Nick's new 4224B

[Steve Busey]

Got the chance to swing by Nick Cook's studio yesterday and saw his new Powermatic 4224B (serial #1). That thing's a beast! He had one bed extension on it, with another on order, so he'll eventually have a 10' turning capacity. Says he's now able to accept jobs he's had to turn down in the past (columns, tall bed posts, etc).

I heard the new lathe came with vacuum, but was surprised at how deeply it was incorporated into the lathe, even to the point of having a pressure gauge and vacuum on/off switch built in the front of the headstock.

Nick's demo'ing the lathe at the Atlanta Woodcraft this afternoon/evening, and doing several demos around the country over the next month or so.

Short of winning the lottery, my only chance of using the lathe is to go over to Nick's and beg some shop time. Maybe someday I'll have that extra huge chunk of wood to take over there. :rolleyes:

[Jeff Nicol]

Steve, I really like the new 4224B also but the vacuum is just a venturi system that needs an air compressor to work. Nice but not like a true vacuum pump and probably noisy, the gauge is a nice touch though!

Definitely on my want list along with an American Beauty, Stubby 1000, Woodtek #1 and the list goes on! A lottery win would be a wonderful thing!!

Good luck,

Jeff

[Steve Busey]

Nick had a bed post mounted, so I wasn't able to see how the vacuum worked. No doubt you'd need a pretty big compressor to keep up with it. There's also a port on the back of the headstock where all the air connections are, where you can attach a regular air hose so you can have a dust blower handy.

Bigger handwheel, new indexing. Did I mention heavy?