HF 34706 Wood Lathe

I have had one of these lathes for about 2 years now and have good luck with it. Keep your tools sharp and it does a good job IMO. The stand is a little light but added weight on the base takes care of that. I got mine on sale for $169.00 and bought the 8 piece $39.99 tool set and I am haveing a ball. I think for the price if you don't know whether you will like woodturning, it's a good buy.

Mike

Mike,

I got mine for 199.00 tried to get it for 179.00 but they said due to the oil and steel prices he couldnt do that. So no biggie I bought it and the same chisel set as you along with the 1 yr warranty.

So I amgoingto startmessing with it this upcoming weekend.

Thanks Gregg

Gregg wrote:

As with the other two responses, it is a good lathe to begin with. Be careful of the motor.

I have had three of these, plus one: 1. Bought from HF catalog, because there wasn't a store in my are at the time. It lasted about three years (but had not used it a lot) and the motor burned up. 2. Gave me a whole new appreciation of HF. I contacted my local HF store and asked if I could do a motor swapout for my burned motor on #1. I told him I was willing to buy the motor but did not want to wait for shipping time. He said, "How long have you had it?" to which I replied, "About three years." His reply was totally unexpected. He said, "I think I can help you. Bring in your old lathe, buy a two year warranty and I will replace it." Got a whole new lathe for $49.45 3. Six months later the motor burned up. HF offered a variable speed lathe for awhile, so I decided to replace the 34706 with the variable speed. The first arrived damaged (should have kept it). The second had the varispeed circuit blow up. 4. Meanwhile I had returned #2 to the local HF store, echanged it for another 34706 and sold it to a friend of mine who is just starting out in woodturning. It was not as good as my JET 1442 in any way. But it is a great lathe to start out on. The recomendation on the gouges from HF is also good. They also have a combination high speed dry and low speed wet grinder that is worth the $39.95. PennState has a set of nice tools (the spindle gouge and bowl gouge are backwards spindle is long and the bowl short, which may account for its price)for $59.95.

Another good thing about HF is that the parts are cheap. Their 6" face plate makes a good backing for a piece of 12" MDF to make an effective 12" disk sander mounted on your lathe.

Deb

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I've had one of these for about 3 years now. It is a clone of the Jet 1236, and if it's like a lot of other "Chiwanese" products, the castings may come from the same foundries. The fit and finish are not up to Jet standards, but you can do a little filing and sanding to pretty it up considering the $400 difference. From reports here over the years, the motor may be suspect, but that's the case in most Chinese products that I've seen, they do seem to be improving, and if you bought their warranty, they're good about replacing anything that fails. Just don't try to muscle the chisels too much and you should get good results from it. I have heard some reports of "sticky" operation of the Reeves (variable speed) drive in cold weather. Again, I've had no problem there ...yet.

The HSS tool set from HF is pretty good, but they have no bowl gouge, so you're on your own for that, but you have dozens of choices there from the usual turning suppliers. Then you can also look at doing some of your own tools for additional applications.

Overall, I think this is probably the most lathe per dollar you can get, unless you find the Jet Mini at a good sale price, but it's a whole different machine, with less capacity than the HF machine. My opinion .... others differ.

Ken Moon Webberrville, TX

"Ken Moon" wrote: (clip) I have heard some reports of "sticky" operation of the Reeves (variable speed) drive in cold weather. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ That's because it's a clone of the Jet 1236. There have been many discussions here about this problem, which, I believe, is actually characteristic of all Reeves drives. The best way to cope with it is to keep it clean and lubed. Don't wait for it to get stuck--it's a lot easier to keep it working than to get it working again.

"Leo Lichtman" wrote in news:fLh9e.610123$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:

I agree with the group... It is a great lathe for the money! I just burned up my first motor on it but it's already paid for itself a couple of times over. I'm waiting for my new motor right now. I'll just keep replacing motors in it for now but will invest in a higher dollar lathe in a couple of years when we plan to move to larger accomidations (With a larger shop of course!)

One question I have for the group... I believe the motor I just burned up was a 1/2hp. The replacement per the manual looks to be a 3/4hp. Does anyone know if there was a change in the last couple of years to the power on these?

A suggestion on the reeves drive, I had some problem with it being sticky at the beginning but made 2 changes that really helped. I used a silcone based lube spray on the shaft and springs of the reeves sheaves and changed the belt to the Link Belt. The only time I had problems with it sticking was when the shop temperatur dropped below 20 degrees f.

SNIP.....

==================== I've had mine for about 3 years, and I think it's a 3/4 HP.

Ken Moon Webberville,TX