New Lathe

[carl mesaros]

I thought I'd offer a review on the lathe I recently purchased. I hope the pictures I have selected will attach when I'm finished writing. Haven't done that before.
I have been turning for about 5 years 4 of them on a Jet 1642 1-1/2 hp. I have turned 100's of items on this lathe and really can't complain at all. The machine has done all I have asked of it. However I really wanted to upgrade to a larger lathe with more power, more weight, and more swing.
For well over a year I have been looking at the 2436 Oneway and the Robust AB. I have seen them up close and decided a Oneway was what I wanted. Nothing at all wrong with the AB, but the Oneway came in a little cheaper.
I was still having an awful time justifying the 6 to 7K that one of these machines cost so was kind of putting it off. I then spotted the new Laguna 2436 lathe at the Woodwerks store in Columbus Ohio. It seemed to have everything I have been wanting in an upgrade for almost half the cost. Now I'm going to say upfront I don't pretend this lathe to be in the same class as a Oneway or AB but so far it has been just what I've been wanting.

The lathe came with a 12" tail stock swing away that is really built and designed well. This option brings the net weight of the lathe to 770Lbs. I also ordered a 20" bed extension which adds another 70 so it is close to the Oneway in weight. The machine has a well thought out indexing system that will work well. I don't care for the area in which the spindle lock is located however. It is too close to the hand wheel and will pinch your thumb if your not careful.
The speed changing belt is a small v-belt. Laguna says it's borrowed from the auto industry, for what thats worth. I do like the speed changing door it is held closed with two magnets instead of a thumb screw, clever idea there.
The speed dial is kind of strange to me. The Jet had about a 300 degree from min to max speed, the laguna takes about 8 complete turns! I don't really understand why that is.
The lathe has a 3 HP brushless DC motor. I don't know if that is good or bad but it sure runs quiet and extremely cool. The only noise is from the vfd drive box. It seems they have attached a small box fan to the underside of the vfd. Which is okay I guess but the fan runs all the time even with the lathe shut off. I have to unplug the machine in order to stop it.
The tailstock is well built very smooth and accurate with the head stock, centers line up perfectly. There is 4-1/2" of spindle travel.
The lags are 26" apart not quite Oneway or AB territory but 3" better than Powermatic.
I have turned about 10 various sized bowls with the lathe so far and what a difference 370Lbs. over my 1642 makes. LOTS smoother with out of round blanks.
Overall I'm very happy with the lathe, A few changes ( fan shut off with the lathe turned off, different location for spindle lock, and less turns for min to max rpm) and it would be perfect.

[daryl moses]

Nice looking lathe! I really like the tail stock swing away feature.
Congrats on your new tool!!

[charlie knighton]

congratulations on your new lathe.....keep us posted every 6 months or so, would like some news on that lathe.......not much 1st hand owners news alavaliable

[David Delo]

Nice looking lathe Carl. Congrats on your new machine. So, what are you going to do with you 1642?

[Brian Kent]

You put a good spin on your review. Hope it turns out well. Quite a weighty decision.

[Richard Casey]

Hi Carl, good review.
I have the exact same lathe, arrived last August but runs a different motor for us downunder. It has taken me about 6 months to get used to its features after using my old homemade one I had since 1988. I had the same variable speed pot as you did and the one I have now is 10 turns stop to flatout. I bought a length of cable, a new 1 turn pot and was going to wire it up as a movable remote, but got used to the factory setup so i left it and now wont bother to change it.
The indexing pin took a while to get used to but I now love it for changing chucks and I only use the handwheel for slowing it down when I am using my monster Longworth chuck so I use an underhand grip and it works fine. My first turning was a semi-circular architectural decoration over a doorway for a church and it was 1.1metre or 44inches in diameter. Just slid the headstock to the right hand end and away I went. Last trip over there I had a good look at the other 2 lathes you mentioned, both excellent but the cost to bring one down here was out of control.
Regards,
Richard.
P.S. The only other thing i did was to buy 2 identical Steb drive centres and picked the size that was interchanable in my Nova live centre system ( cut it down til the taper was a match) so I can now reverse any spindle work accuratley.

[Reed Gray]

I haven't had a chance to play with a brushless DC motor yet. They are much better than the older DC motors. After being used to the 3/4 turn for speed range, I would have to adjust to the new knob. What are the speed ranges on the 2 pulleys? Looks like the difference is pretty huge. I do like a minimum of around 20 or less for sanding my warped bowls.

robo hippy

[carl mesaros]

Nice looking lathe Carl. Congrats on your new machine. So, what are you going to do with you 1642?

Hi David. I was able to sell the 1642 to a new turner just starting out.

[carl mesaros]

[QUOTE=Reed Gray;2417258]I haven't had a chance to play with a brushless DC motor yet. They are much better than the older DC motors. After being used to the 3/4 turn for speed range, I would have to adjust to the new knob. What are the speed ranges on the 2 pulleys? Looks like the difference is pretty huge. I do like a minimum of around 20 or less for sanding my warped bowls.

Hi Reed It has been an adjustment getting used to the speed control knob. For the life of me I can't see why it would be designed that way.
The low side pulley runs from 50 to 860 rpm the high side from 200 to 3500. I haven't had to switch to the low side very often as the torque is quite high even at low rpm on the high side.
I hope to see you again this summer. I attended the Beaver state woodturners meeting two years ago and met you then. (great pasties by the way)
My daughter lives in Eugene and we visit every summer. So I'll try to attend your August meeting.

[Roger Chandler]

I haven't had a chance to play with a brushless DC motor yet. They are much better than the older DC motors. After being used to the 3/4 turn for speed range, I would have to adjust to the new knob. What are the speed ranges on the 2 pulleys? Looks like the difference is pretty huge. I do like a minimum of around 20 or less for sanding my warped bowls.

robo hippy

Just to follow up on Reed's comments about brushless D/C motors........I did a good bit of research [reading] on D/C brushless motors. They are generally smaller than A/C motors for the same horsepower. they run cool, which extends their life, and are used in industry where demands for critical applications make them ideally suited. They can be fitted with encoders on the inside where it reads torque demands and then paired up with a controller, they are suited to applications that require torque at low speeds [think lathes] and they have proven reliable in these industrial settings.

That is a nice lathe........I looked at that unit several times online.........some nice features! I did not realize the pot required so much range to get the speed down, but I do like the swing away feature. The belts seem small to me, but perhaps it is because I am used to a j-poly ribbed style belt.

[carl mesaros]

Just to follow up on Reed's comments about brushless D/C motors........I did a good bit of research [reading] on D/C brushless motors. They are generally smaller than A/C motors for the same horsepower. they run cool, which extends their life, and are used in industry where demands for critical applications make them ideally suited. They can be fitted with encoders on the inside where it reads torque demands and then paired up with a controller, they are suited to applications that require torque at low speeds [think lathes] and they have proven reliable in these industrial settings.

That is a nice lathe........I looked at that unit several times online.........some nice features! I did not realize the pot required so much range to get the speed down, but I do like the swing away feature. The belts seem small to me, but perhaps it is because I am used to a j-poly ribbed style belt.

Thanks for the information on DC brushless motors. The drive belt is actually a v-belt. Hopefully it's up to the task. Haven't been able to make it slip yet.
Looking forward to your up coming GO766 review.

[Reed Gray]

Carl, I will be here for that meeting, though thinking about attending SWAT this year. Unfortunately, Cousin Jacks Pasty business has folded. His whole sale business killed him. Really sad to lose that type of high quality local food product. Now I have to find another source of convenient bachelor food....

Talking about motors, I need to investigate the motor that Stuart Batty had for his Omni Grinder. The company that makes the motor will be selling the machine eventually. I think it is a type of DC Brushless motor, but when Stuart tells me the company name, I forget before I can write it down.....

robo hippy

[Bob Dupras]

FWIW, I looked at the new 18-36 the other day at the Woodcraft in Pelham Alabama. The speed dial turns about 300 degrees from low to high, so I guess Laguna addressed this issue on the newer lathe.