lathe buying advice

I've never been impressed with King, GI looks solid and I used to that Delta, but I would include in that the small Jet/PM (which I recall is available at some locations)

I'm a pen turner that is looking for unused pen kits, pen kit parts, unfinished or broken pen kit pens, tools, or any pen making supplies.

Need this for a volunteer project, must be inexpensive.

Al

To reply to me directly: Just remove "REMOVEandADD" from my address at snipped-for-privacy@cox.net

Al... you don't need to post this every day, and what is your project?

Considering his message came from individual.net and went through servers in Germany and Belgium, I'm a mite suspicious.

Came from me in SoCA, USA?

I'm putting together a "learn to make pens" learning outing for Boys & Girls club.

Al (never been to Belgium or Germany but I'm sure they are nice)

BTW: Sorry for the double post. My first post left some stuff out so I thought I'd try it aga>>>

individual.net is a fantastic, low cost, anti-spam, no binaries, NSP based at the University of Berlin, so I'd be suspicious if his post (and this one) DIDN'T pass through servers in Germany and Belgium.

I have 2 "news" servers. One is COX cable and it is terrible!!! I subscribe to another (newsfeeds.com) that lets me access almost every newserver. What you are seeing is "newsfeeds" anonymous stuff.

You can be as suspicious as you want... doesn't hurt my feelings! It also doesn't change the fact that I live and work in the San Diego area of California, USA. I suspect that I have been "lurking" this group longer than you have been posting here? In fact if you search hard enough you might find one of my rare posts from years ago?

The world often turns out not to be as we suspect...

Al

So did mine, so what.

And your path today shows "MISMATCH". You may be perfectly legit, but I've learned to be suspicious of posters who hide behind anonymous and/or misdirecting news servers. If my suspicions are unwarranted in your case, I apologize.

If you're just trying to avoid spam, try getting a decent newsreader with good filtering ability and/or open another account that you check infrequently and use that return address in your posts (as I do with fastmail).

This is the last that I'll post on this except if anyone has any questions.

The reason that I use newsfeeds.com is for the retention and the coverage. Many people use these servers for swapping programs and staying anonymous. I don't! Unfortunately I have no choice which features I like and which I don't care about. I like newsfeeds because if there is a newsgroup that I'm interested in I only have to fire off an email message (if they don't already carry the group!) and they add it on short notice. Also, I can ignore a particular newsgroup for months and always catch up with the postings that I've missed.

That said, although it's been many months since my last postings, I'm not new here. I'm also not new to Usenet. I've been communicating in this fashion since 1989 when I had a university account. In all of my time on Usenet I've never been accused of wronging anyone! In fact, I still feel a little odd posting my wanted message. At one time time/space was so rare that posting anything for sale, for trade, or even wanted was severely frowned upon. Now it is the norm, unfortunately, and we have to wade through a mountain of s#1t to get to the nuggets if information and discussion. I often get so burned out by the garbage that I take a few months away.

Al

OK, you've quieted my suspicions. BTW, before Usenet there was Fido and I participated in that. In fact, I started programming computers in 1956. So I'm not some young whippersnapper sniping at my elders. Although as creaky as I'm getting, I sometimes wish I was :-).

rasberry.... i'm a turner in Calgary and have been turning for a number = of years now....started with an old coronet late...went to a union = jubillee full size...sold that...got a jet...and now own a General =

25-200....advise...if you think you may get hooked..look at the general = 200 vs the 100...the differences are substantial...if you can justify = the small price difference having variable speed and a more powerful = moter, more weight, are well worth while....over the years the cost will = seem incidental....this 200 machine turns as well as anything I have = worked on...if you get hooked you're going to want to upgrade sooner = rather than later....check it out and happy shavings to you!!!!

Ken

...this 200 machine turns as well as anything I have

I also have the 200 - you forgot to mention the swivel head and the outboard 18" swing. It's a great lathe.

But General has had some problems with the speed control circuitry. My first one didn't work out of the box, the second one lasted for a year. I'm now on the 3rd and keeping my fingers crossed.

But General is very good about service and is now offering a limited lifetime waranty. So if you're willing to take a chance on an occasional outage, it's still a great lathe.

I too have the same General, the first controller failed even before I start using it. The company that's sell it to me replaced it immediately. Now, after using it for less than a month the controller look like it's going to failed soon. The two years warranty coming up very shortly, what should I do (call the seller or General)? Further, anyone know what's wrong with the controller and maybe replacing certain parts in the circuit board?

Thanks

Hi Larry,

Did you also buy the bed extension, any good? Further, do you have any suggestion for a lathe duplicator for this lathe. I use this lathe for turn parts like pen and small objects?

Thanks

No, I didn't get the extension, but it's hard to really screw up what is just a milled chunk of cast iron :-).

I have no experience or info on a duplicator.

As I mentioned, I've been happy with General's service, so if you're having trouble call them.

And if anyone who has one of these lathes is, or has a friend who is, an EE we'd all like to know what he/she thinks of the circuitry.

No EE but electronincs tech I am. Also a professional machinist ( more than you needed to know, I'm sure). The only reason(s) that I would ever own an electronic variable speed lathe are: (1) It was cheap. (2) It was easily convertable to step pully drive. EVS is a (very, very) minor convenience. Speeds for turning wood are VERY non criticle. What are you going to do ten years down the road when it stops working and there are no replacements?

Get it repaired? I can't imagine the kinds of components on the board (yes I've looked at it) becoming unavailable. In fact, the board looks a lot like some model railroad throttles - Hmmmmmm :-).

Why did I choose this lathe? I have a tiny shop/shed. The only place for a lathe is on top of a storage cabinet in one corner. The General was the biggest lathe I could find that would fit in the space.

By reversing the bed so that the outboard tool rest was on the tailstock end, I can turn an 18"+ bowl. Nothing else that fit would swing over 12".

Because of the mounting space and my ancient back muscles, the swivel head is a great advantage. Turning outboard would have been almost acceptable, but even there swinging a tool handle to the far right runs into the wall.

As far as the utility of variable speed, I belong to a turners association and I'd guess most of the members own lathes with variable speeds. We have demonstrations at every meeting and the speed control on the club lathe (Powermatic) always gets a workout :-). I can see where variable speed would be less needed for someone who mainly does spindle turning.

Finally, the General was not only the biggest lathe I could fit in, it was by far the heaviest. That sucker just doesn't vibrate! And the price, while more than the other minis on the market, was a lot less than some full size lathes with less features.

Those are my reasons. YMMV. I still consider myself a novice at turning, so nobody should take my comments as gospel.

PS: A friend has the large General lathe and he loves it. It has not had any problems with speed control.

Hi Larry is your email real, like to email you? :-)