What kind of wood lathe do you have?

[Jeffrey J Smith]

I started turning after being gifted a Craftsman lathe in response to my saying that I'd like to start turning...I'd been watching one of the woodworking shows on PBS and decided it looked interesting. That was nearly 20 years ago. After quickly hitting the limitations of this lathe, I manned up and bought a Jet 1642 that I turned on for several years. Facing retirement in a couple of years, I decided it was time to explore the 'last lathe' I'll ever buy.
After checking out and getting significant turning time on lathes from OneWay, Powermatic, Vicmark, Magma/Titan and Robust I settled on the Robust AB, 3hp, tilt away Pretty much the 'standard' configuration.
I can honestly say that, after 8 years of use I'm still thrilled and delighted to stand at this lathe and make shavings. Can't honestly say that it has made me a better turner, but it's surely allowed me to learn to appreciate the importance of a well designed and produced piece of equipment.

[John K Jordan]

I started turning after being gifted a Craftsman lathe in response to my saying that I'd like to start turning...I'd been watching one of the woodworking shows on PBS and decided it looked interesting. That was nearly 20 years ago. After quickly hitting the limitations of this lathe, I manned up and bought a Jet 1642 ...

Did you have the old "tube" lathe too or were you more fortunate than that?

I got started turning when my son was in architecture school - I wanted to make a tracing paper dispenser for his workstation and all I knew abut lathes was they were supposed to let you make round things. Not knowing any better, I went to Home Depot and they sold me their only lathe, a Ridgid, exact clone of the Sears tube lathe. They hadn't sold one in years. I bought a set of tools from Sears and made the dispenser, complete with a tearoff blade. I eventually tried making some more things and got hooked and immediately realized the severe limitations of that thing! The first jet 1642 came very soon after that.

Now if I were a rich man, I'd sure take a careful look at the Robust!

JKJ

[Frederick Skelly]

Harbor Freight. It cost me $150 used and it's been a good starter tool.

[Jeffrey J Smith]

[QUOTE=John K Jordan;2972641]Did you have the old "tube" lathe too or were you more fortunate than that?

Mine wasn’t the tube version, but don’t read that to mean it was any better. It did get me hooked, though. I guess you’d call it a gateway drug...
Not rich, but started saving for the ‘last’ lathe a year after getting the Jet- five years later I had my American Beauty. Now that retirement is a two-year reality, so glad I thought ahead. There’s no way I could afford it now. I hoarded lots of tools over that time. They’re coming in handy now.

[William C Rogers]

I have had many lathes. My first turning experience was with a Shopsmith, turned once on it and gave up turning for over a year.
Next was a Delta mini I bought when Lowes was closing them out. Good lathe and made many pens and kit items on that lathe.
Then Jet mini, but with variable speed. Kept the Delta.
Then I bought a PM 90 at a school auction. Very heavy built and raised it to 18” swing.
The the Laguna 18-36. I sold the PM 90 as I wanted a modern lathe. The Laguna was a very good lathe. I did need to replace the start switch and small relay, but Laguna’s CS was great and sent parts quickly. The Laguna did everything I wanted, BUT I did want more mass and a good tailstock swing away.
So I bought a Robust AB. This is my last lathe, however I wouldn’t trade my progression. I was able to accumulate decent tools, chucks, and accessories along the way. I like the size, mass, tailstock swing away, leg splay and a list of other things about the AB.

[Glenn C Roberts]

A free Shopsmith. What the heck is this? Tried it. A few spindles and bowls - garbage really - but a tremendously addictive experience. Nova 1624 now, maybe an upgrade in the future.

[Pete Staehling]

I have a Harbor Freight bench top model that I got for with a sale coupon $200. It is a pretty lousy lathe, but I don't regret the purchase. It was a decent way to get a taste of what turning is all about. I actually managed to make some nice things and the accessories I bought and skills that I learned will be useful when I buy a nicer lathe. Having spent some time with the HF junker, I now have a better idea what kind of projects I really want to do and therefore what I want in a lathe.

When I bought the HF bench top model I knew I would like turning but questioned whether I could justify the space a lathe would take up in the shop and if I got a lathe just how much space I could justify. If I had gone right to a nice one it may well have been either too much or too little lathe size wise for my needs and the space available. It may have had the wrong features. I now have a much better handle on what I really want to do and how that will be best served in the space of my shop. The best compromise at this time, for me, seems to be something like the Nova 1624 II.

People always say buy something nice to start with, but I don't regret testing the waters with the cheap little HF. If I had bought something nicer it would have probably been either too big or too small or had the wrong features and I'd have likely felt stuck with it given the $$$ I would have invested. The $200 HF is pretty much a throw away that I have easily gotten my money's worth of usage out of. I'll try to find someone who will put it to good use to give it to. Hopefully they will use it and move on to something nicer.

Similarly I started with the cheap set of lathe chisels from HF. I made my sharpening mistakes and did a lot of learning with them, buying some nicer ones as I went. I started with a better grade of things like chucks early on. By then I knew I'd find it useful to have nice ones later no matter what lathe I bought.

[Randy Heinemann]

I am a beginner compared to most of the regulars on this forum. I started out and still own a Nova Comet II midi.

The one big negative for me was that, after only 2 years of rather light duty use, the controller died. It was out of warranty within a year so the $150 cost of a new controller was mine. Since I didn't want to buy a new lathe at the time, I just replaced the controller.

I would never buy another Nova lathe because of this although I don't know if the failure was just a random event or not
Other than that, the lathe has served my needs and it was rather inexpensive as a starter lathe. I turn bowls up to around 8" - 10" on it and it works well. It's capacity is 12" but I think that would be pushing the limit of the motor and lathe overall size, especially until the blank is balanced completely.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I learned on my Dad's old Dunlap. As an adult my first was a 9 inch Powrkraft. Turned only two items on it and decided to get variable speed. Got an HF 12 x 33 at a yard sale for $75.00. That actually does a lot of my work. I picked up an old Rockwell 46-525 that came out of a school shop and came with out board face plate and factory free standing tool rest. Then I found an identical HF 12 x 33 lathe on casters at another yard sale for $60. I figured just for the spare parts it was worth it. At another yard sale, I picked up a little 8 x 12 Turncrafter with about 20 pounds of pen making supplies for $70. I also got an RBI Hawk scroll saw at the same sale for $50. Lastly, I bought an old wooden beam lathe 12 x 48 for $10. (I intend to make a treadle lathe out of it.) The reason I keep the larger lathes set up? I detest changing tooling when I am making things, so one lathe has the chuck with cole jaws, another gets the face plate for face turning and the third is for spindle work between centers. I can simply walk five feet to the next lathe rather than change everything around on one lathe and then maybe have to change it back.

I found that like most of America, in the 1950's and 1960's many fathers had hobby work shops for a past time. They bought decent tools, Delta, Craftsman etc and either didn't make much use of them or took care of them,. As the men passed away, their kids peddled the stuff off for what they thought they could get. I made a part time business of it back in the 1970's and early 1980's when I lived in the DC burbs. Folks retiring and moving across the country did not take their workshops. I bought lots of drill presses, jointers, table saws, band saws, etc, dirt cheap and sold them up in central PA for 2 or 3 times what I paid. Now In my area, the guys who lived in the same house all their lives are passing on and their shops are being sold off. I bought a 10 inch contractor grade Craftsman table saw at an auction for $12.00. No one wanted it because it was corded for 220.

[Thomas Wilson80]

I was given the smallest harbor freight VS mini lathe (8-10" swing) and turned some small ornaments/pens before I found a used 10" VS Jet mini for sale. The difference in quality and precision was drastic. I had planned on just doing small ornaments, etc. but started seeing videos of bowls and hollow forms and eventually, that's all I wanted to try. I turned a couple 9" bowls but found I was so limited with space and was spending so much time trying to get the blanks down to size to fit on the lathe (didn't have a good bandsaw then) that I began saving for a larger lathe.

I ended up buying the Laguna 2436. I felt like it was comparable to the PM 3520B but significantly cheaper and with 4" more swing (I looked for a used 3520B in my area for almost 2 years but the rare ones that came up for sale were close to the cost of a new one). I considered getting the Grizzly G0766 but with the increase in price due to the tariffs and the fact that I didn't have confidence in my abilities to maintain it (I don't have any prior shop experience or fixer-upper skills and drilling out the tool rest/replacing a potentiometer/fixing the spindle thread, etc. seemed beyond me).

I'm extremely happy with the Laguna. It is a beast of a machine and has been perfect for me so far. With a coupon, it was around $3500 new, and while that is a lot of money, I won't ever need to upgrade and feel like this lathe has the capacity to do anything I would ever want, from large bowls to hollow forms (my next venture) to small spindles - (ironically, since getting the Laguna, I have done more spindle turning than I ever did on my Jet mini - I guess the grass is always greener......).

Tom

[Pete Staehling]

The one big negative for me was that, after only 2 years of rather light duty use, the controller died. It was out of warranty within a year so the $150 cost of a new controller was mine. Since I didn't want to buy a new lathe at the time, I just replaced the controller.

Just a side note...
I have several times had a manufacturer/supplier provide a replacement part gratis even on an out of warranty machine. This has been true even for some pretty expensive parts on machines that were as far or further out of warranty than your Nova is. I never specifically ask for them to give me a free part, but did talk to or email tech support and discussed the problem. I asked for advice on how to fix the problem, what might have caused it, and how to avoid it in the future. I suspect they were more likely to help with a free part when it was a known problem. In at least one case they provided a replacement part while a little out of warranty and over a year later while well out of warranty provided the same part as well as another part that went with it to be sure the matching of the parts wasn't an issue. It was a part that cost a substantial portion of the price of the whole machine.

[Larry Frank]

I have a Shopsmith that works fine for now. I recently bought the Nova G3 Chuck and really like it. However, now I am starting to think about a new lathe . I have been looking at the Nova series. I have the Nova DP and really like it.

[Randy Heinemann]

Just a side note...
I have several times had a manufacturer/supplier provide a replacement part gratis even on an out of warranty machine. This has been true even for some pretty expensive parts on machines that were as far or further out of warranty than your Nova is. I never specifically ask for them to give me a free part, but did talk to or email tech support and discussed the problem. I asked for advice on how to fix the problem, what might have caused it, and how to avoid it in the future. I suspect they were more likely to help with a free part when it was a known problem. In at least one case they provided a replacement part while a little out of warranty and over a year later while well out of warranty provided the same part as well as another part that went with it to be sure the matching of the parts wasn't an issue. It was a part that cost a substantial portion of the price of the whole machine.

After I discussed the problem of the lathe being dead, their tech support electrician pointed me to the controller as he didn't believe it would be the motor itself (and there could be no other cause). I thought Nova probably should have considered replacing the part, given that there was no evidence for them to assume anything except that the part had merely failed after about 2 years of light duty use. They absolutely refused to replace it without cost to me so I have no choice to buy it for $150 or junk the lathe. I would never replace the controller again. If it fails a second time, I will just junk the lathe and get something much better. While I felt tech support was responsive, the cost of repair compared to the cost of the lathe was excessive given its age and use. My recommendation would be to consider other brands of lathes.

[Dan Gaylin]

I’ve been turning for less than two years mostly on weekends. My lathe is a Nova Comet II. Randy I just turned a 12” bowl on it without any problems. But it was red grandis which is not a very dense wood. This has been a great lathe to learn on and I do not have any major complaints but I will definitely be upgrading in the relatively near future mostly because I would like to have a bigger capacity.

[Pete Staehling]

After I discussed the problem of the lathe being dead, their tech support electrician pointed me to the controller as he didn't believe it would be the motor itself (and there could be no other cause). I thought Nova probably should have considered replacing the part, given that there was no evidence for them to assume anything except that the part had merely failed after about 2 years of light duty use. They absolutely refused to replace it without cost to me so I have no choice to buy it for $150 or junk the lathe. I would never replace the controller again. If it fails a second time, I will just junk the lathe and get something much better. While I felt tech support was responsive, the cost of repair compared to the cost of the lathe was excessive given its age and use. My recommendation would be to consider other brands of lathes.

I guess you did what you could do. I probably wouldn't have judged them as harshly since any brand can have issues and parts will sometimes fail. It would have been nice if they would have comped the part and probably been worth the good will they would have gotten from giving excellent service. Someone saying nice things about the brand is often worth comping a replacement part especially when it is something that is very unlikely to be a part that the user is likely to have abused in some way.

On the other hand they are under no obligation to do more than honor the warranty, give tech support, and sell replacement parts at a fair price. It sounds like they probably do that if $150 is a fair price for the controller board (I have no idea if it is).

On second thought...
I just realized that you were talking about the Comet II that can be found new for as cheap as a little over $400. Charging $150 for a controller board on a machine in that price range does seem excessive. I was going to say that I wouldn't consider junking the lathe over a $150 replacement part, but then I checked what lathe you were talking about. The fact that the board is such a big percentage of the cost of a new lathe would sour me on the purchase especially if it were to fail twice.

I don't think I am likely to get too excited over a failure report here or there, those occur with any brand. Especially since your's was on a different model I won't be too influenced by it. If you had reported a second failure I might have been a bit more nervous about the brand. It is a popular enough brand that there will be failure reports. The price of the controller board is the one part of your story that really does give me some pause. I do plan to look at the parts prices a bit before committing to buying the 1624 II.