Thanks for all your help on buying a lathe and welcoming me to the group

Moray - I wouldn't wait tooooo long to get a lathe. Get one you are comfortable with as far as price goes and make sure you really like turning. Then you can also decide what you want to see as far as features go, and what size turnings you want to make.

I know a couple of guys that never turn anything over about 6-8" on their big Powermatic 3520. I never understood why the bought that much machine, except that the guys in our club prodded them into believing that was the lathe they HAD to have.

You can easily turn small bowls on a midi lathe, and there are many different affordable models out there.

A good point that was made by Prometheus in an earlier post, is the scarcity of good, used lathes. These are rare. I looked for years to find a big grey hunk of iron like I turned on in high school in the very early seventies. Not only could I not find anything close at a reasonable price, I couldn't find anything!

I looked and waited for about three years (or more), then bought a Nova 3000 before they quit making them.

Many people have the big, high quality lathes, but they don't want to sell them as they represent quite an investment. Unless they are upgrading, I think it hurts their feelings to sell something they used to like so much. Even to this day, I NEVER see good Powermatics, Oneways, Records, Generals, etc. for sale as a used tool.

At any rate, thing of it this way. Every day you wait is one you can't turn on a nice lathe!

Welcome to the group. Hope you post often and let us all know what you are up to.

Robert

There's a lot to be said in favor of a midi lathe. I was able to turn approx 8" diameter bowls on mine, and never had any problems with it at all. I'd still be using it, if the opportunity to get the big one secondhand hadn't happened to fall in my lap. Even if you want to do spindle work, a guy can buy bed extensions for them.

Either that, or Arch has been running around hammering blanks on them when the spur center was in, and wrecked all the bearings. :)

My actual contribution to this is that you should not get discourgaged by the shiny projects other guys may be doing. There's a secret to that- sandpaper and patience. While a really *good* turner may be able to get the result with less work and dust, anyone can make something that looks like a million bucks with a bit of patience.

(*psst* you don't have to use only oil and wax as finishes, either- they're not that durable, and you can get a nice finish much more easily with other products! At least 80% of the *wow* factor in any piece is the topcoat- so don't cheat yourself by sticking to some arbitrary set of rules that come from who knows where.)

to get the big one

And that new General midi with the swivel head will turn 18" outboard.