Light Weight Lathes

[tanderson4]

Looking to purchase a light weight lathe that I can pack in my luggage but will still be capable of making normal size topwater baits. Was thinking about purchasing this one,

but wanted to get a better opinion as I am new to all of this. Is this going to be too small for what I need?   

Thanks in advance.

Tim 

[diemai]

Looking to purchase a light weight lathe that I can pack in my luggage but will still be capable of making normal size topwater baits. Was thinking about purchasing this one,

but wanted to get a better opinion as I am new to all of this. Is this going to be too small for what I need?   

Thanks in advance.

Tim 

It seems to me , that 1/5 hp(150watts) is fairly underpowered for turning down lures effectively , ...might still work well for balsa , but you'd be lost with more denser timbers .

 

And read the describtions , ...puppet house inventory , ........such small items do not require a lot of power , I suppose .

 

I know , that turning down an average 4" or 5" poplar plug effectively , requires a certain grade of "drive" to the lathe motor .

 

I have an older version of this Proxxon milling machine :

 

http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/BFW40E-Proxxon-Mill-Drill-System.html

 

The motor is also quite weak and switches itself  off on overload , it takes ages to furnish f. e. scooped mouth portion of topwater plugs , ......using a 1" dia. cylindrical router bit one could only do settings of not more than 1/20" at one time , in softer abachewood or poplar !

 

No , I really don't think , that you would have fun with that one , .....but please also wait for other opinions but mine !

 

Greetz , diemai

[Musky Glenn]

     I have not used this lathe but I would have thought that 1/5 hp would turn a lure even a musky size one. If you read the one review of the lathe he says it had power but had several other short comings. I would think that alum. threads would be strong enough for this size project, but maybe not. The one thing that caught my eye was the very short tool rest. This would mean repeatedly moving the rest from one end of lure to the other to progress the work along the lure. That was always annoying to me. Sharp tools would be a necessity on a lathe of this size.

     I would yield my openion to diemai as he has more experience with tools of this size than I do. Musky Glenn

[Don-Art]

If you could find a old Unimat DB200 or SL1000. They were made in Austria. They are very versatile. They can be either a wood turning lathe or metal turning lathe, or even a milling machine. With optional accessories they can become almost any machine including table saw, scroll saw, jointer etc. variable speed using step pulleys. They haven't been in production for several years, but parts are readily available. They have quite a following, which can make them on the expensive side. But they are a quality built machine and they are very small in size.

 

Don

[tanderson4]

This is the info I needed. thanks everyone. Was hoping to find a light enough lathe without compromising the quality of production. My suspicion seem to hold true though that the lighter the lathe the poorer the production quality.  

 

Don-Art, the Unimat DB200 looks amazing but is a little pricey for me. 

 

Still open to other thoughts and opinions though.  

[Don-Art]

Here are  few other other options. http://www.pennstateind.com/store/mini-lathes.html

 

Don

[diemai]

@ tanderson4

 

This is the one , that I have for many years(though without the second rail holding a protection hood) :

 

http://www.ebay.de/itm/380874701365?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

 

Basically it consists of a mounting rail , the chisel rest , a tailstock and a clamp to fix a drill into .

 

It is light to carry , you may even shorten the mounting rail a bit ,  but the mounting rail should be screwed onto a workbench for safe and convinient working .

 

After a few years of use the thread for the kinked clamping screw of the chisel rest bar snapped , ......since all of these parts are made from cast aluminium , I could not easily fix it so I've made myself an entire new chisel rest bar from solid aluminium(working in the metal industry , so I have the options) .

 

At first I had used a cheapo drill to run the lathe , .....it did work out turning down plugs and glidebaits , at least for softer woods , but not hardwoods , .....that drill was just to weak , and main problem was the axial play of it's spindle , .....maybe a better quality and bigger drill would have worked better .

 

But I was lucky , that a workmate presented me with a really powerful electric motor souped up with a steel flange matching the 43mm clamp and also equipped with a 13mm chuck , so not only I can use the lathe motor for turning down plugs , but also to fix a sanding disc .

 

You can see my lathe(hidden underneath piles of wood chips ) with the big motor in the background , as I'm talking , ...a bit later in the video also visible in operation  , also you can see parts of the homemade replacement chisel rest bar fixed onto the base rail :

 

 

 

 

Here is another option of a portable wood turning device , also run by an additional drill(won't call this a lathe , though) :

 

http://www.amazon.de/WOLFCRAFT-DRECHSELBANK-f%C3%BCr-Bohrmaschine/dp/B0010NUWYK

 

I reckon , this one would be pretty much unstable , maybe even unsafe ,  just fixed by clamping screws over the edge of the workbench !

 

If I'd purchase such , I'd find a way to mount all the parts rigidly onto a rectangular piece of aluminium tubing , and fix that one onto the workbench permanently .

 

Both of these woodturning devices are designed for the occassional woodturner , maybe someone , who just likes to take a little glance into the trade without investing into a more expensive and more professional lathe , ....but both are seemingly more portable than others .

 

As said before , if mine was not souped up and self -maintained, I would not have been happy with it for all of those years and surely would have purchased something better for long .

 

Greetz , 61diemai

[tanderson4]

Thanks for all the info @ Diemai. I was looking at this lathe from Harbor Freight. Too small?

It is under 50lbs and could be packed in a suitcase.

[diemai]

@ tanderson4

 

Now , that's a cute little machine , ......looks like it would perfectly match your demands , ..still I would advise you to read all of the customer's reviews to help you to decide on a purchase .

 

Had a brief once-over , looks like most customers are alright with it , though they are also talking about little flaws and issues(underpowered , tailstock screw problems) .

 

But one guy wrote , that he did turn a file handle from  1 1/2" dia maple ,..... this convinces me , that it would be suitable for making topwater lures , since these are made from softer and less dense timber compared to maple .

 

12" space between the tips is also more than enough for normal plugs , unless you want to turn down baseball club sized muskie lures   .

 

So well , remember to keep your chisels sharp , ....good luck ,..... greetz , diemai

Edited April 28, 2014 by diemai