Tools for sale

"Moray" wrote: (clip)Another question I have is what is the difference between reeves variable speed drives and Electronic variable spped drive. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Apples and oranges. Reeves is a mechanical drive that relies on changing pulley diameters. They work okay, but also have their problems: prone to slip, prone to stick. If you get a catch that stalls the spindle, you are very likely to get a broken belt soon after that, due to the heating damage of a slipping motor pulley.

Your point about the minimum starting speed is important. It is hard to design a Reeves drive that goes slow enough.

Electronic variable speed comes in more than one variety. It can be done by clipping the AC sine wave, to reduce the power and thus lower the speed, by varying the voltage, or by varying the frequency delivered to a three phase motor.

I own a Reeves drive lathe and I like it, but if I had deeper pockets I would own and EVS lathe. Is there a difference in value? Hell yes. Although I'm sure someone can find an example to the contrary, EVS lathes (new) start around $1600, about twice what i paid for my Jet 1442 and it just goes up from there.

-Steve