started turning wood about 5 years ago on a old craftsman lathe you had to move with the wooble, stepped up to a jet 12/20 mida and although I`ve lots of nice stuff on it, it cant handle any real wieght and its been injured as a result. I`ve been looking at three lathes, and all of them have their meritts. The VB-36 the robust lathe and the serious lathe, I like the wieght,low center, digital rpm ect.. on the serious but 25" is max I like the slideing headstock on the robust and tilting tailstock, but the bearings seem small in comparision, the vb-36 seems like a great bowl lathe but only weighs in at about 400 lbs and all its weight is up high as the base is stamped steal. Any input from owners and turners on this equipment would be greatly appretiated