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Stubby s750 v pm3520B?

J

Joe Mioux

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Jun 9, 2005
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Carlyle IL
Hello, I have been lurking and reading past threads on this forum and have enjoyed the comments. I have been turning for a little over a year and I enjoy it immensely. Now that I like turning, I am desiring an upgrade. I might buy a new one or I might hold off, I am unsure. However, I do want to learn more about the other lathes that are available. So with that said..........

........... I stumbled across an old thread, on a different forum, that caught my attention. In that thread, someone wrote that he, the owner of a PM3520a, and a friend of his, an owner of a Stubby 750, made some comparisons.

Here is the sentence that caught my attention, "I have a very good friend that has a Stubby and it is a lovely machine but, even he can't show me what it will do that the PM3520a will not and I can show him quite a few things that the PM will do that the Stubby won't.."

I would love to read your thoughts on this topic.

thanks in advance,

Joe
 
I upgraded from mini/micro lathes last summer and found I was blessed with choices of those two plus the Serious, Robust, Oneway and VicMark to select from. There are additional special purpose choices available. They are all great and are all different in some ways.

There are no bad choices there, and by the time one works through the choices, there tends to develop some strong emotional attachments to brand loyalty. Behavior is much the same as that associated with auto brands and sport teams. I suspect the quote reflects more than a little brand loyalty. Debating brand loyalty tends to be a circular function since it is based on an internal sense of "best", and that gets to the Ford - Chev debates that can never end.

Take a look at all the choices, and make extra effort to get to touch and try as many as possible. Feel it run, and take a turn with the gouge to get the feel of the layout, height, and what you think you might be doing with it.

Since there are no bad choices, only what looks to work and feels the best for you really counts.
 
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They are both good lathes, and I'm not going to try to convince you one way or another, except to say that the PM is a very good value for the money. If money's not the issue, well........🙂 You would not be unhappy with either.

The reason I responded is I can't imagine anything that the PM could do that the Stubby couldn't????? Except take up more room? 😀

John
 
I would need a Stubby to play around with for a month or two to make any real comparison. The thing about the PM and the sliding headstock is you get a hybrid lathe, a bowl lathe and a spindle lathe, and all you have to do to change from one to the other is slide the headstock.

robo hippy
 
Joe,

My advice would be to buy a Jet 1640 and spend the savings on a couple of top quality classes.

Classes are the a great way to advance your skills and improve your outlook on life.

You can do outstanding work on a 1640

I have seen lots of mediocre work made on Powermatics, Oneways, and Stubbys. All of these are fine lathes but none of them will make you a better turner.

Happy Turning,
Al
 
Well I own a 3520A powermatic and I've done demo's on the stubby. I'll have to agree with John. I don't believe the Powermatic will do anything the Stubby can't do. You can slide the headstock to the end to make hollowing easier. However the Stubby has a short bed when collapsed.
OK I just thought of something the Powermatic will do. You can add bed extensions so that you can turn very long spindles. Of course almost no one does that unless you want to turn porch columns. The Stubby on the other hand will let you mount the extra bed extensions all over the existing bed to make reaching into odd shaped pieces easier.
As John said, the Stubby is shorter with the bed collapsed so it takes up less room in the shop. The Powermatic on the other hand takes up less room in your wallet. 🙂 The Stubby is a very solid smooth and quiet lathe. If I were to upgrade from the Powermatic the bigger Stubby would be on my short list.
 
Joe
The current issue of the American Woodtuner has a good article on comparing "dream" lathes. You might want to look at that article.

One point to consider is warrenty.. the PM is 5 years, the Stuby is Two

(and the Robust is 7 years 😱)
 
I've owned a Stubby for over five years (bought it from JJ), and have demonstrated on large PM and Oneway lathes several times. I've got to second John's comments, especially about seeing any traditional large lathe doing everything a Stubby can. My first large lathe had a sliding AND rotating headstock, but that's nothing at all like having a sliding and rotating bed. Stubby's also come with a short auxiliary bed that can be attached to any of several places (including the headstock) and a second banjo, so one can turn both the inside and outside of a bowl without remounting until it's time to complete the foot. I've added 2" riser blocks to the headstock for 34" total swing and 18" over the bed for oval turning larger pieces. There's photos on the Stubby USA website (http://www.stubbylatheusa.com/cgi-bin/index.py) that show others doing things with this relatively small lathe that I doubt could be done on a traditional fixed-bed one.

As to the warranty, only problem I've had with mine ever has been a cooling fan starting to go bad (makes noise), but it still hasn't totally died. I don't know anyone that has had a serious problem in five years with one. There's a very active Yahoo user's group anyone can join to ask questions about the lathe (stubbygroup).

I've posted several times before that what anyone should consider first and foremost before getting into brand arguments is what their personal requirements are - cost, size, capacities, type of turning envisioned, features required, features desired, acceptable limitations, etc., etc. (One of mine was spindle height above the floor - I'm not that tall. Another was floor footprint - I don't have that much space.) Until someone has a really good understanding of what their needs and wants are, they can't start focusing on what's important and too many irrelevant things become major distractions.
 
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