I’m not a wood turner…yet. I’ve used a wood lathe only once. It was in high school wood shop class. I made a bowl for my mom. Every wood shop should have a lathe, and this missing tool has actually been needed on several occasions. Many hours have been spent considering which lathe to get. The use cases encountered thus far have primarily involved the need to make custom sized or featured dowels for furniture repair, and the desire to make spindle-type parts without the ability to do so. But bowls and lamps–and turning generally–has always been an interest.
A recent use case involved creating a custom dowel for a chair repair. A leg had been broken off the chair, leaving a mangled tenon on the leg, half of which was still embedded in the mortise, which was 0.8″ in diameter–good luck finding a 0.8″ dowel, To make matters worse, the tenon had to be cut off of the leg and replaced with a hole to receive a dowel. The upshot is, a dowel with a diameter of 0.8″ on one side, and 0.75″ on the other side, was needed for the repair.
This was accomplished with the Shaper Origin, which did a great job, but this would have been so much easier with a lathe.
Although midi lathes were initially considered, since it is still unknown how much a lathe will actually get used, a full size, 18″x40″, 2 HP 220v machine with outboard turning capability was ultimately chosen. If there is one thing that has been learned on this journey, it is that more power and capacity is always a good thing.
A Record Power Regent was selected. Many alternatives were considered within the $3,000-$4000 (fully spec’d) price range, including Powermatic, Harvey, Laguna, Oneway, Rikon, Jet, Grizzly, and others. The Regent was selected for it’s value, fit and finish, rotating and sliding head stock, capacity, and British retro styling. Lathes are very simple machines. What really matters is weight, power, capacity, electronic variable speed, solid cast iron construction, fit and finish, and ergonomics.
In CCW’s inexperienced estimation, the Regent offers the best mix of these features at this price point. It offers a true two-plus horsepower at the spindle, a European made inverter, a heavy cast iron chassis and legs (352 pounds as pictured), huge capacity, ample tail stock quill travel, electronic variable speed, three sealed bearing spindle, five year warranty, and a rotating sliding head stock. It also has nice old-school styling, beautiful castings, nicely machined ways with good surface finish, very nice lever locks for all of the components, and a magnetic pendant control box. Very nicely done by an old British tool company with a great reputation for customer service. It was also helpful that there is a local dealer with floor models on display.
As the proprietor of this shop is an older guy, the rotating head stock had considerable appeal because it allows the turner to present the work toward the operator for hollowing out bowls, as well as permitting increased outboard turning capacity compared to table extension-based outboard turning configurations. It is unlikely that the full capacity of this setup will be used, and it would not be optimal if one was regularly turning very large projects, but it is nice to be able to accommodate the edge case need once in a while if necessary.
Initial impressions of the Regent: It was very well crated and was undamaged. All the parts were present and, apart from the usual cleaning process associated with cast iron tools, assembly was very easy. The instructions are lacking and inaccurate in places, but it is readily apparent how things go together. Fit and finish is good, and quite a bit better than some competitors at this price point. The lathe is smooth and quiet. Belt changes are easy and the middle range, which runs from 150-1850 RPM, should handle 90% of projects. Some websites publish the specs for this machine inaccurately in that they report minimum spindle RPM as 250. Actually, the minimum is 70-80 (I’m getting 70, which is plenty slow enough). And did I mention the aesthetics?
The lathe is not yet in its proper location because some electrical, dust collection and tool storage work is yet to be done. An update will be posted when it is in its final home.
Wood turning projects are on the way!