Excelsior lathe - sale at Rockler

bbrown

Bill
User
Hello folks,
Looking for some advice on this lathe:


Sale price for the lathe is $230 and bed extension is $50.
I don't turn bowls so wide swing is not necessary.
I mostly do period legs up to a max of about 32" long and 3" wide max (typically 2 3/4" wide).
Is this enough power or basically more of a pen turning lathe?

Thanks for any input...

--Bill
 

Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
1/2 hp motor will turn spindles but with med- larger bowls, it will not have enough torque to handle the size / weight and inertia , it will just slow down and frustrate you.
My old motor on my lathe was 1hp, it was not enough, now I have 1.75hp motor and it is close to enough to handle the big work I do.

FYI- hp is not a good measure for understanding how the machine will handle. Torque and how it is geared will provide how something might perform under load and strain. To find torque I ll assume the rated rpm of the motor is 1725, the gearing will provide 220 - 3200 rpm so HP x 5252 ÷ RPM = torque or
.5 x 5252 / 1725 = 1.5223 ft lb of torque my 1.75 hp motor puts out 5.3 lb of torque. Slower speed will have less power but more torque because of the gearing, this stuff gets into a lots techie engineering stuff for another conversation. Bottom line better stronger motor better performing unit.
 

bbrown

Bill
User
Hah, you lost me on the math here (And I've got a graduate degree, just not in engineering :))
I don't do bowls, but as mentioned do table legs up to 3" diameter.
I'm gathering that the bottom line here is that this motor is more suited to pen turning, but I like the price point for sure and it would be nice if were able to handle my needs.
Thanks,

--Bill
 

jcz

Johnny
Corporate Member
I had that lathe for a while. It performed as needed but the fit and finish of it is rough. The handle to raise the motor for changing the belts was small and had sharp edges. I mostly used it with a beall buffing system. It’s power seemed fine for that.
I saw somewhere a couple weeks ago jet had their smaller lathe on sale for $299.
 

marinosr

Richard
Corporate Member
I routinely turn pieces up to 4" diameter with a 1/3HP motor with absolutely zero issues. (The motor is from the 1930s when HP ratings weren't gamed as they are now though.) Never once has it bogged down even with heavy roughing cuts. I don't think the motor will be an issue. (I'm not an expert Turner though.)
 

Roy G

Roy
Senior User
Bill, you would probably be better off if you looked for an old Delta lathe on Craigslist or similar. That would give you the swing and distance between centers you need for spindle turning and you could put on a larger motor if you needed. They're not that rare and tend to show up for sale frequently. If you put out a request here on NCWW you may get some members with a lathe for sale.

Roy G
 

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