Lathes sold in Canada - King or Craftex opinions

well, you may get specific advice from some folks in your area, but from my perspective, neither of these will be suitable for what you want - the minimum speed is way too fast. You would be much better served by a used and larger/heavier lathe - even in Canada you could buy a used lathe, a used

3 phase 2 or 3 hp motor and a surplus variable frequency drive and spend about the same amount of money but have a very much better lathe. I would suggest that you start looking at "price is no object" lathes, not to buy, but to understand what features really excite you. And join a turning club and turn a few things, so you can find out something before you buy. If you must buy first, I'd suggest starting with a mini-lathe, used if possible - with the plan to upgrade in a year or two.

a quick review of the specs says that the lathes must be just about the same thing, by the way, so if you had to choose between the two, choose either on price, or the vendors reputation for service

They look like the same lathe. I'm not familiar with Craftex, but King is a mid to low range power tool line.

As a beginner (like me) either would be fine, I'd think, as long as you understand that woodturning is a disease of the central nervous system and that shortly after acquiring the lathe you will have spent twice that on turning tools and a chuck.

As noted, these are really the same lathe. Both firms are importers and get most of their tools from Taiwan or China. Interestingly BusyBee is reported to be owned by the brother the guy that owns Grizzly Tools (which sells a similar lathe)

I also would look for a better (maybe used) lathe. How good is Craigs List in your area?

I'm not familiar with those brands, but I have a General variable speed mini-lathe that I'm quite happy with. General is a Canadian company, but the lathe is imported as, according to other responses, are the ones you mentioned. The Geveral will do an 18" bowl using the outboard tool rest. Here's a link:

One hint if you do buy it. I flipped the bed around so the outboard tool rest is on the tailstock end. That way I can just slide the head down to that end instead of rotating it 180 degrees. Less fuss with the cord.

My only direct experience with King products was a miter saw which was so awful I returned it a week later. I had a look at some more King products in my local KMS Tools including a bench grinder and a metal lathe. I rejected them both. Shoddy and overpriced was my impression.

Craftex is the very low end of machinery. I bought their 4x6 metal band saw on sale, There were a few minor issues with it but it cuts rather well. I am in the process of assessing their 9x20 lathe. One of the issues I have discovered is that the description on the web site is incomplete and the manual (also on their web site) does not correspond exactly to the machine they sell. Thus if you do decide to buy the Craftex make really sure that you know what is included.

Then there is the Busy Bee customer service. The opinions vary. I have had no problems dealing with minor stuff in the past but now I am entering a process of dealing with some warranty issues and it is too early to tell how that will turn out.

Grizzly (relative of Busy Bee) now ships to Canada, but only UPS (as per their web site) and quite expensive. Their customer service is said to be very good. Personally I do not buy from any US firm that ships only by UPS to Canada.

FWIW I bought the Delta 46-460 from Busy Bee and so far it has performed flawlessly.