Opinion wanted

[shad309]

Ok fellers, after seeing these calls and receiving some from you, the bug has hit for me to try my hand. I found a used Craftsman 12" wood lathe for less than $100. It appears to be in good shape and works? (know nothing about them). I'm not sure of the model #, but do you think this would be a good starter?

[Bulldogmikey]

Very basic and inexpensive. The one's I've seen only have single speed. If you can I would buy as good as I couls afford!

Mike

[Gitzit69]

I started out with a craftsman 12 inch. Not sure what model you have, if it's like the one in this link it will work for pots and strikers but it's a real pain to use. It's not belt driven, more like a big o-ring that constantly breaks at the wrong time. You can change the speed by moving the belt (O-RING) on the pulleys. My dad bought me mine for Christmas and I did make it work. I wanted to turn pots, he thought I wanted to make duck calls.
I turned my first 50 or so pots with it.
http://products.howstuffworks.com/craftsman-12-inch-mini-lathe-22106-review.htm

This is what I'm using now, every so often there on sale for 200.00 with the bed extension. There somewhere between a Harbor Freight lathe and a Jet. Craftsman sells a similar model for 399.00 and a Jet runs around 400.00
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=19446&filter=lathe