Is bigger than a 12" swing that much of a difference?

[Justin Stephen]

i find myself trying to go bigger and bigger, but there are practical limits: the size of wood blanks you can source, move, lift etc. They get heavy. How much a lathe can handle. How much power/gearing. And at some point large, turning, off balance chunks just scare me. Drying out blanks, without cracking is tough to.

but the visual impact of a large bowl or platter is awesome.

18" is likely. Good size. Larger diameters become very difficult.

Olaf

Tend to agree. The thing is, you don't really have to go that much past 12" to turn "big". It's all visual. I would call a 12" bowl of typical depth a "medium" bowl and I think most people would probably agree. But you don't need to turn a 24" bowl to go twice as big. You only need to turn a 17" bowl (12" = 36pi, 17 = 72pi-ish). And I think most people when presented with a 17" bowl would call it pretty darn big. A 20" lathe with the appropriate hp motor is plenty of lathe to turn "big".

[William C Rogers]

Thanks again for the comments. Many are satisfied turning 12" or smaller. Since I'm still very new at bowl turning I have a way to go before turning larger. My abilities definitely have not exceeded the PM 90 capabilities. I bought this lathe 6-7 years ago at a school auction for $180. I did change it to a single phase with a brand new 1hp Dayton motor I bought off eBay that was a industrial grade with its own overload protection. I was fortunate that there were 3 face plates for internal turning and two for outboard turning. It also had an extra standard banjo and a offset banjo that I assumed was for outboard turning. I know that is rare as I have not seen one for sale the last year or so.
image.jpg
So if the time comes, I will try turning outboard on the PM 90. I just need to fabricate/buy a outboard tool rest stand. I have been watching CL and eBay for the last year to see if anything would show up and have not seen any lathe better than what I have. On eBay the asking price for the PM 90 is as high as $1700-1800, which I don't understand as this is more than the G0766 shipped. For now I will buy better tooling.

[Doug Ladendorf]

William, there was an outboard tool rest stand recently on OWWM. You might check there.

Doug

[Jeramie Johnson]

...what got me thinking is the blank I just turned I could ha made a 12-13" bowl if I had a bigger lathe. I still need a lot of practice and would like to turn same hollow forms..

This is what drove me to a larger lathe. I enjoyed turning the bowls, but having to cut nice blanks down to fit is what pained me......immensely. Also, hollow forms were possible on the ol' Delta.....just not as "enjoyable".

[Dale Gillaspy]

You don't need to raise the banjo. If you raise the headstock and tailstocks, respectively, then all you need to do is to make sure the posts on your tool rests are long enough to accommodate the higher center point. That can be done a number of ways....buy longer tool posts, or weld "extension" rods on to the ones you already have.

[Wally Dickerman]

Having done a fair amount of turning on a lathe with a floor mounted tool rest is less than satisfactory. How many times do you move your tool rest during the turning of a bowl? Well just imagine moving a heavy floor model stand that many times. Not fun.

[Justin Stephen]

How many times do you move your tool rest during the turning of a bowl?

Not nearly as often as I should.

[William C Rogers]

Having done a fair amount of turning on a lathe with a floor mounted tool rest is less than satisfactory. How many times do you move your tool rest during the turning of a bowl? Well just imagine moving a heavy floor model stand that many times. Not fun.

I agree not fun. Looking at different lathes the Grizzly G0694 has a unique way it mounts the external tool rest. That might be something I could do. It will be awhile before I try something like that.

[Olaf Vogel]

William, everyone seems to want to turn the larger bowls and platters. After you turn a few, you run head first into the what do I do with them wall.
Joe

Sell 'em!

[Sean Hughto]

It depends what you want to make. I love making utility bowls for salad and serving and so forth. A 12 inch swing will never let you make a bowl over around 11" which is a sort of smallish salad bowl for a family. I have a Jet 1642 and would never go smaller. Here's an example at around 13.5" which is in the sweet spot to my mind as far as salad bowl size:

[William C Rogers]

It depends what you want to make. I love making utility bowls for salad and serving and so forth. A 12 inch swing will never let you make a bowl over around 11" which is a sort of smallish salad bowl for a family. I have a Jet 1642 and would never go smaller. Here's an example at around 13.5" which is in the sweet spot to my mind as far as salad bowl size:

Those are beautiful. The first bowl I turned ended up about 9 1/2". I think the blank was somewhere around 11" after I cut it down. Right now every blank I have except one is less than 12". I may try turning outboard, however raising the head and tail would be the best solution. I need to figure out the Reeve belt size, but I think that would be an ideal lathe for me. I'm still learning and will post the bowl I made when finished (tomorrow I think)

[Sean Hughto]

Thanks, William. Just one bowl from various angles.

[Sean Hughto]

My saying is "My bowls are priceless, I can only give them away." But seriously, family, friends, neighbors, you name it, they all ALWAYS love to get a beautiful hand turned bowl. What to do with them is never a problem. Not to mention large piles of small and medium size bowls are sort of waste too. Share the love!