I'm thinking of a lathe upgrade since I've gotten back into round things and found I still like doing it!
Currently I'm using an elderly General (Canada) 160 lathe with a Reeves VS drive. I put new bearings in the headstock and new drive belts since it had been sitting for about 20 years. It works fine, but as I have found with tooling and work holding time has marched on and progress has been made in lathe technology especially in the areas of work speed control. So I started to contemplate an upgrade.
I'm considering a Oneway 1640 lathe since it has the capacity I think I need for now and the immediate future. I don't contemplate turning items over 16 inches in diameter, but one never knows. The 1640 will allow turning on the outboard side to 24 inches with the addition of an outboard bed extension, so if I want to do bigger I have that option. Does anybody turn with this setup? Do you like it? What are the downsides.
My other option is to go big or go home and just buy a 20XX series lathe. The rational here would be you can turn something small on a big lathe (to a point anyway) but you can't turn something big on a small lathe!
I should add that I am in Canada so Oneway is a lower priced option (in this class of lathe anyway) than some of the others, and they seem to enjoy a good reputation, even if delivery times might be several months. If I decide to upgrade I will likely visit the factory this fall to place an order.
Any and all advice is gratefully accepted. Thank you.
Cheers.
Barry W. Larson
Calgary, Alberta, Canada eh!
Currently I'm using an elderly General (Canada) 160 lathe with a Reeves VS drive. I put new bearings in the headstock and new drive belts since it had been sitting for about 20 years. It works fine, but as I have found with tooling and work holding time has marched on and progress has been made in lathe technology especially in the areas of work speed control. So I started to contemplate an upgrade.
I'm considering a Oneway 1640 lathe since it has the capacity I think I need for now and the immediate future. I don't contemplate turning items over 16 inches in diameter, but one never knows. The 1640 will allow turning on the outboard side to 24 inches with the addition of an outboard bed extension, so if I want to do bigger I have that option. Does anybody turn with this setup? Do you like it? What are the downsides.
My other option is to go big or go home and just buy a 20XX series lathe. The rational here would be you can turn something small on a big lathe (to a point anyway) but you can't turn something big on a small lathe!
I should add that I am in Canada so Oneway is a lower priced option (in this class of lathe anyway) than some of the others, and they seem to enjoy a good reputation, even if delivery times might be several months. If I decide to upgrade I will likely visit the factory this fall to place an order.
Any and all advice is gratefully accepted. Thank you.
Cheers.
Barry W. Larson
Calgary, Alberta, Canada eh!