Rikon 70-100 Mini Lathe

It's hard to beat for the money. Where I worked there were 3 Rikons and

3 equivalent Jets in the classroom that have been in use for classes for over 5 years. They are all still running. Either are a good buy. I liked the Rikons better because they had a 12" swing vs a 10" swing on the Jet and the Rikon was easier to change belts on.

But in fairness to Jet they have since come out with a slightly larger version with a 12" swing and they can be purchased (at higher cost) with an electronic variable speed control.

For a little more money, take a look at:

That's what I bought and I'm more than satisfied. It'll delay the time when you "just have to" have a full size lathe much more than either the Rikon or the Jet. But if you don't know yet if you'll like turning, the Rikon is the best bet.

Last time I looked I wasn't infallible so take the above as one man's opinion :-).

Well, it has the tailstock design I hate, but most of its friends (ie, Jet mini, etc) copy the same piddle-poor design, so not a lot to choose from there until you find one that does not. I haven't used one - I just look at that tailstock (whoever happens to be cranking it out) and know it's functionally poor (wrong angle for the stresses involved, mass in the wrong places - designed for cheapness, in all the senses of cheapness).

The general maxi-lathe mentioned in another reply has a better tailstock design - not back-angled and with the mass on the outside of it. Any lathe from the 1950's has a better tailstock design (well, excepting the shopsmith, a sub-optimal design I've used a lot, and don't love for that.)

Partly also depends what, even as a beginner, you want to turn - you can do small stuff on a big lathe, but not vice versa.

I'm prone to advise looking long and hard for a good used lathe, but people rarely seem to listen. They are simple tools with little to go wrong if built correctly, which are far too prone to have had the design cheapened in "shiny new from China" examples. There are thousands of used units which used to be in high schools that are either already in perfect shape, or that can be brought to perfect shape, literally better than you can buy new, now, with new bearings and perhaps a variable speed motor upgrade (or, if even cheaper because equipped with a 3 phase motor, simply adding a variable frequency drive that takes 1 phase and produces 3 phase.) Look for delta/rockwell, yates-american, powermatic etc. - The good old names, lots of cast iron, annoying to move. Look for estate sales. I've had lathes practically given to me when people wanted them out of a house before a sale, with all the associated tooling.

Just as a feel for the shape of the not-new landscape:

I don't know where you are at, but looking at a craigslist "local" to my area, there are a bunch of used wood lathes available for less money that that goes for. Some are kinda bad, of course. Here's a nice-looking old one with a good tailstock shape, and it includes tools (perhaps even a chuck, though it does not say that) and a stand (no, it's not mine) for $225

And a newfangled one with tools and pen stuff (and that sucky tailstock shape) for $250 (also not mine, I haven't got any for sale): I learned to turn on a shopsmith, so perfection is not required - but it sure speeds the learning curve _not_ to have to work around the deficiencies of a lathe. Ruth (haven't see her here in a while) learned on a craftsman mono-tube (yes, actually worse than a shopsmith) if I recall correctly, and several other folks have dredged the bottom of Horrible Fright's barrel when looking for least investment to try it out. They probably would have done better used, if avoiding HF used (sometime for more than HF new prices...) If at all possible, try to find someone (through here, though a woodworking club, through a local class, put an ad up on craigslist or your local paper) that you could actually visit and turn some stuff with before you delve too far into shopping.

agree with all of above - my first lathe was a monotube craftsman that I paid $5 for. You can buy a decent used wood lathe for $25, you can make one for not much more if you have any assembly skill - a pair of pillow blocks, a piece of steel for a spindle, and a washing machine motor - for bowl work you don't even need a tailstock

I've got the JET Mini VS (variable speed) that has a smaller swing (10 vs 12), less distance between centers (14 vs 16) and no indexing. On the other hand, it has variable speed, a feature that's handy when roughing out of balance chunks of wood. If you think you'll be trying multi-center and eccentric turning, variable speed rather than fixed speeds that require pulley changes is let's you dial up the speed 'til the shaking and wobbling begin - then dialing back 'til it doesn't. Because it's so easy to dial in speeds, I do. If it's a hassle to change speeds - your probably won't. I do wish my JET had the indexing feature, but given a choice of having VS and no indexing, or indexing and no VS - I'd go with VS again.

Re: the tail stock design Mini lathes aren't intended for turning big heavy pieces - to begin with

- or end with. To give you a bit more between centers space, they slope back - away from the headstock. Not the strongest arrangement, as Ecnerwal pointed out, but most of us, especially who use a Mini lathe, don't need the extra strength in the tail stock. What we need is more between centers distance and the Slants Back tail stock gives you a couple more inches between centers than a more robust tail stock arrangement.

I'm normally in the Buy Once, Cry Once school - get the best you can afford - and stretch that a bit on the higher side. You'll get over the Sticker Shock thing pretty quickly. With most woodworking power tools, the difference in price between an Entry Level and Full Size, Full Features is usually only a factor of three to five times - a $500 contractors table saw vs a $2000 cabinet saw. With lathes the price difference is more dramatic $400 for a good entry level lathe, vs $6K for a Stubby, OneWay, Robust, etc.

There have been a few times I wish I had a bigger, beefier lathe. But I've been able to do all sorts of turnings I didn't know could be done on a lathe when I first got into turning. Some took a little longer than if I had a bigger lathe and BIG things aren't possible at all (36" diameter plates, pool cues, table legs, etc.) But there are a hell of a lot of piece you can turn - on a mini - that'll keep you having fun for a long while.

See if Rikon has a variable speed Mini - and seriously consider that one,