Well, I haven't done a review specifically, but have commented a lot about it. It is my favorite bowl turning lathe. So, first, I prefer the headstock design to most other lathes that are now being made. A 'fad' has been to put all sorts of extensions on the outside of the headstock tower. In part, this has been about 'having more access to the back side of a bowl when reversed. In a couple of cases, this was also about being able to remove the headstock spindle in one piece rather than having to remove the entire headstock assembly if you need to replace the belt, and/or the belt. I think the first Laguna lathes were the worst about this as this 'protrusion' stuck out 4 or so inches off of the headstock tower. What this does is that by the time you put your chuck on, and then mount a bowl on it, the chuck jaws are much farther off of the lathe tower. Difference between my Vic and my Robust is about 2 full inches. As near as I can figure, this adds to vibration issues because it is cantilevered out farther. While Stuart Batty and others proclaim that the vibration issue is because of the fixed headstock vs the sliding or pivoting headstock, I will say that that could be a minimally contributing factor. If there is a sufficiently sized pressure plate on the underside of the headstock then this should be a non issue. I remember the early Jets had the same pressure plate on it that they used on their banjo. My Robust had a plate that is the length of the headstock tower. The Vic has a rounded form of top, which, if I needed it, would allow me more access to the outside of a bowl when reversed. The Vic has 3 stops for the pivoting headstock. One is in line with the bed, and is standard lathe position for turning spindles. It has one stop at 30 degrees, which is what I use for bowls. It has a 90 degree stop that I don't think I will ever use, but I have every thing I need, just in case. If I add another one to the shop, I won't get the outboard set up. I think the earlier versions of this lathe had the 'bowl' stop at 45 degrees. I think they switched, in part because the 45 degree setting would make using the banjo that comes with the lathe not very useful. I don't know if you could add additional stops or not. The set screw for the pivoting plate might not lock it down tight enough for heavy roughing cuts. For the lathes that have extended spindle mounts, there are no vibration issues when the tailstock is engaged. I would only use the tailstock for bowls over 14 or so inches, and I almost never turn them. With the extended headstocks, anything over 12 inches needs that tailstock support or very fine finish cuts. Not so good for roughing cuts.
I did turn once on a Vic 300, for a demo. The turner there had one of those sleeves for being able to use the standard 1 inch posts. It seems to work fine. I didn't have my inside bowl rests back then. Or maybe I just had my prototype, but can't remember...
When you turn spindles, well, me too, I tend to stand closer to the lathe body, and that did have me tripping that stop bar. I did get used to it.
One other thing the Vic does is that the minimum rpm is VERY slow, slower than my Robust AB, which I think is down to almost 15 to 18 rpm. The Vic also has a 3 speed pulley set up, as does my AB, which was one of the very early AB lathes made. I prefer the 3 speed set up. Mostly this has to do with coring and bowl turning. With the 2 speed set ups, I had 2 problems, and this was with the early versions of these lathes, and not the more modern ones, with the 'new and improved' 3 phase motor set ups. The slow speed range was great for coring, but too slow for some of the smaller bowls I was turning. High speed range generally didn't work for coring, and it would want to trip the breaker. The mid range seems to be just right, so higher speeds for smaller bowls, but plenty of torque for coring.
robo hippy