Review Update: Delta 16" VS Lathe - PM/Jet VFD Info (long)

Knew about the Sorby rests, but their 9" bowl rest is also too small. Works fine on a Jet 1016 Mini, but it's a toy on this larger lathe.

Bought the "French Curl" rest because it was local, cheap, and there was a bowl on the lathe I couldn't seem to finish without. But it was still a bit shy reaching the bottom.

It's one of those maddening things that makes you want to take up blacksmithing. Another is the tool rest base. The blasted rough-ass casting is so tall, that it won't even clear a 12" bowl on a 16" swing lathe, and is one of the most recalcitrant things I've used. I'm working on a fix for the "takes two hands to move it" problem.

Now with some steel, a welder, lathe, boring setup, and some time...

Bill

Tough question to ask a non-machinist. Measures 3/4" diameter (shanked from

1") and there appear to be 6 full threads in the 3/4" depth. Imagine that would be something standard?

Follow my own. A regular 3/4 coarse off the tractor threads right up.

Prometheus wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

There are a number of such folk who hang out on the hand tool forum at

Planebuilders, metalsmiths, saw makers, hand tool specialists, etc. Steve is often there too.

The depth of knowledge is pretty impressive.

Patriarch

I'm continually : surprised that no one (that I know of) has started a little tool : factory in their garage to cater to discerning woodworkers yet. : Seems like an untapped market that gets a little bigger every year as : overall tool quality declines- though that may be just wishful : thinking.

In the domain of hand tools, there's actually been a renaissance in the last 10 years of exactly that -- small tool makers making high-end tools, originally in 1-2 person operations. These include Hock Tools, Lie-Nielsen, Independence Toolworks, several infill plane makers (Holtey, Shepard , Barr, and the list goes on. I don't know of any small poer tool makers, perhaps for the obvious practical reasons, but there's also a bunch of clever inventors who've made add-ons for power tools (safety devices; new jigs and tools for lathes; etc.).

-- Andy Barss

That was a little more towards what I was driving at- power tools. It seems like there is more and more room each year for simple, well built tools as the big companies keep trying to one-up each other by adding a laser pointer, but taking away 20 pounds of cast iron. Pretty soon, they're going to be made entirely of plastic, with CNC controllers on them. Might be a market for that, but I'd like to be able to make or buy equipment that is the same as it used to be- huge, sturdy and nearly indestructable. Don't need a computer to rotate a saw blade, but I'm always happy to see a heavier cabinet and a more powerful motor.

Now granted, they're still doing that with cabinet saws- but there are plenty of hobbists that can't afford a Unisaw (or a Oneway, as this

*is* the turning forum) that might be able to scrape up the money for something on the order of a "benchtop" saw with cast iron trunnions and handwheels (to say nothing of a decent fence!) or a Midi lathe with a heavier base and stainless handles instead of cheap plastic ones.

It's just blue-skying, but it'd be nice to see some better options on the table. At any rate, I think I'm going to give making my own tools a go- not as a business, just to have the stuff I want and the satisfaction of knowing I made it myself.

If somebody else can do it, I don't see why I wouldn't be able to.

Good enough engineering is the difference. If the fools wouldn't abuse the tools, it'd be good enough.

Obvious when you read other contributions to the forum, consisting largely of "can I get this cheaper" or is "Harbor Freight a good place to get a blurfl" that expensive tooling is not what the majority wants or cares about.

My saw has cast trunnions and a good fence, but it's not powerful or expensive enough for the tool snobs or cheap enough for the penny-pinchers. Also, regrettably, no longer made in USA. Guess everybody doesn't like something ....

Currently my only forseeable prospects as well. Can't buy it, so I'll make it - but currently limited to add-ons and such. The capital required to produce complete tools exceeds my wherewithal. And then some...

Greg G.

I'm in a relatively uncommon situation, having a full machine shop at my disposal at work and access to some awfully nice scrap metal at the same price the salvage guys pay (or free, depending on the stuff) Still doesn't make it easy, but it makes it possible.

When younger, there was a salvage yard full of aircraft aluminum and other salvage stuff right up the street. Just walking through the place would make the imagination reel with possibilities, but the lack of inert gas welding and machining equipment made the actual completion of such projects impossible. Which, I suppose, makes you one lucky sob... ;-)

Greg G.

Many things are not good enough. They're banking on the fact that most people won't know or care enough to know the difference.

That's true enough, and might be the thing that makes it an unrealistic business model for a large company. But around here, tradesmen usually exchange knowledge and products amongst each other, and when a guy makes something that is worth having, there is generally enough demand to keep him busy every weekend making one for each of the people who *do* care about quality. Doesn't translate into millions of dollars a year, but you meet some interesting people that way, and get a little extra cash in your pocket. And you might get a discount on that driveway you need poured, or that topsoil you need graded, to boot.

At this point, I'm tired of worrying about whether something is expensive or cheap. I just want things that come from real people who care about what they do, and try to avoid buying yachts and golf trips for the people who are stealing benefits and pay increases from guys like me to raise their stock value by a quarter percent. I'm not a power investor in the stock market, nor am I rapidly climbing the corporate ladder. But I do have the means of production in my hands, and that's what makes the world go round at the end of the day.

So, the guys in the white shirts and power ties can say whatever they like, and anyone is free to buy into it or not. I'm not particularly against them, I just don't need them. If Ed the mechanic gets together with Bob the machinist, Larry the farmer, Joe the carpenter and George the excavator, more often than not, each of them ends up with a good running car, cheap replacement parts, clean meat and veggies and a nice home with a well-landscaped yard at a price that they can handle without paying 18% interest for the rest of their natural lives. Microeconomics often result in higher quality goods and services at a fraction of the cost, at least as far as I've seen. It's hard to make a billion dollars by screwing each person out of fifty cents if you're only making twenty of a thing. In fact, it's usually easy enough to make it better, because it only costs you $10 out of pocket, and the goodwill that results is worth many times that.

I know I bang my drum on this subject a lot, but I'm convinced it is far more important than a lot of people realise. History shows us again and again that when too much power rests in too few hands, the greater mass of humanity suffers terribly. We are under a huge load of propiganda that sells us the idea that we must have everything, we must have it now, and we must have it cheap- and the only ones equipped to provide that for us are huge corporate entities that care little for any one person. They get the customers, end up being the main employers, and are free to lower the pay scale so that they can provide the customers cheap goods- which are all they can then afford, owing to that same lowered pay scale. A neat trick, that- and many of us are now nearly at the place where we now owe our souls to the company store.

Getting riled up and looting the Wal-Mart isn't what will solve the situation- but buying local goods and supporting local trades and arts is a good start. It goes in one ear and out the other with most people, but that is no reason to stop saying or thinking these things. A lot of good things wither and die for lack of adequate expression.

In the US, we come from people who would not meekly accept the lot handed them- the people who settled the land came from all over the world, and built the most powerful engine of wealth the world has ever seen in a period of time that is a blink of history's eye. One city and village at a time- from scratch. It's a lot to live up to when you think about it, but it's something *worth* living up to. Each and every person has something to contribute right near home- put all those skills and all that knowledge together, and you have a nice community where you don't need to worry about Delta/Porter-Cable/Black and Decker/AOL/Time-warner/Phillip Morris's agenda anymore. There's a critical mass there, and it's high time we all reach for it again.

But before any of that happens, some people need to start making these things happen individually, with the aim of making a better life- and not just accumulating a million bucks in the bank and a house full of junk. Could be me, and it probably should be. After all, if I don't stand up and try, who else is going to? Someone always has to be first. Could be you in your neck of the woods- I see no reason why it isn't possible.

If you value it, others do as well. Don't listen to shills- they're not looking out for you best interests. If you want it and can make it, make it- if you can't make it, find a real person who can, and offer them your best in return, whatever your best may be. It's the only proper way to answer tool snobs and penny-pinchers. If you meekly turn away and say it can't be helped, it will only get worse.

This is correct. Less time spent worrying about someone else's bankroll, curriculum vitae or estimate of those around her the better. Allows you to enjoy the better of the two options life presents - time or money.

Not that I would try to enforce it on anyone else, because I feel they're entitled to their life, as pitiful and meaningless as I might consider it, too.

Exactly. I don't care to tell others what they must do- not only is it senseless and offensive, but what others need or want is different than what I need and want. I'm sure some folks find great joy and meaning in things I wouldn't touch with with a thirty-foot pole, and the reverse is just as true.