How Smooth and Quiet is your Lathe?

[Brian Kent]

I love smooth and quiet woodworking tools. I know they all make noise when the blade cuts the wood, but some are quieter and smoother than others, whether by mass, by quality of machined parts, or any other reason.

How smooth and quiet is your lathe? Are there any built-in problems in design that make it more susceptible to noise or vibration? If you have used more then one, which is smoother?

This is personally just out of curiosity. I love my Delta 46-460 with 200 lbs of sand in the base. It is very smooth and quiet until I add my beginner's techniques to the mix :).

Thanks for the discussion.

Brian

[Kyle Iwamoto]

The noisiest part of my Jet 1642-2 is a slight high pitched whine that the inverter makes. I even called Jet about it. The rest of the lathe makes very little noise. Probably why I noticed the whine from the inverter. It is very quiet even after years of use. My 1014 makes a little bearing noise after many years of use.

My starter Craftsman lathe, however, was really noisy, but I didn't know any better. Turned for a long time on that too. It finally gave me a blessing and died on me. Then I got the 1014, wow, what a difference.

[wes murphy]

My DVR is as quite as can be and smooth as a baby's behind.

[Alan Zenreich]

Agreed about the DVR XP. Very smooth and quiet.

[David DeCristoforo]

My old Delta/Rockewell is silent. If I turn it on, close the shop door, go in the house, close the house door, go into the bedroom and close the bedroom door then go into the bathroom and close that door, I can't hear a thing.

[charlie knighton]

had new bearings installed last late spring, i am running like a new lathe but now know to avoid some stupid things that i have tried in the last 4-5 years

[Harry Robinette]

Reeves drives are noise,I have a General 160-18 Canada made not China and the reeves drive is not overly noise but it is not quiet.
My Vega 2600 is very quiet a little noise from the inverter but quiet. I have 2 Jet 10-14 and a Delta Midi early model belt change very quite,I also just for laughs have a micro lathe swing 4" max I run it on a sewing machine motor with foot pedal VS. An "old" Delta 12" Reeves drive and motor, belt, pulleys, everything is noise. My Medal lathes are all rather quiet.

[James Combs]

I have a Grizzly G0658 and a Jet 1642, many times I have walked by my turning cell and saw one of them spinning where I forgot to turn it off. If I hadn't seen one of them I wouldn't have know it was on because they don't make any noise. If I am right up on either one I can hear some low noise but I have to be right there.

[Bill Bolen]

I also have the DVR and you hardly know it is on. Started with the the jet 10" variable speed and it was so quiet I forgot it was on a few times and reached for the spinning bowl. Now my old Shopsmith on the other hand lets you know it is running from 30 yars away!

[Roger Chandler]

Both my Grizzly G0698 and my Delta 46-460 are quiet.......the Delta is VERY quiet. In cold weather, the bearings on my G0698 have to warm a little before they are really quiet........my shop is basically unheated except for a kerosene heater when I turn it on, and a little overhead radiant heater ......so the shop gets really cold, but the lathe quietens down quickly, but I would not call it noisy, even when cold.

[Jeffrey J Smith]

up until last June I turned on a Jet 1642. It was very smooth and quiet. I sold the Jet and invested in a Robust AB 25. Having turned on a Robust before deciding to buy, I was a little surprised that it seemed a little louder than the one I demoed extensively earlier. Found out two things - 1) My lathe has the new version of the Leeson 3HP motor, and it is just slightly noisier than the older version - mostly fan noise from what I can tell, and 2) Any differences in noise levels unless they're caused by bad bearings or other mechanical defects, fade as you get used to anew piece of equipment.

I haven't heard the lathe run since I discovered just how smooth and efficient a well made piece of machinery can be. Like James, I've left it running on occasion just because it is so quiet. Also, putting a few miles on it seemed to let the fan 'bed in' and the noise is nearly gone at this point.

[Kathy Marshall]

My old Delta sounded something like an airplane coming in for a landing. When turning at night I sometimes worried about waking up the neighbors and we're all on 2 acre lots.
My new DVR is extremely quite and smooth (even when it's running :eek:, which hopefully it will be doing soon).

[Matt Mackinnon]

all my tools are totally silent. I turn on my jet powered 5HP Clearvue cyclone and you will be hard pressed to hear any machine over that.

[Thomas Canfield]

My seven year old Powermatic 3520B is very quiet in the lower to middle motor speed and has a little motor wind noise at the higher end. Bearing noise is nothing, and then there has been the occasional click with loose tach pick-up that had to be tightened. My new little Nova Comet II does not have enough time on it to be broken in, but does have some motor noise again at the higher end, and some belt noise still being worked due to alignment.

[David Walser]

Brian - I have two lathes, a HF 34706 (a clone of Jet's old Reeve's drive lathe) and an Australian made Woodfast (as opposed to the Rikon version of the same lathe that's made in Taiwan). The Woodfast is much smoother. However, the HF is fine for spindles. In addition, I've spent some quality (and quantity) time on a PM 3520B. The Woodfast is a little smoother than the PM.

The smoothest lathe I've ever seen is the Serious Wood Lathe by Serious Toolworks. The thing is massive -- over 1,500 pounds of cast iron wood turning love! I saw it on display at a wood turning symposium a few years ago. I was standing at the tailstock end of the lathe with my back to the lathe. As I spoke with another turner, I casually rested my hand on the bed of the lathe. When I turned around, I was shocked to see that a large out-of-balance bowl blank was spinning on the headstock. I was shocked to see that the lathe was on because I had not felt ANY vibration. That's smooooth. On top of the headstock, the team from Serious had a stack of wood blocks spelling out "Serious". When I tried making a few cuts on the bowl blank, the blocks never moved. Look up "smooth" in the dictionary and you'll see a picture of the Serious wood lathe.

Here's a link: http://serioustoolworks.com/wood-lathes.php

[mark ravensdale]

Damn it Wes, I was going to use the babies behind remark:)
but yes I agree with you, my dvrxp is as smooth as can be and sometimes if it wasn't for the wood spinning I wouldn't know it was turned on its that noise free!!!

I once saw a demo of a VB36 and that was very quite and SUPER SMOOTH!!!!

[mark ravensdale]

P.S.
i forgot to include that I have a box with 600lbs of sand and gravel hanging from my dvrxp so I'm pretty sure that adds to smoothness (the law of inertia and all that), but to be honest it was VERY smooth without it, but like most lathes WEIGHT IS GOOD!!!