Rikon 1216 VS Mini

[Steve Doerr]

Got the Woodcraft Black Friday flier today. They are going to have the Rikon 1216 VS mini on sale for $229.99. What kind of machine is this? Is it a good mini to have? What about service? I know the price is very hard to beat.
Thanks
Steve

[Bernie Weishapl]

Steve I had one and gave it to my nephew when I upgraded to a bigger lathe. He uses it to make pens for his college mates. The only problem I found with it is a bit underpowered when doing bigger bowls, platters or hollow forms. Worked great for ornaments, lidded boxes, pens, bottle stoppers, etc. Depends on what you want to turn Steve. Great price to say the least. So far there have been no problems with it at all.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I've turned on them. It's a good lathe (what Bernie said) and that price is hard to beat. Don't own one, I own a Jet Mini. IF they were available when I got my mini, I would have got that instead.

Go get one! Remember to budget for tooling.

[Steve Doerr]

Thanks guys, this would be an addition to my arsenal, my main lathe is a Jet 1642 EVS. I would use it for the smaller stuff and my wife has been thinking of doing some pen turning, so it would probably be mostly hers.
Steve

[Michael Mason]

I have had this lathe for about two years now, I bought mine at a woodcraft sale, and it is a fine mini lathe. I have probably roughed out around 100 bowls and finished probably 75 of those with no problems. You just have to go slower on the big stuff but it will turn them just fine. I have many 10" plus bowls that came off of that lathe. Good Luck.

[Jim Burr]

And a quick use of the search function...

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?192678-Rikon-12-x-16-mini-lathe from last week.