Any Serious Lathe Owners Here?

[Geoff Whaling]

Geoff, numerous turners have made a pendant control box for their lathes......3520b's, Jets, etc. I would guess that the same could be done for the Serious SL2542......I wonder if that is an option that might be available for that lathe? If not, at least an emergency stop could be made by most turners with a magnet on the back to be placed near the tailstock.

Roger I think you and many others are missing the point - turners shouldn't have to modify a brand new lathe to make it "safer" to use.

[Roger Chandler]

Roger I think you and many others are missing the point - turners shouldn't have to modify a brand new lathe to make it "safer" to use.

Not missing your point at all Geoff.....I think it would be best if all lathes came with a control pendant that could be placed out of the line of fire. Using your logic and applying it to pickup trucks....the potential for injury is always there when we unload anything heavy in/out of the bed....especially our back. Every pickup should have a dump bed feature and a tailgate lift mechanism.

Of course they don't all come that way.....but, one can dream! Are the truck manufacturers obligated to put those features on the truck because they know every user will be loading and unloading heavy items? My point, is that the lathes on the market are what they are. We turners could begin communicating with all vendors and tell them we want that feature on all new lathes, but we had better be prepared to pay a good bit extra.

I think it's sort of like anti-lock brakes.....you get the features you are willing to pay for. BTW, I do appreciate your safety conscience-ness, and enjoy your comments .....many have been helped by them, no doubt!

[Barry Richardson]

Thanks for the info Roger, and all the feedback from you guys, I think I will give Scott a call and see if they are coming to the Desert Roundup this month in Mesa (A regional turners convention similar to SWAT) or maybe have a lathe there...

[Barry Richardson]

Somehow I thought the Serious had a control pendant, musta been another one I was looking at. Safety is of course important, but to me the drawback is a practical one. I spend a good deal of time on the off-side of the lathe cause I get a better angle for hollowing, if I want to stop or change speeds, I have to walk around to the front of the lathe, or reach around the headstock,...... a hassle, I will have to address that with Scott...

[Geoff Whaling]

Not missing your point at all Geoff.....I think it would be best if all lathes came with a control pendant that could be placed out of the line of fire. Using your logic and applying it to pickup trucks....the potential for injury is always there when we unload anything heavy in/out of the bed....especially our back. Every pickup should have a dump bed feature and a tailgate lift mechanism.

Of course they don't all come that way.....but, one can dream! Are the truck manufacturers obligated to put those features on the truck because they know every user will be loading and unloading heavy items? My point, is that the lathes on the market are what they are. We turners could begin communicating with all vendors and tell them we want that feature on all new lathes, but we had better be prepared to pay a good bit extra.

I think it's sort of like anti-lock brakes.....you get the features you are willing to pay for. BTW, I do appreciate your safety conscience-ness, and enjoy your comments .....many have been helped by them, no doubt!

There is no question that you get the features you are willing to pay for - even medium and small economy cars have some form of vehicle stability control, ABS systems now. I would expect a heck of a lot more from a $8k Serious SL2542 over say a $3.3k Grizzly G0800. Both have exactly the same design flaw, hazards and risk profile when turning large work! The risk profile is vastly different for small, medium or spindle turning projects. The potential for serious injury is amplified by the placement of E-stops in hazardous positions on larger projects.

Its not quite like pickup design - vehicle manufacturers go to great lengths to establish an ergonomic cabin design and placement of essential controls which suits the majority of people - a wide anatomical range (btw most lathe stands on the market aren't adjustable in height!). If pick up manufacturers designed the placement of the ignition switch, accelerator, and a range of other controls in the same manner lathe manufacturers do perhaps we would have have to climb into the passenger side or into the pickup tray to access them during some "normal" operation of the vehicle.

If we use the pickup vehicle analogy, vehicles are most often operated from the drivers seat and not from the passenger seat or pickup tray. However it is slightly different with hand wood turning, as turners quite often adopt a stance on the near side, off side, end, or out board to access a turning. Then we have left & right handed turners. I think a closer analogy would be a little more like backhoe control design or even better analogy - truck crane controls - dual control panels accessible from "normal" operator positions with essential controls adopting priority from each operator position and keeping the operator out of harms way. We are talking about turners adopting one of the four typical stances when addressing a lathe.

You do have a good point about tailgate lift mechanisms - at least some lathe and accessory manufacturers are designing swing away and / or hydraulic tail stock accessories. May be we should be asking for small swing away cranes as an option on larger lathes.

Turners shouldn't have to dream about well thought out control placement. The basic design of a wood lathe has been unchanged for centuries, so one would think that operators and designers would have a pretty good understanding of where to place controls by now. The simple answer is as you say a re-positionable pendant - but that costs for an IP65 enclosure, a few magnets and a longer wiring harness.

The Serious lathe has a lot of great features and looks to be a very capable work horse but it could be even better with perhaps $100 more invested in a re-positionable control panel. Vicmarc and quite a few other manufacturers are listening to their customers and are implementing "Seperate electronic variable speed box that can be mounted away from the lathe and magnetic switch box that can be positioned anywhere you are working."

I agree, turners should definitely be saying what they expect to get in a lathe but more importantly telling retailers why they lost a sale - because the control placement is unsafe, etc etc or I am prepared to pay $100 extra to get a pendant control that I can place where I want it.

[Jeffrey J Smith]

Barry - since you don't seem intimidated by either the cost or the offshore components, you might want to look at the Magma Black Line Titan 400 (German, I think) and the UK-designed but now German-made (available from Craft Supplies) VB-36. Both are capable of swinging large diameters and built like the proverbial tank. I may be able to put you in touch with the owner of a Titan if you're interested...Neither of these lathes get a lot of mention here in the states.

[Pete Jordan]

Iv'e got one and love it

[Roger Chandler]

You know.....it would be great if turners who own a Serious SL2542 would post about their experiences, and what it is that they like about that lathe.

[Geoff Whaling]

Or an Omega Stubby - S750 or S1000 lathe. Not the bed length of the Serious lathe but a very well engineered lathe. The AUD conversion is very much in favour of US purchasers at the moment.

[Thomas Bennett]

Barry , Why do you need all that weight? I had a Powermatic 3520B and added a welded steel box filled with 300 lbs of sand to help with large turnings, coring, etc. Without the weight , I found the Powermatic would bounce and jump all over the place. When I switched to the American Beauty , I never got around to adding weight or bolting it to the floor. I turn a lot of large items. I made a 48 inch faceplate for off center wall pieces. I make pedestal/plant stands with 16-20 inch x 36 inch logs. I turn the big stuff slow and have not had any problems .
The Serious looks like a fine machine with many interesting features. I would be proud to own one. I just don"t get why you would buy it solely because of the added weight.

[John Sincerbeaux]

I have a German made VB36, w tail stock. It's bolted to my shop floor (concrete). It is rock solid, zero vibration, and whisper quiet.
A lot has been mentioned here about a pendant control. The VB has a control box on a chord that you can put anywhere on the lathe (strong magnet). But what is more important to me is the foot switch. I can't imagine hollowing without it. When I hollow, I use maybe three different speeds total so I rarely ever need to be anywhere near a speed control. But I turn the lathe on and off hundreds of times during the hollowing process so the foot switch is king.
Last thing! The noise generated by metal tube lathes are to me, disturbing. I learned to hollow large hollow forms on a Oneway 2436. A friend of mine hollows large HF's on his AB. When you're banging away on those first cuts, the energy that transmits down from the tool rest into the steel tube can be.... Well, very loud! My VB is considerably more quiet.
Did I say I love my VB😜

[Roger Chandler]

It is truly amazing how an inquiry for information on a particular lathe, turns into a veritable plethora of advocacy for different lathes! Not a complaint at all, ...but I just find it to be an interesting phenomenon!

[Roger Chandler]

Iv'e got one and love it

Pete, do you have a Serious SL2542 or one of the other lathes mentioned here..........that was not clear in your post since it came after a post about a Titan 400 and a Vb-36.

If you do have a Serious SL2542, would you post about why you love it? I think most of us turners like to hear others assessments of equipment on the market......it helps inform us as to what is available, and the experiences with such equipment. Seems that is part of why we all frequent the forums.

[Roger Chandler]

Okay, about this pendant.........I just went back and watched the video of the SL2542, and it does indeed have an emergency stop pendant on it that can be positioned anywhere on the lathe. It is not a full lathe control pendant, but a red mushroom type button that shuts the lathe off.

Just thought that should be added to this thread since it was a matter of discussion here. My bad for not remembering that fact, as it has been probably 18 months or better since I watched that video, but like I tell some folks.......the older I get, the better my forgetter works!

[Geoff Whaling]

Okay, about this pendant.........I just went back and watched the video of the SL2542, and it does indeed have an emergency stop pendant on it that can be positioned anywhere on the lathe. It is not a full lathe control pendant, but a red mushroom type button that shuts the lathe off.

I did notice the E-stop pendant in the Serious lathe video. It is a very good & commendable safety improvement however a turner still has to access the speed control from a potentially unsafe zone or cross an unsafe zone to make speed adjustments. Hopefully all lathe manufacturers will follow the Serious E-Stop example as a minimum design requirement.

I'm not sure why hobbyists accept machines that have potentially very dangerous machine control placement and designs that would fail industrial machine hazard analysis.