My Current Crop of Lathes

(Metal turning, wood turning, plastic turning, and metal spinning)

Copyright 2002 by James P. Riser

 

 

 


Over the years I have owned and sold a variety of lathes. The lathes shown on this page are the current selection found in my home shop and help me earn my living. These lathe pictures have been posted for the enjoymant of other machinery fanatics. I work in metals, plastics, and wood - so I have a variety of lathes.

There is no such thing as having too many lathes!


My smallest lathe is this watchmaker's lathe for metals and plastics

This is my 9" Southbend Model A metal lathe in action.

The latest in my colection is this 11" x 18" Sheldon Lathe. It is still in the "rough" stage in this image.

Click here to see the restoration progress of my "new" Sheldon Lathe.

My favorite mini wood lathe is this 9" Record Mini Lathe.

 

Here it is set up for wood turning

and metal spinning.

This lathe is excellent for spinning

thimbles and candle cups etc.

 

 

 

I made the bed extension to give me extra space when drilling.

 

I use this 12" Delta variable speed lathe for metal spinning and wood turning.

Here it is set up for wood turning...........

..............and for metal spinning.

The very heavy duty spinning live center shown here is a May Tools center.

This heavy duty spinning live center is an old Grabo center.

 

 

 

The 12" variable speed J-Line lathe is very heavy duty and used for wood turning and metal spinning.

This is my favorite wood lathe - about 650 pounds of stability.

 

 

 

 

My wood turning center - complete with mess!

 

 

Here are examples of some of my wood turnings.

 

 

 

 


Several wood turning types might want to see what my grinder looks like. The wheel on the left is 1" thick and the smoothing wheel on the right is 1 1/2" thick.

It is a three phase 1.5 horsepower 1725 rpm 10" grinder (heavy duty).


Lately I have been doing much metal spinning. Shown below are my lathes devoted only to metal spinning.

 

These are Spinmaster or Karle Spin Shop Lathes and are extremely heavy duty. Note the sliding tailstocks.

These are 12" swing lathes.

 

 

 

 

 

I made this 24" swing spinning lathe from a Chinese 3-in-1 machine.

It would also make a nice bowl turning lathe for wood turning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is my 2600 pound 26" swing Haag metal spinning lathe.

It is a real pleasure to use this massive lathe.

 

 

 

This is an example of my metal spinning.

To keep up with the times, I have recently added CNC capabilities to my shop with this small lathe.

My latest lathe is this EMCO Compact 5 PC lathe.

Click here to see my latest "Project Lathe".

Click here to go to my home page.