General maxi lathe good for beginners?

[Luis Reyes]

Hi All,

I’m potentially looking to buy a lathe and ideally I want to buy a small beginner one for about $200 Canadian I currently see a general maxi lathe 25-200 model for $750 canadian which includes the Henry Taylor beginner chisel set, general chisel set, smock and face shield plus a 4 way chuck. I’m only going to be turning small items like chisel handles, bottle opener handles, etc to get started.

is this a good lathe? I like the variable speed and figure if I buy a cheap $200 lathe I still need to buy chisels, etc. This is more than I originally want to spend but I’m ok with that if in theory I could then sell this at a minimal loss if I find out woodturnimg isn’t for me

[Thomas Wilson80]

I'm personally not familiar with the lathe, but here is an online review I found that goes into pretty good detail. You are getting a couple hundred dollars worth of extras, depending on their condition, so it seems like a reasonable price though maybe not a steal.

https://www.woodmagazine.com/review/lathes-turning/wood-lathes/general-international-25-200-12-wood-lathe

Good luck!
Tom

[Adam Wager]

If you can find out when it was made or which version of it is, that might help inform your decision. As I recall, the first iteration of those had some problems with the electronics and replacement parts are very hard to come by these days. I can't remember which years were impacted by this so you may need to do some additional searching.

[Luis Reyes]

Thanks for the replies! Looks like this model was bought in 2012 so seems like it could be one of the affected lathes (I see a thread in another forum in 2013 where they say the new ones are fixed).