New lathe upgrade

[SimonGibson]

Upgrading my lathe.

I have got to the point that need to upgrade from my Axminster hobby lathe to something more substantial and that will be able to carry my woodturning through to new levels. I have been looking around and would appreciate any comments of my comparisons and all advice.

I have listed what I can think of as my criteria to do a comparison.

What is a must.
1.   Built in the UK as I firmly believe in bringing industry back to the UK and will be more relaxed that the build quality will be good. This I think narrows it down to Axminster and Record as the Charnwood lathes are designed in the UK but built in Asia I do not know any other lathes built in the UK.
2.   Should be able to handle at least a 24” blank between centres.
3.   Bed extension available.
4.   Swivel head so that bigger bowls can be turned not over the bed.
5.   At least a 750W motor but also not too big to be wasting power.
6.   Electronic variable speed.

Nice to have
1.   Indexing system
2.   Reveres function (yet I do not know what the point is besides maybe removing a blank from a screw chuck)


I have attached a photo of my search of what I have found.

Any advise will be welcome and thank you in advance.

[bodrighywood]

Lots of lthes that fulfillall ylour requirements apart from the first one. Axminster claim that their goods are manufactured in the UK but not sure just how much of it is actually made here and how much imported and put together. Record tend to get things made abroad as well nowadays. Hopefully someone with a bit more inside knowledge will come on and give you more specific answers.

Pete

[Paul Hannaby]

I think most if not all the Record and Axminster lathes are made in China. There may be some "assembly" in the UK...

[Mike313]

If your heart is set on buying a British lathe, why not shop around for an old British-made lathe? Or maybe consider a refurbished Union Graduate with variable speed and a 1 or 1.5HP motor as offered by LRE Engineering? Try this link:

http://www.woodturninglathes.co.uk/products.html

[bodrighywood]

If your heart is set on buying a British lathe, why not shop around for an old British-made lathe? Or maybe consider a refurbished Union Graduate with variable speed and a 1 or 1.5HP motor as offered by LRE Engineering? Try this link:

http://www.woodturninglathes.co.uk/products.html

Good idea, probably get a far better quality item that way.

Pete

[Bill21]

I think most if not all the Record and Axminster lathes are made in China. There may be some "assembly" in the UK...

Some of the Axminster ones come from Taiwan. What’s somewhat annoying is that most of the fasteners used on them are Imperial to appeal to the American market. I have the Taiwan made AT1416VS and most of the fittings are UNC.

If you want a non Far East made lathe then you can get OneWay lathes that are made in Canada or American Beauty made in the USA. The Germans seem to sell rebadged Far East products like everyone else but I think some may be made in Germany.

[Redwill]

Suggest you look at the Vicmarc,  VL175 ( used) or better still the newer 240 range -   Not UK made but in my humble opinion a league above those you mentioned but gives the rest of your desires.       Nothing wrong with the others but few years back when I visited Record several years back one of their workshop engineers advised me to change as many of the screws and bolts to better quality ones as the far eastern ones  were fundamentally soft and easily damaged especially when trying to extract after time.  I went from Record to Vicmarc and found and marked difference from the extra bed weight and hence stability.

[Duncan A]

As others have said, finding a genuinely British-built lathe will be very difficult. I believe Record Power are moving some of their manufacturing back to the UK but I suspect only a limited subset of their product range, for now at least.

Must Item 5: power or, more importantly, torque is particularly important with electronic variable speed. You won't waste measurable amounts of power by having a bigger motor as motors take only as much power as they need, but you'll be glad of the extra oomph when turning larger items. Your workshop lighting may well make a bigger difference over time.

Nice Item 2: The reverse function is most commonly used for sanding or for outboard turning where there is a spindle on both sides of the headstock (Oneway), or by left-handed turners who find it easier to turn with the headstock to their right.

Go for the biggest and best that you can afford!
Duncan

[Danny]

I have a Vicmarc 175 build year 2003 I believe in Australia with most if not all of your listed specifications.
Check out the Simon hope woodturning site. He stocks everything Vicmarc.
I've had no problems with this lathe.

Dan

[SimonGibson]

Firstly thank you all for you input and advice, I have just realised that posing a question here opens up a lot of good feedback and a good learning curb.

@ bodrighywood After reading your response I did some more digging into Axminster and found this https://community.axminstertools.com/t/so-where-is-the-axminster-hobby-ts-200-table-saw-actually-made/601 which I found interesting and that lead me onto checking through the AT406WL user manual to find that it comes from Taiwan. Following that I have noticed on the Axminster site if looking through chuck jaws all that I have looked at now have a Made In Britain log which is missing from the individual lathe pages.

@ Paul Hannaby as above I read through the Record Coronet Envoy user manual and in there EU Declaration of conformity they list everything that the machine will conform to but fail to state where it is manufactured. I scrolled down to the end to get there phone number to find out that a 09:15 on a Thursday the offices are closed but then noticed in the smallest print right at the end the Made in china.

@Mike313 Thank you for that I have started shopping around and have found some on ebay that will need a lot of restoration but then I do like a challenge so right now this is a strong possibility I just need to do more investigation into thread sizes a mortise taper sizes as I will need something compatible with standard chucks. If I can pick one up at a reasonable price I could easily install an inverter speed-control so that would not be a big deal.

@Bill21 your comments have proven to be correct for both Axminster and Record.

@Redwill and Danny I have had a look at the Vicmarc they do look like lovely machines but will be out of my price range for what I need unless that jackpot comes in tonight 

@Duncan A Thank you I know the topic has been mainly around a British made lathe but I appreciate your extra comment and helping me understand the function or the reverse all makes perfect sense now.

I know a lot of people don’t agree with my opinion of trying to support local industry my wife thinks I am totally overboard when it comes to shopping and I do realise that most of what is bought invariably at least some part if not most parts are manufactured in China. Personally I want to give as little of my money as possible to the Chinese government. I also do feel better about the quality of locally made products and this seems to show as I always believed in record have a bench pillar drill of there’s and a bench grinder but reading articles there is one in this forum about problems with chuck jaws aligning and I did see that a while back on youtube with and American turner who had the same issue with a record chuck I just wish I could remember her name to look it up again.

So knowing what I now know my choices are either accepting a lathe built in Taiwan, refurbishing a Union Graduate unless there any suggestions to any EU or other countries lathes that I could get for around the £2000 budget. 

[bodrighywood]

To be honest if I was upgrading I would probably go for a 2nd hand one such as Graduate, Jubilee, Wadkin etc. There are good new ones out there but you really pay through the nose for them and mostly they are from down under, Germany or the States China is now in the same position Japan was in the 60's and 70's and no doubt will eventually have the same reputation but ATM I personally would avoid. One importer of goods told me that they have to order at least 1/4 more goods than they need to ensure they get the right amount of quality items. I would also love to support UK manufacturers but they are getting less and less.

Pete

[Bill21]

There’s nothing wrong with trying to support British manufacturers if you can. Some of the old British made lathes are very solid but check the thread on the spindle before committing yourself as using adapters for chucks etc is not ideal. Variable speed on old machines is easily achieved using an inverter. In fact several Axminster lathes come fitted with them. Don’t hesitate to ask for further advice if you need it, I’m sure someone on here will be able to help. The wood lathe section on this site is a good source of information for old machines. Good luck with whatever you decide to get. 

http://lathes.co.uk/

[stunshot]

Hi, have just purchased a Herald, fits nicely into my small workshop, very happy with it so far seems well built but as said i guess manufactured abroad.
Would probably have gone for an envoy, but couldnt find one for love nor money.

[julcle]

Hi Simon,  I have just put an ad for a JET 1642 Lathe in the for sale section. You may wish to check it out.   Julian

[simon]

Vicmarc 175 on ebay at mo for £1800 iirc.