ROBUST lathes at Symposium

[C Edward Moore]

I know that Brent English was going to be at the Symposium with his Robust lathes and I think Steve posted pictures of one. If you checked these lathes out, then I would appreciate your opinions and comments on what appears to be a nice addition to the woodturning world.

 

[Jeff Jilg]

I did not spend much time in their booth, but the lathe looks good. They had 2 lathes in the booth and one of them had the tailstock "mover thingy" on it. For those not aware of the Robust lathe, it lets you rotate the tailstock out of the way off the end of the lathe. Anyhow I forgot to get a pic of it. Overall the lathe looks very sturdy, and I like the attached floor stand pictured below. Also the movable on/off controller is a nice feature. And the lathe bed looks very sturdy indeed.

2 Comments:
One comment I have is about the electronics. There is a large controller box hanging down from the center of the lathe. It houses the variable frequency drive. That box is huge! I'm wondering if it also houses a cappucino machine? I don't know why they could not have selected a smaller controller box.

The second comment is about the headstock. Why couldn't they have machined a flat top? We all like to put things up there and it would have been a nice little extra.

I hope others have more comments. It's always nice to see a new lathe come onto the scene.

 

[Steve Worcester]

I did notice the cappuccino machine and they tell me that the next versions the electronics are going to be put into the legs. I don't know if it will be a box like Oneway does or not.

The other comment I had was the outboard setup, the free standing toolrest, was very small for what it's intended purpose was. They wholeheartedly agreed and said that it should not have been brought and was up for redesign.
Overall, I think that it looked like a good product. Their web page thanks Ellsworth and Trent Bosh for their assistance, so I am sure there was (and will be) considerable thought and design effort.

If nothing else, I applaud their effort to get into that segment of the market.

 

[hockenbery]

First I think they may have a winner

2 comments

1. The folding bed section is a wonderful inovation. Hopefully they will provide this as an after market add on to other lathes. This is a bolt on bed extension that has 2 sets of ways at 90 degrees from each other with a pivoting and locking mechanism. after locking the tailstock on this extension you can rotate it to the other ways. this leaves the tailsock out at 90 degrees from the bed. This is a great thing for sore backs and anyone using an back rest for hollowing.
No lifting and a tiny bit of mechanical advantage from the counter weight of the second ways.

2. Design is way ahead of looks on this one. It isn't pretty! I think this will improve over time. The legs look flimsy compaired to the ways and bed and don't match the bed. The welds on one leg set were very nicely done the welds on another leg set looked pretty bad big globs of weld material all over.

I didn't like the shinny non skid steel plates used on the machine. These don't match the legs or the bed. I think these look better covering storm drains but I did overhear some people who thought they looked great.

I'm sure that the finish on future machines will improve.

 

[Gynia]

I stopped by to visit with Brent at Robust Lathes. Brent was very friendly even though I made sure he was aware that I was not interested in replacing my lathe. I also respected Brent's time and made sure I didn't interfere with his opportunities to market his products.

My impression of the lathe was that the Robust Lathe is a high quality lathe.

Without a doubt the biggest feature is the stainless steel bed of the lathe. You can't see that the bed is stainless. In fact the lathe bed looks like the bed on a Oneway. But the idea of never having to fuss with waxing or removing rust from a lathe bed is very appealing.

The second biggest feature was the small size of the headstock. Access to the back side of the turning is the best I have seen.

Next was the talistock holder that swings out of the way. It looks cool and it looks to be one of those things that would get good use.

The paint looked nice. I do wonder how the paint will be to clean up. The lathe has a texture paint. I wondered how that surface would be to keep clean. So I asked Brent if the texture paint surface was selected because of some attribute that it has to make the lathe easy to clean. Brent said he looked at a lot of paint possibilities and that he selected the color and texture because he thought it looked cool.

The bed of the lathe has the ways attached much like Oneway or Serious Lathe. Brent said he selected a square cross section vs the round of a Oneway or the triangle of the Serious Lathe. His primary reason for the square cross section was that the shape would be easier to attach legs. I don't much care for the reason but the collateral effect is that the bed should deflect the waste we produce at the lathe.

The headstock slides along the lathe bed. I am not a fan of moving headstocks. I had a swivel and sliding headstock on my first lathe and I can easily see how a solid headstock is much more stable than a moving headstock. Brent indicated that a good deal of effort and thought went into the locking arrangement for the headstock. I have no doubt that the sliding arrangement on the Robust lathe is as good as any made.

The indexing arrangement was simple and well though out. The handwheel was of a nice size and finish.

The outboard tool res arrangement was just like the Vicmarc arrangement and would be suitable for large shallow bowls or platters.

Brent makes two styles of tool rests. One is a small cross section with the support edge which can be easily positioned close to the work piece (like most toolrest that come with lathes). The other style of toolrest was a big swooping 1/4 circle that looked to be comfortable to use. I like this second style enough that I ordered one for my lathe.

The Robust lathe has 25" of swing. I mentioned to Brent that many accessories are made for 24" and asked him why he made the swing 25" instead of 24". Brent's answer was that he spoke with many Woodturners about what they would like to see in a new lathe. He indicated that he heard over and over again that Woodturners would like just a little more swing.

If I was in the market for a new lathe and I worked in a good deal of green wood I would put the Robust lathe on my short list.