My first lathe was an old 4 speed Atlas with a 1/2 hp motor. I upgraded it with a 1 hp motor, but people at the local Saturday Market kept asking for slightly bigger bowls. I bit the bullet and bought a 3520A, which to date was my favorite lathe of the PM models. I bought it because of the sliding headstock. That interprets as you have a short bed lathe for bowl turning, and a long bed lathe for spindles. Mostly that was because the spindle mount was directly on the headstock tower, and there was no "extended" cone of any sort on it. I never used the tailstock, mostly because there was no need. With the B and C models, they changed the speed ranges. Shut off was up to 50 rpm from the older maybe 10 to 15 rpm. The low speed range went down to 1200, which was too slow for me on 6 to 8 inch bowl sizes, while the old 1500 was fine. The A did not like to core on the high speed range. I am not a fan of changing speeds just to core. My next lathe was an American Beauty, one of the first ones with 3 speed ranges and 3hp motor. I figured that I needed the extra power. Not positive, but I think the Oneway lathes have 3 speeds, and the Vicmark lathes have 3 speeds also. I do prefer the 3 speed range. I use the slow range for sanding. I use the mid range for all bowl turning since it has enough torque for coring and speeds high enough for any bowl, and almost high enough for any spindle turning I do. I did have Brent help me adjust the speed range so it would go down slow enough for sanding my warped bowls, which is in that 15rpm range. He cautioned me to make sure the motor was not over heating. It ran cooler when I sand than it does when I turn, in part because when sanding, it is only acting as a brake, and when I turn, I make that sucker work! Right away, after I sold my PM, I Noticed that I was getting vibration when turning any bowl over about 8 to 10 inches. I figure this is due to the bell housing on the headstock spindle, which puts your mounting point out farther off of the headstock tower. If I engage the tailstock, the vibration goes away. I now have a Vicmark 240, which is the one with the pivoting headstock. To me, this is pivoting headstock done the way I would do it if I made one. It has 3 speed ranges, and a 2hp motor, which is actually more than enough power. I purchased it out of curiosity. I do not like turning bowls on a long bed lathe, which requires you to extend your arms out away from your body, and/or lean over the lathe bed, which is hard on your back. I wanted to find out why turners like Mike Mahoney, Stuart Batty, Glenn Lucas, and a few others preferred the Vicmark lathes. My guess is the headstock tower design. The sides of the tower actually slope back towards the center a little bit, which puts the mounting point in closer to the mid point of the tower rather than the cone shapes that are so popular now days. Right off, I noticed the reduction of vibration on smaller bowls. There is a bit on larger bowls, like 14 inch diameter. I don't turn bigger than that any more because those sizes just don't sell for me. I figure the vibration I get is due to size, and not having the tailstock engaged, and the pivoting headstock. I have only turned on a Vicmark 300 a couple of times, and as I said before I just don't like turning bowls on long bed lathes because it doesn't fit my style, which developed on short bed lathes.
Now, Stuart Batty likes to talk a lot about how sliding headstock lathes are not so good due to various instabilities from the sliding headstock mechanisms. For sure, some are better than others. Vibration issues mostly. These can be caused by several things I think Stuart has not considered. For sure, the farther you extend away from the headstock tower, the more vibration issues you are going to have. For bowls, the vibration goes away if you engage the tailstock. If you don't use the tailstock, which most production turners don't because it is an extra step, then you get more vibration which all the bell housings and cones on the headstock towers cause by cantilevering the piece out farther off of the headstock tower. Note here, this is why steady rests are used on hollow forms which always seem to extend out farther off the headstock tower. Of the sliding headstock lathes I have used, Jet, PM, Robust, they all work just fine. I have turned on a Laguna, but don't really remember it well, other than some vibration issues because I don't use the tailstock. One other difference on the headstock towers is the pressure plate on the bottom. If it is the same plate as is on the tailstock and banjo, I would say NEVER buy a lathe like that. The headstock tower needs to be locked down tight. My PM had a cast iron plate on the one I got, and it broke. They replaced it with a 4 by 6 plate which locked the tower down tight enough. My Robust had a plate the size of the headstock tower, which if I was to build my own lathe, I would make it that way. A friend got a Shop Fox lathe, and it had the same pressure plate on the bottom of all 3 pieces, and he ended up sending it back.
There are lots of discussions about the differences between long bed lathes concerning vibration of steel vs cast iron. With my Robust, only thing of note was that it made different noises than the PM or Vicmark made. No vibration issues caused by sliding the headstock around. Only turned on a Oneway a couple of times, and again no vibration issues that I noted.
I see a lot of turners who have sliding headstock lathes that never use the sliding mechanism, and will turn their bowls on the long bed variation. Drives me crazy! There are, as near as I can tell, 2 basic "styles" of turning bowls. One is mechanics for long bed lathes, and the other is mechanics for short bed lathes. I prefer the short bed style for my turnings....
robo hippy
as I'm sure you're happy with your decision.