Hello Creekers,
I picked up a Revo 18 36 today and thought I would share a little bit about the purchase and unboxing.
If you are looking for a review there is a good one by by John Keeton here. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...guna-Revo-1836.
Otherwise, this is simply about the purchase and unboxing. I will post a review after I have had it for a while.
I agonized over this purchase for a good long time. I have been turning on a Rikon 12x20 vs for a while and I have truly enjoyed the lathe. I keep bumping up the size of my turnings and I find myself having to chase the lathe around the shop a little bit. I think that the Rikon is a great lathe but I needed something more substantial. I looked at everything I could find including products by Vicmarc, Robust, Oneway, Jet, Powermatic, Laguna, and whatnot. The forum posts on Sawmill Creek had a lot to do with my decision-making process. I tried to read everything I could and then after I had determined my price range went out to see the lathes.
I started out wanting a Robust or a Oneway lathe but finally determined that I just couldn't afford it. One day, I will upgrade to the dream lathe, but for now, I must settle for something a little less expensive and a lottery ticket.
I travel a lot and so get to visit woodworking stores across the nation and had the opportunity to discuss different lathes at woodworking supply stores in Ohio, North Carolina, Colorado, Virginia, West Virginia, Florida, South Carolina and Georgia. I managed to see the Nova, Jet, Powermatic, Laguna and Rikon lathes and talk to salespeople about them. Most salespeople I spoke with seemed to know little about the Nova lathes and scared to talk about the Powermatic because of the price. They all seemed very knowledgeable about the Jet, Rikon, and Laguna lathes.
After a while, I had narrowed things down to the Powermatic 3520B and the Laguna 18 36. The price difference between the two products is significant but the reputation of the Powermatic is powerful. In fact, I was dead set on a 3520 B. I found myself spending my free time going to the local woodworking store to visit my future lathe. Every time I would go in I would see the Laguna sitting right next to it. After a while I began to investigate it a bit. Finally, after finding out everything that I could, it seemed like the Laguna has a better feature set for me and the price was certainly right. I am pretty sure that the Laguna is a sleeper and that when enough people find out about it the price will start going up.
I spent the day purchasing, picking up and assembling the lathe.
Today was a beautiful day in the south to go lathe shopping. I think that it was close to 70 degrees. After reading all of the input and looking at the Revo side by side with a new 3520b I awoke with the decision made. The Revo is magnificent in person and it is a lot of steel for the money. The reputation of the 3520B versus the newness of this Laguna lathe made this a very difficult decision.
I called all of the Woodcraft stores within reasonable driving distance to see if there was one in stock. All of them offered to sell me the floor model but I wanted it in the box for ease of travel. After pulling it out of the box I realize that it may have been easier to have bought the assembled unit. With the box on the floor, it just seems so much heavier.
The Roanoke Woodcraft had the model I was looking for in stock. That's about a 2-hour drive for me. I didn't mind the ride as it meant that I didn't have to wait for the lathe to ship from Laguna. I used a Home Depot trailer $39.00 for the day. I got the one with the tall sides. The Lathe was on sale for 2249.10. The guys at Woodcraft were very professional and had it ready to go when I arrived. They put it on the edge of the trailer and from there it was easy to slide it around the trailer with a little effort. I drove it home and was able to slide it off of the trailer and into my garage by myself. It is a VERY heavily constructed cardboard box. I have posted a couple of pictures below.
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Once I got it off of the trailer and opened the box I found that the lathe is packed in two layers.
The first is all of the small parts and the second is the heavy stuff. Here are some pictures.
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To get the heavy stuff out of the box you will need to destroy it unless you can pick it straight up out of the box. The box is designed to keep anything from moving and it is very effective. To remove the headstock, tailstock, and tool rest you will need to remove the stops from both ends of the ways. Below is a pic of the stop and of the beat up box.
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I seem to have run out of room for pics so I will continue on anothe page