First I would like to thank John Keeton for allowing me to visit his shop and look at the tooling and fixtures he uses. It was a well worth while trip just to see his tools and his many beautiful turinings he had on hand.
I upgraded my PM 90 lathe to the Laguna Revo 18-36. I could have spent much more, but I am a hobbyist and this lathe fit to what I wanted. I just purchased the lathe and did not purchase the extended bed option that would allow a 32" swing. Maybe in time but not right now. I'll not go through the actual setup as there have been several post already. Laguna has a series of videos on the setup of the lathe and setup of every option for the lathe. I did watch those and they were most helpful in the unpacking. Assembly is fairly straight forward.
IMG_0985.JPG
I did all the normal check outs. I measured the spindle and did not see any runout at all. Th indicator just did not move for either the spindle face or shaft.. Tail stock alignment was also very good.
IMG_0986.JPG IMG_0987.JPG
The PM 90 was set against the wall. I decided to set the 18-36 90 degrees giving me access to the end to take advantage of the sliding head stock for bowl turning. The design of the legs made it easy to add ballast. I built a wood box and was able to pack 275 lbs of sand into it. Four 50 lb. bags and a bunch of gallon bags filled with sand to fill it up. I made pullouts instead of drawers that would hold various tooling. The thin white piece of plastic covers the shelves, but more important I just lift out to dump the shavings that fall between the ways. With the wood and tooling I probably have 325-350 lbs of ballast.
IMG_0989.JPG IMG_0990.jpg IMG_0991.jpg
Theses are my likes and dislikes
likes
it is quiet, however at top speed there is a strong fan in the motor
the height is very good for me, however Laguna does offer a riser kit
the legs are splayed giving it stability
speed control is good at holding speed
theses are features I like and I did not have before
speed range with easy belt change I was limited to 350-2100 rpm on the PM 90
reverse, I do like sanding in reverse
indexing
cone shape, I like not having the head stock right against the chuck.
Threaded hand wheel for making a vacuum adapter
banjo tool post locking works very well
banjo clamp handle is longer
disklikes
I don't like the little ball on the tail stock wheel, I will eventually replace it with a handle
placement of the banjo post locking handle, don't leave it on the same side as the clamp handle or you will pinch your fingers
Placement of the emergency stop switch. It would be better if it was placeable/remote as if you are turning a bowl and it lets go you would have to reach across the remaining work to stop the lathe
smaller hand wheel, I'm getting use to it
problems
the only problem I encountered was the set screw came loose on the tail stock hand wheel. They could have used a larger set screw. I put some blue thread lock on it.
Laguna Customer Service
I called Laguna to get information on a thread size. While on the phone I got another call from Laguna. There was a message to call back and I did. They were following up to see if I had encountered any problems. This was positive to me.