I know the Wilton (on sale today at Menards for $79) isn't the best lathe,
and with the plastic parts, won't last 50 years, but.....

I bought an older lathe last fall for $40 at a garage sale, spent some time
and a small amount of $$$ to get it running, and it never ran great. Today,
I decided to drop the frustration and some cash, and got the Wilton mini at
Menards. I had spent some time playing on one at a friend's house earlier
this year, and tried the Jet midi at a Woodcraft, but couldn't justify the
extra cost right now. $80 later, the Wilton runs better than the old
Power-Kraft (garage sale find) ever did, and it was actually fun to do some
turing. I can see how this could become very addictive.

A few months ago, I took a pen making class at Woodcraft (the jet midi
play-time) and have promised to make my wife some pens when I get this old
lathe going, now I can actually do it on the Wilton.

Turned out to be a very good day!

Rob

--

"Rob Worgull" wrote:

I know the Wilton (on sale today at Menards for $79) isn't the best
lathe, and with the plastic parts, won't last 50 years, but.....

I bought an older lathe last fall for $40 at a garage sale, spent some
time and a small amount of $$$ to get it running, and it never ran
great. Today, I decided to drop the frustration and some cash, and
got the Wilton mini at Menards. I had spent some time playing on one
at a friend's house earlier this year, and tried the Jet midi at a
Woodcraft, but couldn't justify the extra cost right now. $80 later,
the Wilton runs better than the old Power-Kraft (garage sale find)
ever did, and it was actually fun to do some turing. I can see how
this could become very addictive.

A few months ago, I took a pen making class at Woodcraft (the jet midi
play-time) and have promised to make my wife some pens when I get this
old lathe going, now I can actually do it on the Wilton.

Do you have the specs on the Wilton? MT? Spindle size and TPI? Etc.?

Thanks in advance,
LD


Turned out to be a very good day!

Rob

The Wilton has a MT #1 taper, which is good, since the old lathe I have is
also a #1, so the pen mandrel I already bought fits. I believe, it's also a
3/4x16 tpi, but not absolutely positive. It came with 2 smaller face
plates, so I should be set there.

The old Powr-kraft was a model A11, which I can't find any information on.
I called the company that has parts for old Ward's stuff, they never heard
of it. I saw one on OWWM, identical to what I have (although much better
condition), but again, no specs. I even searched through the old Ward's
tool catalogs on OWWM, and none of the pictures matched what I bought.

My wife wants me to trash it, so unless someone in the western Chicago
suburbs wants an old lathe, it's will be scrap soon.

"Lobby Dosser" wrote in message
news:ZQRqe.7832$lb5.2991@trnddc04...
"Rob Worgull" wrote:

I know the Wilton (on sale today at Menards for $79) isn't the best
lathe, and with the plastic parts, won't last 50 years, but.....

I bought an older lathe last fall for $40 at a garage sale, spent some
time and a small amount of $$$ to get it running, and it never ran
great. Today, I decided to drop the frustration and some cash, and
got the Wilton mini at Menards. I had spent some time playing on one
at a friend's house earlier this year, and tried the Jet midi at a
Woodcraft, but couldn't justify the extra cost right now. $80 later,
the Wilton runs better than the old Power-Kraft (garage sale find)
ever did, and it was actually fun to do some turing. I can see how
this could become very addictive.

A few months ago, I took a pen making class at Woodcraft (the jet midi
play-time) and have promised to make my wife some pens when I get this
old lathe going, now I can actually do it on the Wilton.

Do you have the specs on the Wilton? MT? Spindle size and TPI? Etc.?

Thanks in advance,
LD


Turned out to be a very good day!

Rob

On Sun, 12 Jun 2005 16:44:39 -0500, "Rob Worgull"
wrote:

The Wilton has a MT #1 taper, which is good, since the old lathe I have is
also a #1, so the pen mandrel I already bought fits. I believe, it's also a
3/4x16 tpi, but not absolutely positive. It came with 2 smaller face
plates, so I should be set there.

Same accommodations as a Sears lathe, if anyone is wondering.

My wife wants me to trash it, so unless someone in the western Chicago
suburbs wants an old lathe, it's will be scrap soon.

I'm not interested, and I'm no longer in the area, but where in the
'burbs do you live (just city; not specific streets). I lived in
Aurora for 21 years, and before that, five years in Carol Stream.


--
LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

http://www.woodbutcher.net

Proud participant of rec.woodworking since February, 1997

Moved to Naperville from Los Angeles in October of '03. We built a house in
north Plainfield, and moved in last September.

I believe you were the one I emailed about a year ago. I work at a certain
gov't building in Aurora, on Indian Trail, in the "south area". Didn't you
either work in the soutwest or southeast area?

Rob

I'm not interested, and I'm no longer in the area, but where in the
'burbs do you live (just city; not specific streets). I lived in
Aurora for 21 years, and before that, five years in Carol Stream.


--
LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

http://www.woodbutcher.net

Proud participant of rec.woodworking since February, 1997

On Sun, 12 Jun 2005 23:17:01 -0500, "Rob Worgull"
wrote:

Moved to Naperville from Los Angeles in October of '03. We built a house in
north Plainfield, and moved in last September.

I believe you were the one I emailed about a year ago. I work at a certain
gov't building in Aurora, on Indian Trail, in the "south area". Didn't you
either work in the soutwest or southeast area?

Oh, wow. Let's see, over the course of 26 years I worked in the old
West High, the old West Terminal, Northwest Area, Southwest Area, TMU,
QA, South Area, then Southwest Area, again. And I transferred in from
ZJX, where I worked in two different areas. I sort of had a couple of
distinctions in that time (I'm sure there are others who had similar,
but we were rare); I never went to OKC, and I was certified on a total
of about 42 radar positions over that time.

I've been gone since '97. No wonder we haven't crossed paths. Say
hello to my buddy Knute in the North area. Also say hello to Keith
Stokes. The nick that is my signature will be immediately recognizable
to them.

I don't remember the email, sorry. I hope I wasn't rude and didn't
answer.

--
LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

http://www.woodbutcher.net

Proud participant of rec.woodworking since February, 1997

"Rob Worgull" wrote:

The Wilton has a MT #1 taper, which is good, since the old lathe I
have is also a #1, so the pen mandrel I already bought fits. I
believe, it's also a 3/4x16 tpi, but not absolutely positive. It came
with 2 smaller face plates, so I should be set there.


Thanks for the info. Be sure to let us know how it works for you.

LD

"Rob Worgull" wrote in message
...
I bought an older lathe last fall for $40 at a garage sale, spent some
time
and a small amount of $$$ to get it running, and it never ran great.
Today,
I decided to drop the frustration and some cash, and got the Wilton mini
at
Menards. I had spent some time playing on one at a friend's house earlier
this year, and tried the Jet midi at a Woodcraft, but couldn't justify the
extra cost right now. $80 later, the Wilton runs better than the old
Power-Kraft (garage sale find) ever did, and it was actually fun to do
some
turing. I can see how this could become very addictive.


Wasn't the old 14" all tin model PowerKraft, was it? In fairness I
shouldn't say all tin. The headstock/motor housing was plastic.

My first. After I made the legs for the tables that I wanted, and it was a
chore, I spent a lot of hours on that eggbeater trying to make a bowl. What
I got was enough to convince me that I ought to spend some more time in
front of a lathe, and that lathe ought to be cast iron.

The Wilton is WMH's try at Mainland rather than Taiwan, I believe.
http://www.wiltoncorp.com/