One lathe never just stays one
Jon, As people get into turning and their skills increase the desire to do bigger, wilder, crazy or just to be able to try something new pushes most to upgrade the lathe they start out with. Most keep the original lathe and get a larger one and both or in some cases all the lathes will get used. I have 3 and I use them all, it is nice to have more than one turning going at once or to have different parts going at the same time. If you plan on betting a bigger lathe or even just want one, but the money, space or other things don't allow it now get the small lathe and begin your journey into the vortex and the sucking wind of the vortex will drag you into the giant rabbit hole we all have dropped into!
One can never have to many tools!
Jeff
Some things to keep in mind
When I upgraded from a table top midi, I went to a Jet 1642 (1.5 hp). I considered smaller, but these are the things that pushed me to the bigger lathe.
- You cant turn a 12" bowl on a 12" lathe. Unless your blanks are well trued up and centered you will need about 3/4" allowance for off center error when roughing.
- If you work from rough cut wood, (I'm not all that skilled with a chain saw) The blank will be off balance and you will need the extra mass to keep the lathe stable as you true up the blank.
- With rough cut wood electronic variable speed is a very nice feature to have. This was especially true before my confidence grew and I felt comfortable with that chunk of tree spinning in front of me.
- Even at 12", lack of torque will be frustrating if your lathe doesn't have enough.
- Even if you doubt that you will need the capacity of the larger lathe, I guarantee that if you don't have it some project will come to mind that requires it. I never thought that I would need the 1642's length until my wife asked me to make table legs.
I have no regrets going to the larger lathe. There are times when I consider if I should have gone even larger, but never if I should have gone smaller.
Harvey in Southbury, CT