My New Lathe

[John Ziebron]

Back in March I started a thread about my downsizing my current, old Grizzly lathe and was asking for help in choosing a replacement. I did end up deciding and purchasing the Laguna Revo 1216. They offer a space age looking stand for it but with space being a premium in my shop I saw an opportunity to get more storage space. So with a sheet of solid core white oak I built a cabinet stand on casters with 8 drawers. I didn't have any white oak boards on hand but plenty of red oak so the face frame and drawer fronts are red oak. The formica counter top is a 4 foot one that I narrowed by 6 inches and cut the backsplash off; cost was $17.80 from Menards.

I wanted to alleviate the situation with the old lathe whereby a lot of chips ended up on the floor behind the lathe so I extended the back up about 20 inches. In that previous post some folks commented about the distance between centers and the limitation of bowl diameter if I ever decide to make bowls. With the 10 inch extension for this lathe it not only increases the distance between centers but it can also be used on the left side where it mounts in a lower position and allows for turning bowls up to 16 inches in diameter. Hence the reason for the hinged wings when the extension is used. And to ensure the wings are held securely closed I went with adjustable stud catches.

One of the things I didn't like about the Laguna was that the display is always on when the lathe in plugged in and I knew this before ordering. My fix took a few hours to implement but ended up serving 2 purposes. It gave me a line power on/off switch and also serves as an emergency stop switch on the tailstock end of the machine. The only other thing I didn't like, but didn't realize til I got the machine, is handle for the tailstock wheel. It was a grippy little ball on a stud but it didn't even turn free on the stud. Very disappointed in the engineer who did that design. Luckily, I had a spare handle to replace it with and it actually looks like it belongs.

I've only had a little time to play with it so far but I'm very happy with my decision. The weight of the cabinet, even without the drawers full yet, and the lathe firmly bolted to the top gives a solid feel while it's running.

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[Wally Crawford]

Nice job. I suspect material will build up quickly behind the lathe, but it will be easy to clean up. Sounds like a good trade off to me.

[Richard Coers]

I never leave a VFD plugged in. One close lightning strike and you have a fried VFD. If the strike is strong enough, it will jump the contacts in a switch.

[Bill Howatt]

Forgetting about lightning for the moment, I admit I'm torn between to leave it running at idle and frequently cycling the power. In the older days, cycling power on equipment was not seen as ideal but construction techniques and components have changed a lot. The big problem was not that the components were running but shutting the power off cooled the circuitry and then starting it up re-heated it. This caused the familiar expansion and contraction stresses which caused problems with plated-through holes, solder joints and internal lead to chip bonds in semiconductors.
Like I said, things aren't made the same now so I don't have much of an opinion. However, your domestic electronics are always idling (unless you manually break the power connection) since they have to be ready to respond to remote signals. You will likely find your home computer power supply is providing stand-by power when you have it turned off. Also, the now-common switching power supplies do have quite a start-up surge albeit a brief one.
Going back to the lightning, I do unplug my lathe in the summer when lightning is most frequent (when I remember) and my VFD is always on since the start/stop buttons really are only switching an internally derived low-voltage signal. Yes, a good strike will jump the contacts but I would imagine a strike that strong will take out most of the electronic equipment and more in the house.
BTW, I have a "whole house" protector installed at my electrical service panel.

[Robert Hayward]

Super nice lathe stand.

[John Ziebron]

Wally and Robert, thank you for your kudos.

Being an old electtronics technician I'm fully aware of all the aspects mentioned. Infant mortality in electronics is not near the issue it used to be thanks to better components and designs. We all have numerous wall warts and other devices drawing power in idle waiting for a remote or key press to wake them up. And in most cases that is a convenience that we choose live with. The surge when applying AC power to an electronics device does eventually take it's toll. And a lot of people don't realize that electronics has a powered on lifespan as well. The balance comes in as to how the device is used. With a lathe like this, for instance, if you were someone who uses it several times a week you likely wouldn't care if it were always plugged in. For me, turning is a miniscule part of my woodworking and will likely only power this lathe a dozen times a year. For all the rest of those thousands of hours I'd rather not have the electronics idle or see the digital readout being constantly on.

I have whole house surge protection as well as individual surge power strips for expensive electronics. Both serve a different purpose. Insurance companies indicate that about 6 1/2% of claims are due to lightening strikes. For me that means that I don't bother going around unplugging things every time there's a thunderstorm in the area. I know it happens, and I know people it's happened to, but I can say that in my almost 60 years of working with electronics I personally have never had a device fail due to lightening.