Test Drive - Serious Toolworks SL-2542

[Roger Chandler]

Well, I finally had my opportunity to take a test drive on the Serious Toolworks SL-2542. I am not sure what the "SL" stands for, but it well may be "Super Lathe!" What a magnificent machine! Talk about stable....that thing is rock solid, even with unbalanced wood on it, and smooth as silk!

Tom Zepada became a regional rep for Serious Toolworks after the Atlanta AAW symposium, and he had his at the Virginia Symposium last week. Scott Trumbo knew that I had been wanting to take one for a spin, so he gave me a heads up and arranged for Tom to host me for the test run.

I was actually surprised because I thought the price would be higher than Tom mentioned. For a premium lathe that weighs in at just shy of 1600 lbs. the price Tom mentioned was $7295.00 plus shipping, which for that much weight, will be considerable.

The engineering, features and premium components of that beast are truly impressive! I have turned on a number of different makes and models.....from mini's, midi's, Jet 1642's, Powermatic 3520b's [11 of them to date], my 2 Grizzly models, a Robust American Beauty [I really like it!], and now this Serious SL- 2542. This SL-2542 is as impressive a lathe as I have ever turned on.

I roughed out a fairly big piece of maple [my guess is about 18" diameter]. And even though it had an area on one side that had some bark, and began to curve, making it unbalanced, that SL-2542 tamed that blank like a schoolboy taken to the woodshed!

I much appreciate both Tom and Scott arranging for me to test drive this beast! I will likely purchase one more lathe in my lifetime - my dream lathe, and this test run has certainly given me much to consider! I will be relocating at some point and at present my shop cannot accommodate that kind of weight, but when I get my new shop built, this lathe is certainly in consideration as well as the Robust AB.

I thought folks on this forum might like to hear information regarding this Serious Toolworks SL-2542, so I post to make the info and my perspective available to the readers.

Correction: the price according to the Serious Toolworks website is $7795 f.o.b. at Oregon. Tom did say $7295 at the symposium, but he was not sure on that, so I will cut him some slack........there were lots of folks around talking to him, so he just misspoke while trying to deal with all the folks at his booth.

[Barry Richardson]

Thanks for thew review Roger, I looked at them (on line) a while back and they didn't have a pendant control, I was wondering it they do now?

[Roger Chandler]

Thanks for thew review Roger, I looked at them (on line) a while back and they didn't have a pendant control, I was wondering it they do now?

The one that Tom had at the Virginia Symposium had a pendant control on it. It was an on/off pendant, I believe, as I used the speed dial to control rpm's. There have been some upgrades along the way.........I think the newer ones now come with the pendant, but you would have to speak with Scott Trumbo to get the specifics of that to be certain. It also has a soft start feature, so the lathe ramps up under control with an unbalanced blank.

[Robert Willing]

http://www.serioustoolworks.com/wood-lathes.php

[Brian Kent]

I suppose you didn't need to add sandbags, right?

[Roger Chandler]

I suppose you didn't need to add sandbags, right?

Not hardly!

[Roger Chandler]

Scott read my comments in the OP, and sent me more info on the SL2542, especially about the control pendant........see below. I have included contact numbers in case further info is desired by anyone wanting more information on this fine lathe.

MOVEABLE

The SL2542 is the heaviest traditional wood lathe made in this swing and distance between centers, and yet it is the only full size lathe that includes 3 wheels as standard equipment on every machine. One man can easily move this lathe on a firm surface. A turner interested in the SL2542 called me several days to inquire about moving the lathe across a gravel parking lot. This is not hard. Two sheets of 1” plywood and you’re home.
STABILITY & QUIETNESS
The wood lathe is the only piece of woodworking equipment in the shop where the workpiece is moving quickly and the cutting device is stationary. Stop and think about the stresses on a wood lathe in a physics sense. Often the centrifugal force is very uneven due to blanks that aren’t perfectly round or blanks with varying densities. What is the best answer to this problem. Is applying “ballast” to the lathe effective? “Ballast” is not integral to the lathe construction and can move around. A wood lathe needs mass and it must be low, built in, and significant. The motor, motor drive, and widest part of the motor cabinet are within 8” of the floor on the SL2542. It is two and a half times heavier at 1580 pounds, than most large lathes. There is not a quieter and more stable wood lathe made. Fastening the machine to the floor is not needed.
TORQUE DELIVERY
Every SL2542 comes with a standard 3 HP motor. This is generous power, but adding the vector motor drive provides amazing torque at low RPM, and it provides the capability of delivering really heavy cuts with no RPM loss. The torque delivery in all RPM ranges of the SL2542 is unmatched. Two of the largest wood lathe makers in North America do not offer vector drive.


There are other fine and useful features such as digital indexing and fast tailstock quill advancement, but I won’t take your time now to describe these and their use.


We do not use the swinging control pendant feature on the SL2542. All of the controls are at the headstock panel, with an additional cabled magnetized E-stop box. As an option we have custom wired all of the controls into the cabled box.



Please contact Scott Trumbo(1-800-411-1484) or Tom Zepeda (540-683-5144) with any questions on the SL2542 or their line of lathe tools.

[Adam Petersen]

Are you at all concerned or put off by the 1 1/2 - 8 spindle thread (probably not so much this) or the fact that the head and tailstock are #3 morse tapers? Would you be able to replace the morse tapers on your current tools so they'd work with this? I don't see a lot of advertisements for #3 at the traditional websites, but I assume a lot of tools are probably able to be interchanged. Any thoughts or concerns regarding that?

[Doug Ladendorf]

1.5" x 8tpi is the same as the Powermatic 90, Conover, and Southbend metal lathes. There are accessories and chuck adapters available. MT3 to MT2 adapters are also available to use commonly available tooling. I wonder though if Serious offers their own tooling in these sizes.

[Roger Chandler]

+1 on Doug's comment on the availability of chuck adapters, etc for this size spindle...........pretty common fare from what I have seen over the last few years.