"New" Lathe

[Jay Pugsley]

My father gave me his 36" Craftsman lathe today. He got it for Christmas from my mother in the mid 70's. It's the one I learned to turn on. He is in his 80's now and is learning new techniques all the time. He just got a new lathe. What an inspiration he is to me. I am so pleased to get this lathe. Probably will use it for the rest of my life, and never desire another one. Just wanted to share my good fortune. I can't wait to get it set up and get to turning with it!

[Roger Chandler]

Sentimental value makes this a special gift indeed, and use it in honor and respect of your beloved Father. That will mean much to you both.

Aside from that, my question is it a Craftsman mono-tube lathe? If it is, then serious turners who have upgraded from that type of lathe have done so with good reason. If your desire is to become an accomplished turner, then you can advance much farther, much quicker with newer and better equipment.

Were I in your shoes, I would keep it and use it for certain types of spindle turning, but also upgrade to a much better bowl and vessel lathe with all the newer features like a VFD drive and more power, and more substantial weight, for heavier turnings.

Good luck with it, and enjoy!

[daryl moses]

Probably will use it for the rest of my life, and never desire another one.
LOL, you say that now but you just fell into the "vortex".
Congrats on your "new" lathe, i'm sure you'll have many, many years of enjoyment out of it.

[John K Jordan]

is it a Craftsman mono-tube lathe?

I was one of those who started with the tube lathe. It was wonderful and I made things and I didn't know any better. But I soon ran into the limitations and got a heavy, variable-speed lathe. What a world of difference!

I too would be glad to get it and keep it for the sentimental reasons. It would be good for beginners to practice on.

JKJ

[Barry McFadden]

I had a Craftsman lathe back in the 70's as well. It worked great for the years that I had it. Only reason I upgraded was that I got into doing bigger turnings and if I put a log on it that was unbalanced it would walk across the floor on me....not a fault with the lathe just limitations... hope you enjoy it..

[Marvin Hasenak]

Unless you fall into the turning vortex, you will be fine with the Craftsman tube lathe. It is all that my neighbor has, he has seen and used my bigger and better lathes, and my older and worse case lathes. But he can do everything he wants to do on his tube lathe. I also have a collection of lathes, mostly old iron dating back to the 40's and earlier, none of the modern gadgets like chucks or even drill chuck work on most of them. But I adapt and do what I want on them like it was done prior to new gadgets coming available. My Craftsman tube lathe gets used quite a bit, mostly for pens, bottle stoppers and smaller items. A good source of chucks is Penn State Industries, they sell chucks that have adapter that fit the spindle threads of the Craftsman, 3/4-16 and the today's standard 1-8 threads. The bad part, the 1MT in the headstock is next to useless, so try to avoid buying tooling stuff that is based on Morris Taper.

My favorite old iron is a 1460 Delta. It also has a cross slide that was sold by Delta just for it. That means I can turn metal with it, along with a my milling attachment it is a machine shop in one. Along with a super great wood lathe, the only restriction I have is the size that fits over the ways.