Lathe addiction.

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Nick. It is indeed wonderful to have a great wife and we both have our respective hobbies. The best days work I ever did was in marrying Bronwyn and the second was retiring from active conflict in a stressful job aged 53. Yes my Clarke has some useful accessories with it and knowing it to be a one previous owner who looked after it I got a decent lathe for a fair price. Unfortunately both my bigger Myford's are it bits awaiting full restorations and as I dislike being without a working lathe Bron kindly bought me the Clarke.

It's interesting to learn a 500W version is available and if ever I need a new motor I'll consider upgrading. I've not used the Clarke yet but with winter now starting to bite I'll spend more time in the workshop. It always takes me a while to become familiar with a different lathe as they all have their own personalities.

http://www.machine-dro.co.uk/digital-rea...stems.html

One thing I've always avoided Nick is a lathe with DRO (Digital Read Out). I was brought up on lathes where I turned the handles for adjustments not press a button. I'm very old fashioned I know but I feel at one with a lathe when I'm in full control and not a box of electronics. I just know if I did buy a lathe with DRO with my luck it would cost a fortune to repair once the DRO went up in smoke. Of course you pay your money and take your choice. I don't even feel too happy with variable speed preferring a gearbox but as I say I'm old fashioned. I think you will agree though Nick that as long as we own a lathe we are happy. Thanks for adding the Axminster link.

Thanks David for the information; although I now own a Clarke lathe I actually know very little about them; I've seen the adverts many times but never considered owning such a small lathe in case I killed it. I think this Clarke might object if I put on a half inch cut. The Clarke is slowly growing on me though more each time I see it and I'm sure it will prove most useful once I start to use it. I was surprised by its capacity considering its small footprint. Our friend who was the previous owner said the lathe plus all the attachments would cost around £900 these days but I think he possibly refers to RRP as these Clarke lathes are sold at discount by a number of stores. I'm delighted with it and it might be one to keep. Thanks for adding the link David.

I've got a feeling David that one day you will be emailing me to let me know you've been tempted and bought a bigger lathe to keep your excellent Lorch company after all the Lorch must be lonely.

Once the Myford's are running again I'll need to make a decision and already I miss my big Colchester Triumph which I sold a few years ago. The Triumph was a beauty with all power feeds; 5HP main motor; gearbox and Matrix clutch. I let it go for two reasons; it was big and occupied a large footprint in the garage and I detested powering it through a Transwave converter. Both reasons are no longer valid; since packing in vintage radio I've now converted the workshop back to woodworking so this has released space in the garage. I've also now got 3 phase 415V installed up to 10HP through my home wound transformer so powering a Triumph is no longer a problem as the transformer would allow it to run on full power without a rattling converter to annoy me.

At the moment I'm just settling down to playing with the lathes and I'm upgrading my recently bought Union Jubilee. I don't need a big lathe in fact I never used the Triumph to capacity but to own such a lathe sure gives my ego a huge boost; boys and their toys.

Kind regards, Col.