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Equipment for a newbie

J

Joe D. Clark

Joined
Jan 7, 2025
Messages
3
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Location
Belgrade, MT
Hello all!
New member, and first post, so please bear with me!
I will be retiring soon, and am looking into bowl turning, I now have a decent wood shop, but no lathe. I am looking to get expert advice on what equipment to get. I want to get set up with what I need now and will probably need down the road as I get more experience.

The lathes that I am looking at now are.
Powermatic 3520C
Rikon 70-3040
Grizzly GO995 (new model, so probably not much info on this one)
Any thoughts on these, recommendations on others?

What are the absolute essential items that I need? Please be detailed as possible, as I am new to the game.
What are really "handy" but not necessarily essential?

Any and all information is greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much for your time.

Joe
Bozeman, MT
 
Joe D. Clark said:
Hello all!
New member, and first post, so please bear with me!
I will be retiring soon, and am looking into bowl turning, I now have a decent wood shop, but no lathe. I am looking to get expert advice on what equipment to get. I want to get set up with what I need now and will probably need down the road as I get more experience.

The lathes that I am looking at now are.
Powermatic 3520C
Rikon 70-3040
Grizzly GO995 (new model, so probably not much info on this one)
Any thoughts on these, recommendations on others?

What are the absolute essential items that I need? Please be detailed as possible, as I am new to the game.
What are really "handy" but not necessarily essential?

Any and all information is greatly appreciated!
Thanks so much for your time.

Joe
Bozeman, MT
Click to expand...
My comments and OPINIONS are certainly not expert advice. There are those on this forum that are in that catagory of expert. However, I have a PM 3520C and I am well satisfied. I have zero experience with the Rikon products. I am aware of Grizzly owners that are satisfied and others that are certainly dis-satisfied.
A quote often heard within the woodturning community: "I am one tool away from greatness."
 
Definitely consider a used lathe. The Jet 1642 was a great lathe; one in good condition should not be expensive. Consider a 3520*B*. I've had both and liked the 1642 better. I still own it -- sold my (previously used) 3520B for almost what I had paid for it. There are any number of threads on this forum about chuck alternatives. Don't buy a set of tools. Some (most?) will be of little use. Some sets I've seen don't include a bowl gouge. Make contact with turners in your area. They can give advice, perhaps give you leads on a lathe, tools, and chucks.
 
Either the PM or the Rikon would be good choices. I have a number of Rikon tools, including their 70-1824 lathe. Customer service is second to none. The PM 3520c is probably the most popular lathe in that price range.
 
Joe D. Clark said:
The lathes that I am looking at now are.
Powermatic 3520C
Rikon 70-3040
Grizzly GO995 (new model, so probably not much info on this one)
Any thoughts on these, recommendations on others?
Click to expand...
I have a G0838 from Grizzly that's a couple of years old. I've enjoyed using it but the things I know they have problems with are the tailstock and tool rest banjos are very hard to tighten down. No matter how much pressure you put on the handles they will move. I actually broke the cast iron plate on my tailstock at one point. The other problem I had was the spindle bent. It wasn't something you could visually see but after days of trying to get it aligned I ordered a new one. They were back ordered and I was unable to use the lathe for a couple of weeks. That tells me it's a common thing that happens.

I recently got a Powermatic 3520 and it's so much better. It's an older one I got used but the quality and smoothness of the machine makes me see why it seems to be a gold standard for a lot of turners.

The Rikon looks very cool. I have no first hand knowledge to share on that one. I would look for some reviews on youtube.

As for other things, get a 8 inch slow speed grinder and a sharpening jig system like the wolverine. Learning to hand sharpen might be great but you eat up a lot of expensive tools trying to get it right and repeatable grinds is the name of the game.
 
Agree with Mark. First thing you should do is get with a local turner's club, get some instruction and practical experience - You may find you don't care for bowl turning and rather do hollow forms or spindle turning or pens & bottle stoppers or small boxes - For many of those you don't need the huge swing of a 3520C - I figured out after my first bowls that I definitely will not be doing big bowls - 14" is about as big as I will go, so I don't need a 20" swing , I don't need a bowl lathe. I do enjoy spindles so I wanted plenty of between center capacity - So I got a Jet 1642 (Jet by the way is basically a Powermatic without the high end features) A lot of what you will buy is going to depend greatly on the types of turnings you want to do - Some things others may recommend may get little to no use in your chosen areas of turning, thus a waste of money that could be spent on better tooling , supplies, materials, etc.
 
Another -> try connecting with a local club.

You will need a lathe, sharpening setup, holding devices, turning tools, some type of saw to size the blanks.

Which of any are influenced by what you plan to turn.
Architectural, segmented, bowls, hollow forms, boxes, goblets, pens…….
All point towards lathes, holding dices and turning tools

For me if I could only have 3 tools,
I would choose and Ellsworth ground gouge ( Jamieson - made by Thompson.)
3/8 spindle gouge
Parting tool

With those tools I can turn any outside shape
 
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First item - join a club. In Bozeman there's https://www.nrwg.club/ (I did a search on woodturner.org - Resources -> Find A -> Chapter)
Second - take a class. (like from Sam Angelo in Billings or Trent Bosch in Ft. Collins)
Next -
- lathe: no shortage of advice/opinions about lathes - try a search of the forum for various models and see what comes up. Nice if you can test-drive something (like a club member's place or in a class)
- tools: @hockenbery has a good list: 5/8 Ellsworth grind bowl gouge, Parting tool, 3/8 spindle gouge. This is the "starter set" that nobody sells as a set (but should).
- sharpening: A grinder (8", slow-speed (1700 RPM ish) preferred) and a sharpening jig like Wolverine varigrind
- a chuck. Lathe will probably come with a drive and live center and a faceplate. That can get you started, but you'll want a chuck soon enough. Tons of opinion and advice about chucks on this forum ... search
- some way to turn tree parts into things that fit on your lathe - like a bandsaw or chainsaw

once you get that together and turn a couple things, you'll have your own list of next stuff to buy...
 
Joe, Welcome to the Northern Rockies Woodworking Guild, a club almost as old as the AAW. You can contact me at secretary@nrwg.club.

You can also join the woodworking club at the Bozeman Senior Center for a nominal fee and use their nice Jet lathe to get a taste of turning and sharpening. They have a page on the web site of the Senior Center. (Used to be, you could just stop down and chat with whoever is in the shop, but they've tightened up security recently.)

The answer I'd give somebody else, though, is there's no end to the tools you will want once you get started. For now, take half your budget and spend it on a lathe, and the other half on a basic set of tools and supplies.
 
I’m going to buck the trend and say the Packard Woodworks brand bowl turning set is a good value and investment you will use long term. Put the Ellsworth grind on the 5/8” bowl gouge and keep the grind on the 3/8”, it’s good for inside bowl work. The scraper is very good as is, but you may want to put a negative rake grind on it to get started. It’s more forgiving. I bought this set and am using all 4 tools almost 5 years later.
Most important thing said is to get a club mentor.
 
You can't go wrong with the Powermatic. I have a 1958 Model 90 that is a beast at 900#s and have always wished to upgrade to the modern 3520. I like the look of Grizzley tools, but like a cheap used car, upon second look, they have flaws. In my experience, they have reverse-engineered their equipment based on other designs and have missed important features. My table saw spindle wasn't big enough for a normal wrench, and I was forced to use their proprietary flat wrench. I vote Powermatic.
 
> join an aaw chapter club
> take @Dean Center advice and get some turning time on that jet 1642. Its good a good middle of the road lathe
> all the lathes you listed are 20”+. I turned a few large dia items (my lathe has outboard capability), but I rarely go larger than 14-15”. Add Nova Galaxi (16”) and Nebula (18”) to your list. Same type of motor as the Grizzly you list. These motors have a lot more torque vs a vfd/motor of same rating (handle coring easily), and the lathes have rotating headstocks that help with ergonomics.
> used is the way to go if you can find the right deal
> agree with others on tool list - 5/8” parabolic flute BG, 3/8” SG, parting tool, add 1/2” SG.
> sharpening - slow speed grinder. Prefer the Vector sharpening system to the Wolverine. Lots of threads on sharpening.
> workholding - you will want a chuck. Plenty of threads on those. I have faceplates, rarely used.
> sanding - on the lathe, off the lathe, by hand, using a drill, using a ros, etc, etc. Lots of threads on the subject - have to develop a method
> finishing - can a worms. All kinds of types, methods, it goes on and on - lots of threads to read. Make some decisions on the type of look you want, are voc’s important? Do you want to spray? Generally people will have 2 or 3 finishes/methods they use depending on the item size and application.
 
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Thank you everyone!

I will be in contact soon about joining the local club, I've been meaning to, just haven't got around to it yet.

I would love to find a used unit, but being kind of rural, not many other than bench top or ones they are selling to upgrade after a very short time. That's something that I am trying to avoid, I would like to start out with one that I will want to use for several years.

Again, thanks for all of the great advice, I will update as things progress.
 
Joe, take a little time and think about what kinds of projects you might be interested in. I started out with a jet mini lathe. After I became familiar with the possibilities, I upgraded. Even though I have a big hotrod lathe, much of what I do can be done on the mini.
 
Doug Freeman said:
Add Nova Galaxi (16”) and Nebula (18”) to your list.
Click to expand...
Interesting that you mention these lathes. I'm planning on getting another lathe by Nova, the Neptune (15"). It also has an articulating/sliding headstock, which bring in a wheelchair will be a boon. The base lathe is $1500 and the max version (with legs and longer bed) is $2000.

Gregory
 
Thanks again everyone, I will look into all the models mentioned.

As with everything, so many choices!

I plan on going to the next meeting at the local club, it will be great to talk to them and get opinions on what and why they like certain features.
 
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