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Winner of Symposium Powermatic.

Martin Osborn

Martin Osborn

Joined
Nov 24, 2010
Messages
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Location
Inland Empire, CA
Website
www.martinpens.com
I was at the banquet holding my tickets, but didn't win. I have the A model, but planned to give my A model to my brother if I were to win.
I've forgotten the winners name, but I remember he is from Claremont, CA which is 35 minutes from where I live. I wondered if he was on this forum.??

Congrats to the winner!!! And if you see this, I hope you will share your excitement with us with a photo when it's delivered.
If you need help setting it up, message me and I would be glad to help out.

Regards
 
Martin,
I turned on an A model for 8 years. I have demoed on a B model a few times, and prefer the A. Don't need a read out because I learned with out one. I prefer the higher speed range on the low end. I also liked that the A model would go down to almost 0 rpm before turning off rather than stopping at 50 rpm. I need that slow speed for sanding my warped bowls. I now have an American Beauty.

robo hippy
 
robo hippy said:
Martin,
I turned on an A model for 8 years. I have demoed on a B model a few times, and prefer the A. Don't need a read out because I learned with out one. I prefer the higher speed range on the low end. I also liked that the A model would go down to almost 0 rpm before turning off rather than stopping at 50 rpm. I need that slow speed for sanding my warped bowls. I now have an American Beauty.

robo hippy
Click to expand...



Not only does a really slow rpm work for warped bowls, as Robohippy points out.......but, it also works very nicely for a random orbital sander. 🙂

BTW, does anyone actually have a need for a digital rpm readout? To me, this gizmo seems unnecessary and more of a sales gimmick, rather than something that has any real use for lathe work. As long as you know what the max rpm is at any pulley range, it's pretty easy to make a mental calculation at any given percentage of max.....and, that's close enough. Most of the time, the actual rpm is secondary to the real need for a variable speed.......and, that is to find the best rpm for minimal vibration. In that case, the rpm is what it is, because it's not the objective in fine tuning an rpm speed........

ooc
 
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odie said:
BTW, does anyone actually have a need for a digital rpm readout? To me, this gizmo seems unnecessary and more of a sales gimmick, rather than something that has any real use for lathe work. As long as you know what the max rpm is at any pulley range, it's pretty easy to make a mental calculation at any given percentage of max.....and, that's close enough.

ooc
Click to expand...

It doesn't cost anything to program the controller to display RPM.
I think the rpm is a comforting guide for novice turners. They use it as a starting point to hunt for a comfortable vibration free speed to turn on.
With more experience we just tune into the comfortable speed for the object we are working on.

Someone who chases threads might like having a specific RPM. Alan Batty told me to use the highest speed at which I can still see the threads on the spindle.
This worked well but dialing to 357 rpm might have improved my threads.

I'd did see a rig Myron Curtis had set up to use a router on a motor travel carriage to round spindles about 4 feet long using a 2" cove bit.
This required a precise RPM to avoid a patterns from the cove bit.

Al
 
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Yea I've had my A series for about 7 or 8 years and only occasionally want to know the speed. However every time I do a demo someone asks what speeds I turn at. I got tired of saying "whatever speed I feel comfortable turning" and started actually looking at what I do so I could answer that question. I usually still say what ever is comfortable and safe but then I'll follow it with the actual speeds I use.
 
hockenbery said:
It doesn't cost anything to program the controller to display RPM.....
Click to expand...

The controllers that I have seen used on lathes can display the motor RPM, but I have not seen any that allow you to enter the pulley ratio so that you can get the spindle RPM. Of course you could tape a calculator to the lathe so that you could multiply the motor speed by the pulley ratio to get the spindle speed.

The controller on my Robust is in a semi-closed compartment on the left leg apron. There is a small peep hole where I could see the display if I get on all fours. To make things a bit easier Brent has a table in the owners manual that gives the speed for each tick mark on the speed control for each of the three speed ranges. That more than suffices for my purposes.
 
Thank you very much for the offer in setting up the lathe. It was delivered about a week after the symposium. With the help of a block and tackle, I was able to set it up on my own. It runs great. I'm working on practicing what I saw in the classes.
Just received authorization to be able to make posts. Sorry for the delay in responding.
 
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