Hi Darrell,

I don't mean to argue from my position of ignorance, but are you sure
that weight for weight, and particularly swing for swing, a metal lathe
with the same 'credentials' as a woodturning lathe doesn't cost a whole
lot more? I love my Sheldon metal lathe, but it only swings 10 in. and
it cost a lot more than my 10 in. VL100.


The usual (not sure about brake drum and other special use machines)
metal lathe that could swing a 24 in. bowl would likely not fit into a
home shop as well as a wood lathe of equal quality and swing. I don't
think most metal lathes have outboard adaptability.


IMHO, a Canadian, American, Australian Belgium or British metal lathe
with the overall quality, swing and rpm range of a Oneway, Robust,
Vicmarc, Wivamac or VB36, ...and that great lathe sold by a first rate
fellow turner in St. Louis will cost thousands more. At least, I'd
presume so, since precision geared spindles, back gears, carriages,
compounds, power feeds, threading gears, etc, don't come cheap.


I don't know if stripped down metal lathes suitable for turning wood are
available, but I'd think a high quality metal lathe without its high
quality tooling is more helpless and useless than a similar quality wood
lathe without its accessories.

Talk about ruining a thread!


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