Choosing your first lathe - Tool Guide

Wood turning has its roots in the production of furniture parts such as table and chair legs, household treen ware (items made of wood) and decorative turning.

Over the past 25 years the creative artistic development of the craft especially in the USA and Britain prompted manufactures re-design and produce new more versatile wood turning lathes and tools. This coupled with the proliferation of YouTube channels dedicated exclusively to the craft has inspired many people take up the hobby. This blog post will be the first in a four-part series that will provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision regarding your entry into wood turning.

Fig. 1: BPM’s own in-house Artistic Wood turner, Johan Pieterse, in action

It goes without saying that the equipment that you will need can be quite pricey. Opting for a budget lathe and tools, however, can make for a very frustrating and unhappy experience and result in expensive upgrades as your needs grow. Saving and investing in quality equipment is a sound principle that applies as much to wood turning as it does in many other areas of life.

It is essential that you match your wood-turning ambitions to your budget. Large turning projects like live-edge bowls require large, powerful lathes potentially with a swinging head and electronic speed control, while turning smaller items like delicate vases, boxes, pens, jewellery and pepper grinders can be done on small lathes. If you want to turn legs for tables and chairs you need to have a lathe with a sufficiently large distance between centres although the swing (height of the main spindle above the lathe bed) will be less critical.

Components of the Wood turning Lathe

Fig. 2: The Laguna Revo 2436 is currently available from BPM Toolcraft on special order. Familiarising yourself with the parts and terminology will be invaluable as you search for your ideal lathe.

Important Specifications

• Bed length – maximum length of workpiece that can be accommodated between the headstock and the tailstock centres
• Swing – the distance between the centre of the headstock spindle and the lathe bed. This determines the maximum radius of the workpiece your lathe can take. The caveat is that the lathe’s power is also critical when turning large, heavy pieces.

Fig. 3: The full-size Creative Turning CT200VS2 is a fully featured lathe will meet most wood turner’s needs. You can mount any project including large bowls, platters, big furniture legs, and basically any unbalanced chunk of wood.

• Motor power – more is mostly better especially if you are planning on turning large, unbalanced pieces of timber. Typically, motor power will range from around 500 W (1/3 HP) in a mini pen-turning lathe to 2 200 W (3 HP) in a large, floor-standing lathe.

Fig. 4: The Creative Turning CT175VS1 is a mid-sized variable speed lathe with a 178 mm swing over the bed and 520 mm between centres.

• Drive and speed control
  • Belt driven lathes that come with an AC motor will require you to change the belt to different pulley combinations to change the speed. They are referred to as “speed lathes” instead of “variable speed lathes”.
  • Variable or Electronic Variable Speed (EVS) wood lathes have a DC motor and a switch or knob to control the speed, so you don’t need to change the belt manually.
  • Reeves Variable speed drives work like motor car CVT transmissions. These drives require more maintenance and the frequent changing of the belt but a simple lever on the headstock changes the pulleys for almost an infinite range of speeds.
  • VFD or Variable Frequency Drive wood lathe that allows you to use a three phase motor on a single phase power source. This setup is excellent for producing high torque when you are turning on low-speed.
• Spindle thread – this is one of the most critical considerations as it will determine what chucks and other accessories your lathe can accommodate. Globally, the imperial standard of 1 in x 8 TPI (threads per inch) is found usually in small to medium sized lathes. 1 ¼ in x  8 TPI  and  M33 is the standard in large lathes. Many older (50 years or more) and the low cost hobby lathes available in South Africa have non-standard spindles like ¾ in x 16 TPI, 1 in x 10 TPI, 1 in x 12 TPI and ¾ in x 10 TPI. If this is the path you choose to follow be aware that adapters to fit four-jaw chucks are not easily available and will need to be machined by an engineering shop to accommodate the non-standard thread sizes.
• The negative side of using spindle adapters is that it places the spindle further away from the headstock creating more leverage which can lead to vibration.

Fig. 4: This photograph clearly illustrates a typical spindle with a hollow taper.

• Morse tapers – all good quality lathes have a tapered headstock spindle and tailstock barrel to accommodate a variety of accessories which include spur or crown drives and mandrels for pen turning. Mini lathes typically use Morse Taper 1 and larger lathes use Morse Taper 2. Budget lathes often do not have hollow spindles and this can severely limit the usability of the lathe.

Other important features

• Weight matters - vibration is one of the most common issues a wood turner faces. The lathe should have sufficient mass to resist movement. Ideally is should be bolted down to the floor or bench on which it is located.
• Materials – most woodturning lathes are made of cast iron which is great at absorbing vibration. Sometimes other materials such as machined steel or stainless-steel is used for lathe beds and when paired with cast iron legs they are very efficient at dampening vibration.
• Headstock Features
  • Reverse Switch – the reverse is an extra advantage feature to have especially when you are working with a bowl.
  • Spindle indexing and lock – this allows you to lock the spindle in various positions to create different patterns and flutes. Most of the modern standard lathes have an indexing option. It has the added benefit of making it easier to lock the spindle and remove items such as the four-jaw chuck.
  • Sliding Headstock – a sliding or rotating headstock is another excellent feature for outboard turning.
  • Remote control for emergency stop – it can sometimes be dangerous to reach around a large spinning log to stop the machine. But, with a remote control on-off switch you could place it anywhere close to hand.
  • Hand wheel – this lets you rotate the spindle easily when the lathe is turned off.
• Access door to pulley wheels - the pulley door needs to be easy to open and accessible to make the speed changes more convenient for manual speed changing lathes.
• Tailstock – this supports the workpiece on the other end of the headstock and allows it to turn supported between the headstock and tailstock. It should slide easily along the lathe bed and lock down firmly. The tailstock barrel should also have a Morse taper hole through it to hold the live centre to support the workpiece.

• Banjo and Tool Rest
  This is a vital piece of equipment on a woodturning lathe. It supports the cutting tool and takes an enormous amount of force as the cutting edge of a gouge is held against the wood and the wood exerts an opposite force. It should lock down firmly and move easily when needed. Tool rests with a stainless-steel sliding surface allow the cutting tools to move smoothly without any hook-ups that are sometimes experienced on those made of cast iron.

Next time: Holding the Wood on the Lathe