Gloat or Goat?

[Kris Koenig]

A little backstory.

Not quite a year and a half ago, THAT storm put my house in Slidell, La under 6 1/2 feet of swamp water. Needless to say, I lost all of my tools in my garage workshop. We had insurance, so we weren't completely ruined, but it never covers everything.

Present day.

A friend of mine had a lathe he wasn't using, probably had never used, and he asked me if I wanted it. I said sure, not knowing anything about it, but surely it had to be better than the one I had, which is to say, none. I picked it up this weekend, and now I am not so sure. It is a Craftsman wood lathe with the tubular runner for the tailstock. It is very rusty, not fatally, but would involve a lot of cleaning. About what you would expect from any tool neglected in Southern Louisiana for very long. The worst was that when I picked it up (his wife brought it to a gathering we were attending, he wasn't there), I realized that there was no motor with it.

My question is this: Is it worth the rehab? Would I be better off getting a newer lathe? Or maybe a good used one?

Here is a picture of a similar lathe. Not mine, but this is the model I have.
http://dallas.craigslist.org/tls/237687170.html

Let me say that I have never had a lathe, never used a lathe, but have always wanted one. I will be the newest of the new turners. Just in case that becomes a consideration.

Thank you,
Kris

[Mark Pruitt]

Kris, it was undoubtedly only with the kindest of intentions that your friend offered that lathe to you, but in all honesty I don't think I would spend a dime on fixing it up. Others may feel differently. The reason I feel the way I do is that while you don't need anything fancy when all you want is to get started turning, at the same time you need something that is not going to frustrate you to the extent that you give up in exasperation.

[jeremy levine]

I think the cost of a motor plus your time would kill the value of the lathe.

[Bill Boehme]

If you just happen to have a motor sitting around, then you might give it a try, but otherwise you may wind up spending twice what it worth to buy a motor, pulley, and v-belt.

Bill

[Richard Madison]

Gadzook, another "single tube Craftsman". Bill B. is right. Don't spend any money on it, but if you have the pulleys and a spare motor, by all means give it a try on the lowest possible speed (unless you are doing pens). I still have mine (~25 yrs old) and have made some beautiful stuff on it. Now used mostly for buffing, etc.

[Kris Koenig]

Well, that is pretty much what I thought. I will check with him and see if he has the motor to go with it. He was going to give me a bucket of tools that go with it, so it may not be a total wash. I may be able to use it for parts to make a treadle lathe, plus it does have a 4 jaw chuck. We will see.

Thanks everybody for your thoughts.
Kris

[Brad Kimbrell]

Kris,

I have one that my father passed down to me and all it does is bounce around and try to walk across the shop every time I mount anything that is a little out of round.

I haven't used it in several years since I bought my Jet Mini.

I was wondering if I could help it out by weighing it down with a heavy stand and some sandbags, but I don't know if that would really do the trick or not. Probably not worth my time in building and bolting down a new stand...

You can get a mini lathe for just over $200 to get started. Then as they say, the fun begins... 3 or 4 chucks later and many, many turning tools and various attachments puts me in for at least $1,000 now. And I'm sure that others have many times more in their equipment. I'm not even a turner, but I am quickly becoming one.

I've turned 3 lided boxes, a hollow form and a bowl in the last 2 nights. Picked up a couple of new very nice turning tools on Monday and have been out there ever since!

Good luck with which ever direction you go.