Roger Chandler
11-16-2016, 8:49 AM
Well, I finally had my opportunity to take a test drive on the Serious Toolworks SL-2542. I am not sure what the "SL" stands for, but it well may be "Super Lathe!" What a magnificent machine! Talk about stable....that thing is rock solid, even with unbalanced wood on it, and smooth as silk!
Tom Zepada became a regional rep for Serious Toolworks after the Atlanta AAW symposium, and he had his at the Virginia Symposium last week. Scott Trumbo knew that I had been wanting to take one for a spin, so he gave me a heads up and arranged for Tom to host me for the test run.
I was actually surprised because I thought the price would be higher than Tom mentioned. For a premium lathe that weighs in at just shy of 1600 lbs. the price Tom mentioned was $7295.00 plus shipping, which for that much weight, will be considerable.
The engineering, features and premium components of that beast are truly impressive! I have turned on a number of different makes and models.....from mini's, midi's, Jet 1642's, Powermatic 3520b's [11 of them to date], my 2 Grizzly models, a Robust American Beauty [I really like it!], and now this Serious SL- 2542. This SL-2542 is as impressive a lathe as I have ever turned on.
I roughed out a fairly big piece of maple [my guess is about 18" diameter]. And even though it had an area on one side that had some bark, and began to curve, making it unbalanced, that SL-2542 tamed that blank like a schoolboy taken to the woodshed!
I much appreciate both Tom and Scott arranging for me to test drive this beast! I will likely purchase one more lathe in my lifetime - my dream lathe, and this test run has certainly given me much to consider! I will be relocating at some point and at present my shop cannot accommodate that kind of weight, but when I get my new shop built, this lathe is certainly in consideration as well as the Robust AB.
I thought folks on this forum might like to hear information regarding this Serious Toolworks SL-2542, so I post to make the info and my perspective available to the readers.
Correction: the price according to the Serious Toolworks website is $7795 f.o.b. at Oregon. Tom did say $7295 at the symposium, but he was not sure on that, so I will cut him some slack........there were lots of folks around talking to him, so he just misspoke while trying to deal with all the folks at his booth.
Tom Zepada became a regional rep for Serious Toolworks after the Atlanta AAW symposium, and he had his at the Virginia Symposium last week. Scott Trumbo knew that I had been wanting to take one for a spin, so he gave me a heads up and arranged for Tom to host me for the test run.
I was actually surprised because I thought the price would be higher than Tom mentioned. For a premium lathe that weighs in at just shy of 1600 lbs. the price Tom mentioned was $7295.00 plus shipping, which for that much weight, will be considerable.
The engineering, features and premium components of that beast are truly impressive! I have turned on a number of different makes and models.....from mini's, midi's, Jet 1642's, Powermatic 3520b's [11 of them to date], my 2 Grizzly models, a Robust American Beauty [I really like it!], and now this Serious SL- 2542. This SL-2542 is as impressive a lathe as I have ever turned on.
I roughed out a fairly big piece of maple [my guess is about 18" diameter]. And even though it had an area on one side that had some bark, and began to curve, making it unbalanced, that SL-2542 tamed that blank like a schoolboy taken to the woodshed!
I much appreciate both Tom and Scott arranging for me to test drive this beast! I will likely purchase one more lathe in my lifetime - my dream lathe, and this test run has certainly given me much to consider! I will be relocating at some point and at present my shop cannot accommodate that kind of weight, but when I get my new shop built, this lathe is certainly in consideration as well as the Robust AB.
I thought folks on this forum might like to hear information regarding this Serious Toolworks SL-2542, so I post to make the info and my perspective available to the readers.
Correction: the price according to the Serious Toolworks website is $7795 f.o.b. at Oregon. Tom did say $7295 at the symposium, but he was not sure on that, so I will cut him some slack........there were lots of folks around talking to him, so he just misspoke while trying to deal with all the folks at his booth.