Just curious: why aren't Poolewood lathes available here? I can make
educated guesses at the reasons, but does anyone know for sure?

Jeff

"Jeff" wrote in message
ink.net...

Just curious: why aren't Poolewood lathes available here? I can make
educated guesses at the reasons, but does anyone know for sure?

Not enough sell to make it worthwhile to take a dealership?

In the light of all the problems which seem to have surrounded the Poolewood lathes, you may think yourselves lucky that they are not available!! See the postings on the AWGB Forum in the UK.

On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 04:12:32 GMT, "Jeff" wrote:


Just curious: why aren't Poolewood lathes available here? I can make
educated guesses at the reasons, but does anyone know for sure?

Jeff

Jeff... ask Bill, per link in another thread.. he's a big (sorry Bill) fan of
Poolewood...


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

mac davis wrote:
On Fri, 05 Aug 2005 04:12:32 GMT, "Jeff" wrote:


Just curious: why aren't Poolewood lathes available here? I can make
educated guesses at the reasons, but does anyone know for sure?

At one time David Ellsworth was the sole distributor of Poolewood lathes
in the U.S. Bill Grumbine bought his from David. I took some lessons
from Bill and turned on his Poolewood. It is a fine lathe. David
Ellsworth uses four of them in his workshops.

I understand that Poolewood lost their vendor for castings and stopped
producing lathes. I don't know if they will start again.

Hi Jeff

Poolewood lathes aren't really available anywhere right now, at least that I
am aware of. Of course, this only serves to drive up the value of my own
Euro 2000. ;-) I read some of the postings on the AWGB forum, as far back
as I could go anyway, and there is nothing there that I did not already
know. Poolewood split with Silverdrive, the company building the machines
for them. But even before that, getting them into the US seemed to be a bit
of a problem. There were only a couple of distributors in the US, and none
of them seemed to be real interested in advertising or promoting the
machine. The one with whom I am most familiar, David Ellsworth, sold one
model only and you had to pick it up to get it. But Poolewood offered a
whole range of lathes, from a small benchtop all the way up to the monstrous
Euro 3000, which had something like a 30" swing and a 3 HP 3 phase direct
drive motor. I had briefly considered talking with them about being a
distributor, but I am only about 30 miles from David, and I did not think it
would fly, or be proper.

My Euro 2000 is built like the proverbial tank. I have turned extensively
on just about every lathe on the market, including the Oneway 2436, the big
Stubbys, and other machines of this caliber. I have never been sorry that I
bought my Poolewood, or wished for something more powerful. It holds its
own easily in this crowd, and the problems I have had with it have been
minor. The run/stop and reverse switches have a tendency to get dust in
them and need to be blown out with compressed air from time to time, and the
speed potentiometer needed replacing ($12.58 for an industrially rated one),
and I bought metal locking knobs to replace the plastic ones. It has seen
very heavy turning and even some abuse both from me and a host of students
over the past six years, and it is going like the day I bought it.

Of course, this is all academic, since the only way to get one is to find
one used, and I do not know of anyone who owns one who would be willing to
part with it. The Silverdrive company seemed to offer the promise of
carrying on in the tradition of a great lathe, but judging by the talk on
the Brit forum, I would not want one, only because of the lack of service.
I will say that whenever I needed something from Poolewood, Terry Davis
either emailed me or called me on the phone to get it all taken care of.
Now that is service!

The new Poolewood seems to be a shadow of its former self, if only from a
style point of view. My machine looks like something out of Buck Rogers,
while the new one looks like a refugee from a spare parts bin. Reports on
its performance vary widely, and I have no experience with it.

--
Bill

Bill Grumbine
www.wonderfulwood.com
www.enter.net/~ultradad

"Jeff" wrote in message
ink.net...

Just curious: why aren't Poolewood lathes available here? I can make
educated guesses at the reasons, but does anyone know for sure?

Jeff

"Bill Grumbine" wrote in message
...
Hi Jeff

Poolewood lathes aren't really available anywhere right now, at least that
I am aware of. Of course, this only serves to drive up the value of my
own Euro 2000. ;-) I read some of the postings on the AWGB forum, as far
back as I could go anyway, and there is nothing there that I did not
already know. Poolewood split with Silverdrive, the company building the
machines for them. But even before that, getting them into the US seemed
to be a bit of a problem. There were only a couple of distributors in the
US, and none of them seemed to be real interested in advertising or
promoting the machine. The one with whom I am most familiar, David
Ellsworth, sold one model only and you had to pick it up to get it. But
Poolewood offered a whole range of lathes, from a small benchtop all the
way up to the monstrous Euro 3000, which had something like a 30" swing
and a 3 HP 3 phase direct drive motor. I had briefly considered talking
with them about being a distributor, but I am only about 30 miles from
David, and I did not think it would fly, or be proper.

My Euro 2000 is built like the proverbial tank. I have turned extensively
on just about every lathe on the market, including the Oneway 2436, the
big Stubbys, and other machines of this caliber. I have never been sorry
that I bought my Poolewood, or wished for something more powerful. It
holds its own easily in this crowd, and the problems I have had with it
have been minor. The run/stop and reverse switches have a tendency to get
dust in them and need to be blown out with compressed air from time to
time, and the speed potentiometer needed replacing ($12.58 for an
industrially rated one), and I bought metal locking knobs to replace the
plastic ones. It has seen very heavy turning and even some abuse both
from me and a host of students over the past six years, and it is going
like the day I bought it.

Of course, this is all academic, since the only way to get one is to find
one used, and I do not know of anyone who owns one who would be willing to
part with it. The Silverdrive company seemed to offer the promise of
carrying on in the tradition of a great lathe, but judging by the talk on
the Brit forum, I would not want one, only because of the lack of service.
I will say that whenever I needed something from Poolewood, Terry Davis
either emailed me or called me on the phone to get it all taken care of.
Now that is service!

The new Poolewood seems to be a shadow of its former self, if only from a
style point of view. My machine looks like something out of Buck Rogers,
while the new one looks like a refugee from a spare parts bin. Reports on
its performance vary widely, and I have no experience with it.

--
Bill

Bill Grumbine
www.wonderfulwood.com
www.enter.net/~ultradad

Thanks for the extensive info, Bill. As expected there is typically more to
the story than meets the eye. While I haven't really been interested in one
for purchase, I have David Ellsworth's DVD and wondered why the big blue
lathes weren't sold here. It was more a matter of curiosity than interest
in Poolewood lathes. Your info, however, was more than I anticipated. Much
appreciated.

Jeff