good lathe for spindle work (which is basically what a bat is, a VERY VERY simple spindle). It seems the main reason people do not like this lathe is it can not turn bowls or out of balance blanks with the high low end speed.

I missed out on a great deal on a Jet 1442, which is really the lathe that I want, I just can't spend the 1300 on it at this point.

I would love to hear some recomendations on what lathe you guys feel would be good for turning bats and can accept the vega d-36 duplicators. Maybe I don't even need something as good as the grizzly for the simple shapes i'm doing. I just don't know. Please help out a novice with some feedback.

THANKS A BUNCH!!!

Steve

[Michael Ginsberg]

Steve,
I would suggest the Nova 1624 with the added bed extension. Goes on sale at Woodcraft several time a year. That is when I got mine. I think it fits the bill and is good quality.
Michael

[John Hart]

Welcome Steve!! I know nothing about lathes....or money, for that matter. I just wanted to say howdy. :)

[Jamie Donaldson]

Steve- the somewhat new Delta Midi 46-460 with bed extension stretches turning capacity to 42" and lathe price is $599(don't know price of extension)and it is an excellent little lathe, I own one. It is also a much better choice than a little Jet because it has 1 HP VS, and when you are sucked into the vortex it will serve you well, but I don't know about your duplicator fit.

[Scott Hackler]

2nd vote for the Nova 1624.....with the bed extension. Since your doing spindle work you will likely find a speed your comfortable with and leave it, so the extra money on variable speed is waisted. This is the lathe I have and is a GREAT lathe, expecially for the money. On sale several times a year at Woodcraft and it will come under your $1000 limit.

[Mark Hazelden]

Welcome Steve,

I would add to watch Craigs List. There is a way to search Craigs list nationwide through google rather than city by city. Just type “site:craigslist.org (http://craigslist.org/) powermatic lathe” or anything you want instead of powermatic lathe without the quotes in a google window.

Be prepared to have woodturning be more addictive than you realize. 2 Years ago I just wanted to adapt my metal lathe to turn pens and I now own a 16 inch jet. And so it goes.

Tell us what you find.

[Don Alexander]

are you anywhere near Raleigh, NC ? if so i can fix your lathe problem for under $300 :)