I noticed in yesterday's Craigslist an ad for a Delta 46-700 lathe for $100 that appears to be in excellent shape. I'm not into turning at this point but I'm willing to jump on it if this were considered a real deal. I can always come up with an excuse to justify it if I had to.
Anybody got an opinion about this particular lathe?
Most who have say stay away. Noisy, mechanically unreliable, and the "finish" on the originals will scrape the skin off your arm if you brush against it.
I don not own one of these lathes, but everything I have heard about them is not good.
Randy
I had one and would never buy another unless I turned small spindles, pens, or VERY SMALL bowls. the cast iron that holds the bearings is very thin and either breaks or warps from vibration which then loosens your bearings. I ordered a new headstock from delta and it was bad from the start.
cm
A good, light duty, lathe that shares a weakness with most lathes that rely on a mechanical, sliding sheave, variable speed drive. The drive components wear out with regular speed changes and significant use. First indication is noise in the drive.
If you can ascertain that the lathe has a sound drive the price is right. If it does not, you would need to look at the cost of the components to rebuild the varidrive and add those to the price for your total cost.
You might want to ask your question on the various woodturning forums. Keep in mind, though, you might be getting answers based on the perspective of folks who own Nova's or One Way's or other high quality (and appropriately priced) lathes.
Frank
I own one of these lathes. It is definately a "starter" lathe. It could benefit from a sturdy shop-made stand immediately. If the turning bug bites you, you'll want to upgrade. However, it is not junk. If the lathe in question runs without excessive noise and the bearings are good on the headstock, it is easily worth a hundred dollars. You aren't likely to try your hand at turning for a lower price of admission.
DonkeyHody "We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again---and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore." - Mark Twain
I have one that I paid about 2½ X that much for. As some have said it's a good starter. It's much better than the home built starter I made, and much better than my second starter (Craftsman tube) lathe. It's probably about on a par with my third starter (Jet mini) lathe, but that's an unfair comparison--mini vs "full size."
Yes, the Reeves drive can be noisy, and its range isn't as low as you'd like for turning rough bowl stock that the lathe is capable of turning. Reeves drives also trade a lot of delivered torque for RPM, so it's easy to bog down at moderate speeds.
Some things I don't like:
* no spindle lock and no good way to back out a stuck faceplate * motor cover is a royal pain to get off (see above) * no hand wheel and no good way to fabricate one * low speed isn't low enough (although it was before VFDs started showing up)You can do a lot of good work on it for a while and probably get your money out of it when (not if) you're ready to move up. Norm used one for several years, too.
Now, here's an offer you can't refuse: the lathe was probably sold without a set of legs. Mine came with a set but I disassembled it (them) and built a wooden stand. Mine is yours if you want it (them). Just pay the shipping. You're near CLT, as I recall. Sadly, my daughter no longer lives there, so I can't deliver.
I'm not *near* Charlotte; I'm *in* Charlotte.... and I'm impressed that you'd even be aware of that. In any case, your offer is a little ambiguous to me: I think you're offering me the unused stand but an argument could also be made that you're offering me the whole lathe. Which is it? If it's the whole thing, I gladly accept. If it's just the stand, I'm under the impression this Craigslist one includes the stand already.
What part of the state are you in? I only work on the weekends so day trips are never really a problem. Tomorrow, AAMOF, I'm headed off to Topsail Beach for a few days and will be using Highway 74 to point me in the general direction. Gotta be back Saturday for my time in the House of Pain.
In any case, I appreciate your kind offer.
I was hedging in case I was wrong.
We had an exchange a couple of years ago concerning the location of the big tool dealer (Lenave?) there. I've spent 37 years with an RN. You don't forget connections like that.
Sorry, it was just the stand.
I'm not. I'm in Ormond Beach, FL. My daughter lived there (a subdivision south of the big mall on Tyvola/Fairview--it's all left me now) for about two years, but she's back in FL now, although not as near to us as when she was before she moved to CLT.
Leneave's where I bought that aircraft carrier of a jointer I own. I considered North State to be an off brand but I have to say I have had nothing but good service from it. Whoever pointed me in their direction did me a favor.
Boo, hiss. It was worth a try. I will respectfully decline the offer for now as I'm still undecided whether to grab the Craigslist deal. But thank you very much for offering.
I know the area she lived in well... I'm only a couple of miles away myself. And I even know Ormond Beach. Back in the days when I was running a scuba shop here in Charlotte, I used to fly down to the Bahamas periodically. V3 ran down the coast and right over Ormond Beach (112.6 MHz)... I'd follow it down to Vero Beach and then cut over to Grand Bahama Island and points eastward. The good old days.
AKA: "Reeves" drive, named after the inventor.
A low cost, constant HP, variable speed drive, just what you want for a machine tool drive, but as Frank has noted, a high maintenance drive.
Lew
Now you're not going to fool this old ZJX controller. You had to go over FML (probably, assuming you were flying out of Douglas) first, then CAE, then SAV to pick up V3, since it came over SOP, FLO, CHS, NBC (I don't think there was a VOR at NBC--probably just the TACAN, but we wrote strips for it for separation purposes), before getting to SAV.
From there it went over SSI to JAX, then to DAB, VRB, PBI ending at BSY, as I recall. Now the important thing is DAB. The VOR is located on the Ormond Beach airport despite the Daytona airport being some 9 miles south. After the AVL accident around 1973 (I think) in which there had been confusion over two similarly named facilities which were not collocated, the FAA went around and changed all of the non-collocated identifiers to eliminate the problem.
JAX became CRG (VOR is on Craig Field), DAB became OMN, and dozens of other examples. It may be that was already done by the time you were flying it. Back in the day for me is 1968 to 1973. Then I transferred to ORD and ZAU. I've been retired ten years.
The good old days indeed. Mine are just a little older, I suspect.
I disagree. I've had one for a decade, and while I wouldn't use it to turn large bowl blanks, it's just dandy for spindle turning and faceplate work. It was more than USD400 new, so USD100 seem a pretty good deal if it's in good condition.
I'd check the sheaves on the variable speed drive before purchase.
Noisy is relative. Compared to a table saw, jointer or planer it is pretty quiet.
scott
I actually flew out of Rock Hill, SC so my flight plan would have me take off, intercept V37 a few miles south of FML, then it was over Columbia (CAE), Allendale (ALD) Savannah (SAV), Brunswick (SSI) and then down V437 to avoid JAX coming back ashore at OMN to pick up V3, then on to Vero Beach and out to sea (125 degrees) again to Grand Bahama Island, then turn to 090 until I picked up the NDB at Marsh Harbour (my most common destination down there). If I was headed to Bimini, I stayed with V3 until Ft. Lauderdale and crossed over at that point. But most of the time my first navaid in the Bahamas was Grand Bahamas Island.
Incidentally, I've never flown to the Bahamas with more than one engine. I've taken a C-172 RG once; Cherokee Six/Saratogas many times; and C-210s many times. The C-210 could make the trip nonstop. All of the others required landing and fueling at Vero.
For me it was 1978-1990. I ended up losing my flying job when the company went tango uniform, then my medical almost simultaneously over some perceived blip on my EKG. The FAA wanted me to have all this expensive testing done and I had no money. I went to nursing school instead. Fast forward to 2005: I needed some surgery and that question of my heart came up again after an EKG. I ended up having a full workup including a heart cath, courtesy of my insurance company and what do you know? FALSE POSITIVE! Pass the french fries, please.
I got my medical back, got a bienial, and took an instrument comp check. Back in the saddle again! But DAMN! It sure is expensive nowadays. So them were the good old days...
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