Woo Hoo! It's Here!

[Bob Hallowell]

Just finished mounting the palmgren to it's new home. And turned a quick handle for the knock out rod Just so I try it out.

This thing is built like a tank compared to my grizzly. I am well pleased with it. The low end speed is real good, the reeves drive looks solidly built. No slop in the shaft on the tail stock. the centers match up perfectly. I mention all this cause those were some of the problems I had with the grizz.

I can't imagine how we got a lathe like this for $290. I can't even imagine how this only retails for $450.

I built this table for it, it's 30" high, 60" long and 18" wide. exect for the screw holding on the plywood top and bottom I used no bolts or screws everything is either mortised and tenoned with then doweled or dovetailed and doweled. I didn't want any of the joints to wobble. It's made out of some utility oak I surfaced done to 6/4. then I also put 150lbs of sand in the bottom.

Bob

[Bonnie Campbell]

Looks good! Very nice table ya made too (can I steal it? )

Still awaiting word on my order. No tracking info yet. But you give yours a good workout so all us that are waiting know how it'll do

[Mark Pruitt]

Way to go Bob! Git-R-Dirty!

[Bobby Perry]

Looks good Bob. Mine should be here tomorrow afternoon.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Go Bob Go!.............Congrats! What's it throw and low rpm?

[Bob Hallowell]

Ken,
I will turn a 15" inboard and a 20in outboard. and the Rpm's on palmgren website say they go down to 360. Which I beleive as it is much slower than the griz went.

Bob

[Steve Schlumpf]

Congrats Bob!! Looks like you are set to have a lot of fun! Looking forward to seeing some of your turnings from the new lathe!

[Andrew Eggleston]

That looks just like my craftsman lathe. I wonder who the real manufacturer is?

[Andrew Eggleston]

Bob,

The only thing I would warn you about this lathe is the main drive belt from the motor. It is a real pain to change out. In the two years I have had mine the belt has needed to be replaced twice. The small belt is about $30 bucks from Sears. Hopefully you can find another source.

I have turned at 14.5" platter with no problem without swivelling the head stock.

-andy

[Gilbert Vega]

I beleive that Palmgren builds the lathe for Sears.

[Dennis Peacock]

You go Bob!!!! Congrats on the new lathe!!! Now let's see some lathe curlies on that baby.

[John Hart]

Congratulations Bob!! Looks like you'll be disappearing from civilization for a while! Nice Bench!

[George Tokarev]

Think seriously about extending the stand's footprint in front of the lathe to counter the thrust of out-of-balance pieces. Can be as simple as laminating a triangular piece of the same stock as the legs to them, so no big deal about breaking the stand down. Swing plus maybe 25% should catch the vector. That way you'll be able to forego weighting. Weebles may not fall down, but they still wobble.

After you use it a bit, consider whether elevating the lathe bed on blocks will get clearance to haul trash from between the ways. Perhaps you'll discover you started a bit low, or perhaps you have some legs to trim.

[Bob Hallowell]

Thanks for the info George, I allready thought about extending the legs but wanted to wait a see how it worked as I do need one more thing to trip on in my messy shop.
As to cleaning out between the ways, the plywood top does not go underneath the lathe it goes just past where the bolts are So I could clean it and adjust the bolt on the tailstock and the rest.

Bob

[Bonnie Campbell]

Bob, I don't want to hijack your thread... I'm still in the 'thinking stage' of building a table for mine. Is it better to leave an open space under the rails to let dust and chips fall through? I hadn't thought about that before...