A young lad who is interested in woodturning has asked me to find out whether the Axminster M900 Variable Speed Lathe is any good. Does anyone have any experience of this, is it good value and does it suffer from any particular drawbacks?
Any comments would be welcome.
snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com
When mine was delivered, the owner's manual included was the one for the Jet JWL 1234 model, which is apparently identical. You may be able to get some more info from users of that lathe.
The M900 is used here (in France) for basic training in a number of crafts schools. My experience (I'm not a very prolific turner) has been good on the whole. The stand, while OK, could do with some reinforcement or weight to stabilise it; the toolrest adjustment is convenient, but does need occasional tweaking to stay put. No shortage of power even roughing out bowl blanks in green oak over the bed, or with the variable speed system.The latter is a bit stiff to move, but otherwise very convenient indeed; the lever when on the highest speed setting sometimes gets in the way of tool handles. The device for rotating the motor to allow outboard turning works OK, but doesn't feel particularly solid, and may wear out in hard use. I haven't used it much. Some screws tend to vibrate out, but nothing particularly bad; an occasional tweak or some loctite deals with that.
I had one serious problem with the motor, the wiring had been badly fitted inside the cowling, and the insulation on one wire wore through and shorted; it was fairly difficult to get the motor out to resolve the difficulty.
If I were to start all over again, I would probably buy a lathe with a shorter bed, as I have never used anything like the whole available length. If I did use the full length, however, I would be quite prepared to repeat the experience.
HTH
only one p in my real address / un seul p dans ma véritable adresse
Re this earlier post: the Jet model number should be 1236, not 1234>>
only one p in my real address / un seul p dans ma véritable adresse
Peter pretty well addressed the benefits and shortcomings of this lathe. It is one of the several clones of the Jet 1236, and shares it's traits. One evil that Peter left out, or may not have experienced, is the problem with the toolrest extension. It is used with the headstock rotated away from the lathe bed centerline. It not only prone to excess vibration, but breakage of the cast piece. This limits the benefit of the rotating headstock, but this is a good entry level lathe, and under several names has been used by many turners. As Peter noted, the lathe stand frame needs to be reinforced (1/2 or 3/4 inch plywood or MDF screwed to the angle iron stand on the sides and back make it much more ridgid, and a shelf can be added to the stand cross braces for added weight.) Just remember that this is not a heavy duty production machine, but if you understand the limitations and don't expect Oneway performance, then it is a good investment IMHO. YMMV
Ken Moon Webberville, TX.
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