New club lathe

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

My club are thinking of buying a new lathe.
We are thinking of getting an Axminster AH-1218VS
Has anyone used one? I would appreciate honest comments about it before spending members money.
Regards
John BHT

[Andy Coates]

It's a good lathe, John. Good capacity and a strong well torqued motor with VS. You can't do BIG on it, but more than enough as a club/demonstration lathe.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Thanks Andy,
                  that's all I need to know.
Regards
John BHT

[John D Smith]

Hello John,
              One of our members has just purchased this lathe I went with him to our local Axminster Store to advise and get the discount

the one thing we didn't  like was the hand wheel at the left hand side of the headstock was covered by the cover otherwise he is pleased with it.

                                                            Regards John

[Doug Barratt]

Not intended to throw the cat amongst the pigeons & it`s not exactly the same model, but the club I go to bought a similar Axminster lathe about a year ago & the half dozen or so "pros" who have demonstrated on it have grumbled about one thing or another about it whilst demo`ing.

At least 2 have struggled with it slowing down whilst taking a cut, though whether that was because they were trying to turn something outside the limits of the lathe I don`t know, but they weren't turning large pieces. Others have complained about the amount of vibration, it is on what I believe to be the corresponding Axminster stand.

As I say it`s not the same model & they are certainly value for money, presumably that`s why our club opted for the lathe.

Perhaps as this lathe is going to be in front of all your members & hence free advertising for them, it might be a good idea to ask Axminster if you could try one of their demo lathes at your club, got to be worth a phone call explaining you want a club lathe, at least then you can form your own opinions.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Thanks Doug,
                 food for thought.
Regards
John BHT

[Andy Coates]

when considering "club lathes" Vs the reaction of "Pro Turners" you need to keep in mind that most of them (myself included) will work on 2 or 3 HP lathes in their own workshops. So stopping a small lathe mid cut is far from unusual. A good pro turner will accommodate the lack of power with both the project he choses to demonstrate, and the depth and speed of cuts used throughout the demonstration.

If you are trying to provide a lathe of sufficient capacity and power to suit all "pro" turners be prepared to spend a lot more money, upgrade your insurance, and provide a bigger storage facility.

[Dave Atkinson]

Hello john
our club noughtbyhe axminster 1416vs after seeing mine in action.  I am very imoressed with its performance.
cheers dave

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Thankyou all for your replies.
         
I am always conscious that as chairman of my branch one of my duties is the safeguarding of the member's funds,and alongside the treasurer ensuring that those funds are spent with full consideration to the members and the situation in hand.
To this effect it has been decided to test both of our existing club lathes on each speed and assess the suitability of them for club purposes. This will allow my committee to make a valued judgement as to whether we will replace them or not, perhaps we/I should have done this in the first place.
     I may already know the answer as one motor is 375W and the one we are after is 500W but as you buy the best you can afford at the time that is what we had/will get.
I will give a report about our findings.
Regards
John BHT

[Derwent Woodturning club]

Hello john
our club noughtbyhe axminster 1416vs after seeing mine in action.  I am very imoressed with its performance.
cheers dave

Hi John,
I totally agree with Dave Atkinson. Our club has two Axminster 1416VS's, a Record 305 and a Charnwood variable speed and the Axminsters are far superior. The key difference is the 1416's use three phase motors with frequency control to vary the speed, giving virtually full power at all speeds. The Charnwood uses a DC motor with pulse width modulation for speed control and consequently can't deliver true full power as the speed is lowered. And bear in mind most lathes specify the motor power as the input power, not the output power, so don't just compare the numbers.

If you can't afford a three phase variable speed lathe, ( I do appreciate they are a lot more expensive) I would save your money and buy a better pulley speed-change lathe. Variable speed is a nice luxury but other factors may be more important - larger swing, longer bed, better build quality.

I also agree with one of the other posts about not having an outboard handwheel, one reason I don't like our Record 305.

In my opinion the best advice given was to ask suppliers to loan lathes to you and give them a try. That's good PR for the supplier, as members are likely to go for the same/similar lathes when they are in the market for one, so the supplier is likely to pickup lots of future business.

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

So, today three committee members from the club put the 2 lathes under test.
We subjected each lathe to an unnaturally hard and deep cut, in effect trying to stop the lathe. Although we did succeed in stopping the lathe each time,it was considered that such an extreme cut was unlikely to be made under normal circumstances. This was carried out at various speed/pulley settings.
    As Andy pointed out in his reply here" A good pro turner will accommodate the lack of power with both the project he choses to demonstrate, and the depth and speed of cuts used throughout the demonstration." And I would add that his tools would be sharp too.( as should everyone's tools)
      We did find though that the Bristol levers made of plastic were rubbish so we decided to upgrade them on both machines. We also took into consideration how many times a year the lathes are used(and for what)and weighed up any pros and cons we could think of.(storage etc.).
In conclusion we decided that the lathes we have are fit for the purpose we brought them for and so we would stick with them, save the money which could have been in the region of £600 and book an extra 1 or 2 demonstrators.
I am glad we undertook this test as I am always concerned, when spending club members money, that it is done with the best interests of the members in mind.
So thankyou all for your contribution (PM's too) it has been a valuable and worthwhile exercise. If you are booked to come and demo at my club and use our machines we will now judge how good you are by the number of times you stop the lathe!

[Derwent Woodturning club]

Hi John,

Thanks for the comprehensive update on your club lathe assessment. Just out of interest, what lathes are you using in the club? They obviously do the job, but need a bit of consideration as to how hard they can be worked.

If I am down your way, I will try and visit, and try and stop your lathe
Regards,
Paul

[The Bowler Hatted Turner]

Thanks Paul. The two lathes we have are Axminster AWVSL and AWSL and we were going to replace them with other Axminster lathes which surely must say something about APT.
 I know there are clubs out there with fantastic lathes (I have demoed on some of them)but we questioned the need for  a larger more powerful machine, the likes of which our branch members are never likely to own and the fact that a fairly expensive machine will spend most of it's life stood idle. We also came to the conclusion that more members would benefit from 2 cheaper machines than 1 expensive machine.
     When the club first started in 2008 we could not afford club lathes and relied on members taking their own lathes in for hands on nights, we still do but now we have 2 more. We only use them probably 6 times a year if that and then only 2-3 hours , so for less than 20 hours of use a year we think we have what we need but when we purchased them we got what we could afford at the time.
  As an aside to Paul's comment, if any of you are down in this neck of the woods(Wiltshire) on the 2nd Thursday of the month you are than welcome to come and spend club night with us.
Regards
John BHT