Big List 'o Lathes: Am I missing any? Any out of production?

[David M Peters]

Hey all, since the spring I've been maintaining a big spreadsheet of lathes (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nu6Tp9Suaiok1OVoqfaLa8_fBy82j7SctA2O9NacBA0/edit?usp=sharing) on the North American market. I'd like to run it past your knowledgeable eyeballs to see if I'm missing any or if any models are out of production. I put this together while shopping for a new lathe in order to help myself and also to offer something back to the woodturning community.

A nicer web view of it plus some surrounding commentary is on my website.

[Tom Albrecht]

So what did you end up with?

[Damon McLaughlin]

I really like your spreadsheet, it makes comparing lathes easy. The one thing I would have liked to have seen as well is a column listing the warranty period. Otherwise, great job, thank you.

[carl mesaros]

Great job. This had take a lot of time. A nice reference when in the market for a new lathe. I can't think of anything you missed. My only observation is with the Oneway specs. The weights of the 2036 and 2416 should be reversed. Even Oneway's web site has this wrong.
Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas!

[Dick Strauss]

Isn't the Stratos lathe sold here or is it covered by being a rebranded lathe already on your list? I wouldn't have know about it except for a certain someone winning one...Good for him!

[David M Peters]

Yeah the spreadsheet took about a month to finish... clicking through manual PDFs for specs isn't a very fun task!!

It seems like Stratos is only distributed in the UK unless the distributor doesn't have a web presence at all. Having a warranty column is a pretty good idea, that's an objective number that should be similar for the the entire manufacturer.

I went ahead an bought an American Beauty for a combination of Badger pride, the warranty, and sticking to a "cry once" paradigm.

[Tony Rozendaal]

This had to have taken a lot of work. Going through your profile to find your website, I like the way you list the lathes in various ways, especially the price per pound :).

Congrats on the AB.

[Doug Rasmussen]

David, nice job on gathering the info.

I'm curious to what extent you found the same basic lathes re-badged. Jet, Grizzly, Baileigh, Harbor Freight, etc are notorious for doing this. You also see this frequently with metal working machinery. I've read various theories on how this occurs, but never anything definitive on how identical products reach the retail markets with different labels, paint schemes and prices.

[Steve Arnold]

David, the headstock on the Jet 1640EVS not only slides, but swivels too.

[Michael Mills]

Excellent spreadsheet. A lot of folks will appreciate your work.
I really like that columns can be re-sorted. A person can then narrow it down to 16" swing or swivel headstock or....

I don't think there is room but the Nova DVR is 1.75hp on 115 or 2hp on 220. I don't know if this applies to the Galaxy or not.
Would only make a difference if someone wanted to stay with 120 or someone else wanted at least 2hp.

[David M Peters]

Doug, while putting together the list I had a few chuckles seeing the same machine a few times over! If you poke around on sites like Alibaba (http://www.alibaba.com/products/F0/wood_lathe/CID100006941.html) or Made-in-China.com (http://www.made-in-china.com/productdirectory.do?word=wood+lathe&subaction=hunt&style=b&mode=and&code=0&comProvince=nolimit&order=0&isOpenCorrection=1) you'll eventually find the original manufacturer of the tools we use. And they certainly are cheap, even in small quantities. However companies like Grizzly do the hard work of doing customs, lading, warehousing, and stocking replacement parts.

[Rick Gibson]

Busy Bee here in Canada has a bunch of lathes under the Craftex name. Look to be identical to the Grizzly models with a different name and paint color.

[Jason Edwards]

Just a suggestion, but you might want to send it to the various manufacturers to double check that current specs are correct. For instance, if one of them is making a change in the next month or so, why not learn it now instead of having obsolete info?

[Ralph Lindberg]

Busy Bee here in Canada has a bunch of lathes under the Craftex name. Look to be identical to the Grizzly models with a different name and paint color.


Not too surprising as the owner of Busy Bee is (or was) the brother of the owner of Grizzly

[Ralph Lindberg]

...
I don't think there is room but the Nova DVR is 1.75hp on 115 or 2hp on 220. I don't know if this applies to the Galaxy or not.
Would only make a difference if someone wanted to stay with 120 or someone else wanted at least 2hp.

I suspect so, the DVR motor is an odd duck, most 120/240 motors see no increase in HP when going to 220, but the DVR does

[John Grace]

What a great effort, well done. Perhaps this site or one of the others will find a permanent home for it such that users can make updates as necessary and others can readily find it. Either way...thanks, John

[David M Peters]

Thanks John. I do have this list posted @ my website (accessible via my profile) so theoretically people googling for it could find it. For about 2 days I had it posted on Wikipedia but they took it down because lathes are "not notable". Says them!

[Jeff Childs]

David...

Steinert (Germany) is currently manufacturing the VB36, w/ several distributors in North America. Visiting their website should fill in all your questions. Nicely done. Alot of folks are going to appreciate your efforts.