Vega 24 Bowl Lathe-seeking comments

[Don Wilson]

I would like to get a good bowl turning lathe for small to medium size pieces. i have a lot of local downed trees to work with. A friend loaned me his 12" Woodtek lathe and after tightening up motor mounts etc. it seems it needs at least new bearings to smooth things out (if...). I don't like it. Searching around I found the Vega 24 which is just the right size and priced at $600 (Southern Tools) is in range. It can even do a 24" platter along with the 4-12" diameter bowls I'm planning. I like their idea of adding concrete to the base, and I could build a nice solid table for it too. For this tool I don't need a spindle lathe, I like the front access of a bowl lathe. Any comments from experienced Vega 24 users? TIA, Don

[Steven Wilson]

We have one turner in our local group who has one and he's satisfied with it. The gripe against the Vega is its lack of heft (fairly light weight cabinet) and smallish bearings for bowl turning. Most of our group likes the Vicmark 200 or 300 shortbed lathes as being a reasonable priced bowl lathe (either one is much more substantial than the Vega). Others in our are use Oneway's and IIRC a couple of Woodfast's

[Don Wilson]

Thanks Steve, the Vicmark lathes look great (have Woodturners catalogue). Not sure I can/should stretch for a $1500 and up model, I'm hoping for under $1000 for now. I turned bowls and (antique replacement) chair legs and spindles in the '70's and want to get back into it. Am still searching, found the Jet 1442, even tho it's a long bed the headstock could be moved to the end and an outboard toolrest devised for >14" turnings. Maybe I should start a more general lathe thread. I noticed there are a lot of turners here, but could anyone recommend a good turning website? TIA, Don

[Steven Wilson]

Not a web site but a News group. The rec.crafts.woodturning newsgroup is a great resource for turners. If you haven't accessed news groups before you can try groups.google.com , select advanced search, and then search a specific news group. You'll get all the latest threads as well as being able to search the archives. Every lathe out there has been discussed in length.