"Peter Wells" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 7 Mar 2006 00:47:55 +0000 (UTC), "ROBERT CRAIG"
wrote:

A young lad who is interested in woodturning has asked me to find out
whether the Axminster M900 Variable Speed Lathe is any good. Does anyone
have any experience of this, is it good value and does it suffer from any
particular drawbacks?

Any comments would be welcome.




When mine was delivered, the owner's manual included was the one for
the Jet JWL 1234 model, which is apparently identical. You may be able
to get some more info from users of that lathe.

The M900 is used here (in France) for basic training in a number of
crafts schools. My experience (I'm not a very prolific turner) has
been good on the whole. The stand, while OK, could do with some
reinforcement or weight to stabilise it; the toolrest adjustment is
convenient, but does need occasional tweaking to stay put. No shortage
of power even roughing out bowl blanks in green oak over the bed, or
with the variable speed system.The latter is a bit stiff to move, but
otherwise very convenient indeed; the lever when on the highest speed
setting sometimes gets in the way of tool handles. The device for
rotating the motor to allow outboard turning works OK, but doesn't
feel particularly solid, and may wear out in hard use. I haven't used
it much. Some screws tend to vibrate out, but nothing particularly
bad; an occasional tweak or some loctite deals with that.

I had one serious problem with the motor, the wiring had been badly
fitted inside the cowling, and the insulation on one wire wore
through and shorted; it was fairly difficult to get the motor out to
resolve the difficulty.

If I were to start all over again, I would probably buy a lathe with a
shorter bed, as I have never used anything like the whole available
length. If I did use the full length, however, I would be quite
prepared to repeat the experience.
=============================

Peter pretty well addressed the benefits and shortcomings of this lathe. It
is one of the several clones of the Jet 1236, and shares it's traits. One
evil that Peter left out, or may not have experienced, is the problem with
the toolrest extension. It is used with the headstock rotated away from the
lathe bed centerline. It not only prone to excess vibration, but breakage of
the cast piece. This limits the benefit of the rotating headstock, but this
is a good entry level lathe, and under several names has been used by many
turners. As Peter noted, the lathe stand frame needs to be reinforced (1/2
or 3/4 inch plywood or MDF screwed to the angle iron stand on the sides and
back make it much more ridgid, and a shelf can be added to the stand cross
braces for added weight.) Just remember that this is not a heavy duty
production machine, but if you understand the limitations and don't expect
Oneway performance, then it is a good investment IMHO. YMMV

Ken Moon
Webberville, TX.