New member, longer post (sorry) Lathe question

[David Clark]

Hello everyone, I am a new member to S.C. I have been reading on this site for weeks and there is a wealth of information available. I have been a Custom Home Builder for thirty years in Michigan. I have sub contractors that do most of the work, however as needed I have collected most of the portable power and hand tools for all the trades including specialty items that they sometimes borrow from me:eek: . These tools have always gotten me through my tinkering well but I am aquiring some shop pieces that will fit in my current garage for my next home/shop before I build the home. I already had a smaller Bridgeport mill and purchased a Jet DC-1200C, Jet AFS-1500, Delta belt disc 31-300, and a Powermatic S14 band saw. My interest in Muskie fishing led me to building a large livewell, wiegh in station for the Michigan Ontario Muskie Club which led to me building custom live well systems for boats. This is one of the reasons I need a dedicated shop. Now I want a lathe to turn my own lure body designs for myself and friends. I do not currently have room for a large lathe however if the demand arises I would like the lathe to handle the demands of light commercial use. The turnings would be 1.5" and under up to 12" long in mostly Cedar and Mahogany. I am planning on a Oneway chuck and Vega Midi 24" duplicator for making the bodies. From all my reading everyone seems to love the little Jet lathe. The VS Jet with all the goodies is about the same price as the Vicmarc Pro 100 with out extended bed and I would have to build a bench. Anyone running the Vicmarc? Is the Lathe that much better or is part of the cost in just getting one here? I am a little concerned about down time if parts for the Vicmarc were ever needed. The small Oneway seems impossible to find and pricey for a newbie. Any information is appreciated and I apoligize for the long Post.

[Rob Littleton]

Welcome to the creek. Fun place and to be and as you know, full of good info.

We do have a policy for your proper name to be announced and not a handle. You can get that changed by sending a PM to Aaron.

Again, welcome aboard......

[David Clark]

Thank You, My name is David Clark and I will try to get that fixed.

[tod evans]

david, for light industrial with an accurate duplicator try
http://www.minimax-usa.com/lathes.html
this isn`t a mini but the duplicator design incorperates a steady that actually works.........by the way welcome! tod

[John Bailey]

David,

Welcome to the "Creek." You're gonna' like it here with the good folks and good advice. Sounds like you might be able to give us some advice on building questions. Welcome aboard and jump right in.

John

[David Clark]

Thank You Tod and John. The Minimax looks like a nice set up. I lack a little space for a lathe that size, however if I turned it in to a business that would be the right kind of machine to do it. Anything good or bad on the Vega?

[tod evans]

david, years ago i bought a vega "professiona" fence for a tablesaw. that one product turned me off on homeowner targeted woodworking tools for the rest of my life! i`ve never even looked at the rest of their product line other than in passing in the catalogs. i`m the sort of fellow who tears up a crow bar playing in a sandbox and i push my equipment way to hard to go any less than light industrial. i`m sure there are plenty of folks who own the unit you`re asking about and can give you their opinion but i`m not qualified to do so.......sorry, tod

[Cecil Arnold]

David, welcome to the creek. Other than some things turning the wrong way (lefthanded) on the Vicmark I've heard good things about them. They don't seem to have the extensive support of others so that might be a consideration. If I were going to be "piloting" production I think I would hold off on spending too much until I got to the point of needing the Mini-Max.

[Jim Becker]

I have used the older Vicmark mini lathe that my local AAW chapter owns for some teaching opportunities. It's a nice smooth machine and well made. Of course, that drive was limited to the speeds offered by the step pulley system and being used to a VS machine, it was a little uncomfortable for me at first. That said, for your intended purpose, that wouldn't matter...and if you have one available at a fair price, you will get value out of it. BTW, unless you are going to make an extraordinary number of things, the duplicator may be a waste of funds...you will find you can turn "duplicates" a lot faster manually than you can with the setup time, etc. of the duplicator...and often get better results, especially relative to the finish off the tooling.

Oh, yea....welcome aboard!

[Keith Burns]

Welcome David ! Look forward to seeing your work:)

[David Clark]

Celil, Thank You for the input, is something actually left handed on the Machine or are we joking about down under?

Jim thanks as well, I have not turned anything in a wood lathe since Junior High Scool! Some of the local guys turn thousands in the winter preparing for the season. I would probably have two to three profiles. I would also need to have repeatable square stock left at both ends for referance points in jigs for the rest of the machining process. How do you accuratly repeat by hand? I thought you could change templates in the machine and rapidly cut parts. I was going to get the replacable carbide cutter option for the tooling. If I do not need a duplicator I do not want to waste the money on it I would rather buy a better lathe in case my woodturning interest goes in other directions.

Thank You Keith, in reading the postings on this site for a couple of weeks this seems to be a well run site with a lot of information from good people, and no bickering like I have seen on sites for some other hobbies in the past.

[Andy Hoyt]

David - Welcome! I'd like to echo what Jim Becker said about the duplicator notion.

Couple of things to consider:


The duplicator will not save you time.
The duplicator will not provide a final surface ready for finishing.
The duplicator will not teach you to turn.
The duplicator will turn you into a piece-work robot. I thusly encourage you to grab the best variable speed lathe you can afford. Then double that amount for all the accessories and gizmos you'll need. And then just dive right in. Once you've become comfortable with the general notion of spindle turning, I think you'll find that you could whip out a paint ready lure in very fast time.

And no one but you will care that the 345th lure and 346th or the 893rd lure will not be identical. Any differences will likely be subtle at best. Should the differences be noted then you can charge more for them by reminding the plaintiff that they're custom hand turned Michigan Made originals.

I once saw Michael Hosaluk turn a lure from a square piece of stock in about 30 seconds. The finish was glass. He then said that the painting process will take "a bit longer".

Welcome to the dark side!

[Cecil Arnold]

Actually David, it is my understanding that the Vicmark scroll chuck is left handed, as another creeker informed me when I was considering one for my PM3520. I decided to go with the stronghold and have been happy with it. Andy and Jim are offering sound advice IMHO. Your learning curve to use a duplicator will be about as long as learning to hand turn near identical duplicates.

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi David

I have an older Vicmarc mini, purchased before the Jet mini was on the market, and long before extended beds were available for these machines. It is the top end of mini lathes, in my opinion. I know, Oneway used to make a "mini", but it was really a small lathe that was not really a mini, and besides, they do not make it anymore. The Vicmarc is as solid a machine as you will find. I added a variable speed DC motor to mine, making it not cheap, but it has held up under some very heavy use in the past nine years. Consider that this is the design that Jet and everyone else knocked off.

I also owed the Mini Max T-124 copy lathe for a while. While it is very well suited to some situations, it would not do well for the turning you describe. You would waste a lot of time and wood hogging off wood on way oversized blanks in order to use the following steady. In fact, I would recommend that you learn to duplicate your lures by hand and eye using a template. It will eventually go faster than a copier, with better results.

Good luck with your decision.

Bill

[Ernie Nyvall]

i don't have any knowlege of the lathe, but welcome to the Creek David.

Ernie

[Carole Valentine]

David,
First of all, welcome to the Creek!
I gathered from your post that maybe you need something to duplicate large numbers of spindles for home construction (like spindles for railings?) in addition to making fishing lures? Is that correct? I have not personally used a duplicator, but a friend who is in the restoration business is doing 300 white oak spindles as part of a victorian restoration. I have watched him and with the duplicator, he turns a spindle out in fairly short order, but he certainly makes use of the 80 grit gouge as well because the cuts are indeed rough. He has the duplicator set up on an old Delta. Don't know what model but it is a small lathe. Having said that, from what I can see, unless you are doing large production runs on something like that, the duplicator may be a waste.
Can't help with the Vic (I have a Jet Mini which I love, and a Nova DVR) but it sounds like Bill covered that pretty well.

[John Hart]

Welcome David!! Can't help you with your lathe question as I've never used them or seen them in action! I can say "Welcome" though! Welcome!:) :)

[Bernie Weishapl]

Welcome to SMC David. Look forward to pictures of your lures.

[ROBERT SCHUMAN]

Hello David,


I have been using these lathes for years ,they are very well built and perfect for light industrial work.
They can also be used for any hand turning you may need .I sharpen my own bits using theyre system and I generally start and end with 150 grit paper with a slight buffing from my leather glove.If you plan on doing any serious duplicating look at these.
http://www.hapfo.co.uk/

These lathes copy perfectly and never break down ,thet are a bit costly but worth it !
best of luck!