lathe

Re: lathe

Dennis Taylor (Akron, Ohio)

>I also have looked at the HB lathe, but after careful considereation and a lot of info from various posts, I just don't think it is a lathe to hold up to work....and I am just saving a few more pennies for a Jet or Delta... they had the Jet on Amazon.com for 299.00 I think, maybe cheaper, but the price is up again, maybe wait there for the Jet 1236... I live near a Hb Freight, and the lathe looks like a copy cat of the Jet, other then the finish, maybe it wouldn't be a bad starter lathe, but the addage: you get what you pay for, might come into play.....Dennis

Re: lathe

Whit

>In my experience, the adage "You always get what you pay for." ALWAYS comes into play. If you check into some other forums (AAW, Woodturning Design Magazine and Wood Magazine, for example) you'll find quite a bit of discussion about HF vs Jet vs Delta, and so forth.

As well as reliability, accuracy and operational considerations, resale is, or can be, an issue. A quality machine can probably be sold for nearly what you paid for it when you upgrade. I recently saw the HF lathe (nearly new condition) in a Garage/Shop sale. He was asking $50. Nobody seemed interested. His upgrade was a Nova DVR 3000, which, admittedly, is a fair bit more money, but to me and quite a few others, well worth it.

As someone said on another forum (more or less) "The most expensive tool is the one you have to replace."

Go for the best you can afford and try to afford the best. It'll be cheaper in the long run.

Whit

Re: lathe

John F.

>another thing to consider, I have a HF lathe, when I broke the tool rest and banjo it took 4 months to get replacements from them....