Mac,

FWIW, I pushed my 1442 to about capacity for the first time this weekend. I
had 2 black locust crotch blanks almost 15" diameter and about 5" thick,
very wet. Since it was a tad greater than the 14" swing, I just rotated the
head and 90 degrees and did it all outboard (no tailstock assist) with the
banjo on the left of the headstock.

I has careful to get it as balanced as possible at the BS first. I thought
that was a lot of wood for a mid-sized lathe but it handled it pretty well.
450rpm was surprisingly unscary. The only thing that was a bit anoying was
that the tool rest would not stay locked (it would rotate a bit) when I
worked with a downward angle on the interior.
I'm sure that I could fix that by tweaking either the tool or my technique
if i did that on a regular basis.

Anyway, my lathe is a supplement to my flatwork, not the center of my
woodworking world. I was pleasantly surprised that the tool could function
reasonably well at it's theoretical capacity. If I am limited to 15" or so,
that seems pretty reasonable for a less than "pro" lathe.

regards,


Steve


"mac davis" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:42:36 -0500, Steve Russell

wrote:

Hello Mac.

Apologies for the lathe reply... We're shooting a new DVD video and every
spare moment is spent in the studio shooting video...

That's a good question... I'm not sure of the answer, but it might have to
do with how the Digital Variable Reluctance motor is configured and
constructed. Obviously, having the ability to go lower than 100 RPM is
desirable when mounting larger imbalanced blanks, but there are ways
around
this if you have a blank that causes too much vibration at the 100RPM
speed
limit.

I would not let that particular fact stop me from purchasing this lathe,
but
it should be factored into your decision if you plan on doing work near
the
capacity of the lathe and you anticipate routinely mounting imbalanced
pieces.

Thanks, Steve...
I received an email from the manufacturer confirming the 100 low speed..

Nothing I do now requires that low a speed for turning, but some woods
like to
be sanded slower.. probably not THAT slow, but on a large diameter bowl,
the 450
rpm on my Jet seems like 1,000 on the outer edge.. *g*

It's really hard to justify spending that much for a lathe when my 1442
does
everything I need.. but the design and such sure make me want to part with
the
bucks..
OTOH, it's not like there are a bunch of buyers for used lathes here in
Baja..
and even if someone was interested, I'm not sure that I'd want to get
competition started.. ;-]


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing


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