12"-16" Short-bed Bowl Lathes for School?

[Bob Janka]

Folks,

The Craft Center (at a local University) where I do my pen-turning and other woodworking is looking to acquire 2 short-bed lathes for the bowl-turners amongst us. The woodshop director would love to find a 16" short-bed Woodfast (we already have another Woodfast), but apparently that model is out of production. We currently plan to acquire sometime next year. I am volunteering a few hours a week to help out at the woodshop and want to find just what is available these days.

The basic requirements are as follows:

110V power
12"-16" swing
short-bed
Variable Speed
RELIABLE (especially V.S. components)
RUGGED (users are often beginners who might make mistakes)

I see two possibilities: Buy new or buy used. New has advantages of no prior use and current support. Used has advantages of better fit to requirements and lower acquisition costs. I'm looking for web-sites which can help us identify candidate models. I would love to hear any direct feedback, positive AND negative, about models.

HOWEVER, please do not violate the SMC rules and post any rants about particular manufacturers.

Please do send me e-mails and/or private messages if you prefer that to posting responses.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Cheers,
Bob

[Steven Wilson]

Too bad about the 110V requirement. If you can go 220 then you can go with a Oneway 2416 or 2016.

[Jim Becker]

The tough part here is the 120v requirement as almost all of the true VS lathes (which are desirable, especially for safety, IMHO) require 240v. The first thing that came to mind is the VicMark VL200 or VL300 (http://www.1goodturn.net/Lathes.htm) , but both specify 240v for their drives. It does appear that the OneWay 1224 with a 12" swing will work on 120v (My 1018 was available that way for an extra charge) The NOVA DVR also comes to mind, but I'd be concerned about it holding up in an "educational environment". These are all "short bed" lathes and good for bowls and vessels.

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi Bob

You might want to consider the Nova 3000 or the new DVR lathes. I do not have any experience with the DVR, but I had an old Nova 1500 for a while, which was the precursor of the 3000. You can get it in a shortbed version with a 110v DC variable speed drive. It is a decent lathe, and there is a lot of good work being done on these models. As with any machine, they have their idiosyncrasies, but they are not all that hard to live with.

Of course, if you want the best one out there, Poolewood is making a short bed lathe now! :cool:

Bill