Response To Light

I have had my Nova 1624 Lathe for a almost 6 months. It is a quality machine. However as easy as it is to do, I hate changing the belt to change speeds and a small vibration has creeped into it that I cannot seem to get rid of. I have replaced the belt, made sure it’s level relative the floor of my garage and have even tried different chucks to no avail. Maybe it’s time to start thinking about a new, more powerful lathe. Something with variable speed, larger capacity, more horsepower, and something that will quench my lust for bigger and better.

I initially thought I had a great deal on a Powermatic 3560b. It turned out to be not true. At the same time I started reexamining the Busybee’s Craftex CT128. Essentially this is a rebranded Laguna Platinum Series 18/47 Lathe. In the past I have used a Laguna 18″ Bandsaw. It’s awesome. Quality really shines through and the accuracy of the cuts was great. When I was thinking about getting a new lathe back in November this was on the short list but the price was bit more and I needed to put in a 220v circuit so the Nova won. Considering it had many of the same features of the Powermatic, the price has since been reduced by $300, and I didn’t mind putting in a new circuit, the Craftex CT128 was back on the board.

I have to say from a customer service point of view, my experience could not have been better. Since I did not have my truck, I needed to take apart the box at the store. The manufacturer really had everything locked down to make sure nothing shifted in transport. Once in the Jeep I headed home with my new purchase. It would have been nice if I could have just brought it home, put it together and started turning. That was not to be the case as I already didn’t have any space in my shop.

In order to make this work, I ended up taking out my first workbench which was a feat by itself. I had lots of stuff stored on, in and under it. I then struggled to move my new workbench where the old one lived. With that done and a little (or maybe a lot) of cleaning, I was finally able to start moving all of the components into the shop. While everything was heavy, I was able to manage things reasonably well. it took about an hour and half to put everything together including cleaning the lathe off.

It’s at this time that you really start to take notice of the build quality of the lathe and honestly I was a little disappointed. Despite tightening the handwheel there is still a lot of play in the tailstock and the handwheel feels cheap. The outside casting of the banjo was rough and I had to play with it for a little bit to make sure that it would adequately tighten. The tool rest was also not to my liking. In it’s current configuration it would be really hard to do to pull cuts. If anything it’s pushing the gouge away.The tool rest on my Nova is actually one of the better tool rests that I have seen. Well, no problem, I’ll just use the tool rest from my Nova. Wait. The hole is too small. In fact none of my extra tool rests fit. I wasn’t too happy about that. In the end I retrofitted my whole tool rest from my Nova onto the Craftex. It’s fairly finicky but so far it is working. If the hole were just a bit bigger that would have been great.

The headstock is another area of concern. On the Nova, there is a simple spindle lock. Pull out knob, turn upwards, and then it automatically lock the spindle. On the Craftex there are four holes on the headstock. Three holes are for indexing and the third is the spindle lock. My main problem is if you use the spindle lock it’s either in or you have to take it out. There is a really good chance to loose it while working. Plus it’s a bit of a pain to get out if you actually use it for indexing. I actually had to grab pliers once to unscrew it. In addition there is no handwheel and it looks like a bit of work to add one. Also after using a 4 prong Spur Center for a large bowl blank, I could not get it out with just the knock out tool. I actually needed a hammer to get it out. Lastly, despite my best efforts, I still have yet to be able to get everything perfectly level so it doesn’t take much speed to get it walking about the shop (On my Nova, it only did this once when I set the belt too high on a large unbalanced bowl blank).

So how does this compare with my Nova? With the exception of the variable speed and a bit more capacity both in swing and distance between centers, the Nova is a better lathe. The fit and finish is top notch through out. Since they are side by side in the shop it becomes obvious the choices each manufacturer took in building their lathes and now that I have something to compare it to, I really think Teknatool made all of the right decisions.

Let me say this….For a $1000 I recognize that there will be some compromises. I think had I not been turning for awhile most of this would have gone over my head. The Craftex does have the things that I wanted - Larger capacity and Variable Speed (The verdict is still out about power. I was able to easily stall it in the high speed range. I have since move the belt to low speed for more torque.). Despite the issues I have expressed, you do get a lot of lathe for the money. However as someone who is really focused on turning, the smaller details have me worried. I really don’t want to buy another lathe and then have to get another one in a year. While the Powermatic is thousands of dollars more, I am seriously considering spending the money to get one.

I know there are lots of people who have this so I would be interested in knowing their thoughts.

It’s got rough spots but it works…

For the past 5 months I have been looking for a new jointer. When I first started woodworking 4 years ago (has it really been long?), I purchased a Mastercraft 6” Bench Jointer. While it has served me well, it only worked for shorter pieces and it seemed to tear out everything except soft wood. Given that I am now a committed woodworker for life, I decided I really needed to get a “real jointer”. I went to all of the woodworking shops in my area but I couldn’t really find a deal. While I wanted a jointer, I could not justify the $450 – $750 price that everyone was asking. While doing a quick search of Kijiji, I found an old King 6” jointer at a decent price. I quickly went to pick it up, put new blades in it but after two days of trying to adjust the knives, I gave up. No matter what I did, one blade was always higher than the others.

The day before Christmas I decided to purchase a Veritas Bevel Up Jointer with a fence. Strangely enough, they didn’t have any and wouldn’t have new stock until mid January. After this, I gave up.

About a month ago, a flyer came in the mail from KMS Tools (one of my new favorite places to shop for tools). They had an incredible special on their Maxwood 6” Deluxe Jointer for $299. Maxwood is their house brand – although they are doing away with this line. This jointer normally sells for $549 which is a pretty good price but the $299 is incredible. While I am aware of the “dangers” of buying off brand equipment, I decided this was too good a deal to pass up. I drove the hour up to Red Deer and purchased it.

When I got home, I immediately went about putting it together. First let me say that the instructions are terrible. I actually went online to find instructions for several other manufacturers in effort to figure out how to put everything together. I was able to figure out most of it but by no means was it easy.

In the end, there were two issues. 1) The belt was too tight. Every time I tried to joint a piece of wood, it would trip the circuit breaker. 2) The fence was skewed.

I know I could have adjusted the motor to fix the belt issue and have been done with it. However I really didn’t want to start fussing with and everything else that needed adjustments. In the end, I bought a couple of feet of linked belt and used it instead. Using the correct length, I immediately fixed the tension in the belt.

It is hard to explain how the fence was skewed except to say that two holes were not in alignment and this caused the fence to not be straight. To fix this I used one of the holes and just had to tighten the screw against the fence assembly itself. This is clearly not ideal but it worked. There is still a bit of a skew but only about a 1/2 inch. This is acceptable.

Once this was fixed, I spent more time getting everything aligned. Getting the fence perfectly square was an exercise in patience. It seemed that every time I tightened up the fence adjustments, it would come out of square ever so slightly. It took me about 45 minutes before I finally nailed it. With everything working and aligned I could finally use it.

You might think that with all of these issues I might be unhappy. You would be wrong. With everything adjusted, this jointer works great! Taking light passes and a slow feed, I can now get reference edges in all of my rough lumber. I checked both tables and the fence for flatness and everything checked out. I knew going in that this might take a bit of work and there was a certain amount of risk but for the price the results have been worth it. The 1 hp motor seems powerful enough to handle what I have thrown at it so far. I only take light passes so this should be fine. The surfaces are smooth and square. Tear out is minimal even in difficult grain. Recently I have been recycling wood pallets. The extra long bed has been very helpful here. With the exception of the fence all other adjustments are good. That said, I do wish adjusting the fence were easier. One other note: I do like having the power switch high.

I am giving it three stars assuming I had to pay full price. In comparison to some of the other jointers I have used in the past, the fit and finish is not quite the same as some of the General’s or Delta’s I have used. That said the jointer is working quite well doing what it’s suppose to. At the discounted price, I would it give four stars. You get a lot of jointer for the money.

Hope this helps!

Tim

PS – I would be interested to know if anyone else has this jointer or even what jointer this is based on.

Over two years ago I decided to upgrade from my Ryobi 10″ Bandsaw. I wanted to create my own veneer and I there was no way I was going to be able to do that on my Ryobi. Thankfully there was a Woodworking Show going on and Black Forest Wood was having a phenomenal sale on tools. I picked up a King 14″ 1HP bandsaw with a 6″ riser, a resaw fence and some Viking blades. It took about a week but I eventually put everything together and started to put it to use. I can’t say that the first year was a success. I ruined lots of expensive wood trying to create veneers. A year later at the Calgary Woodworking Show, I asked Mike (who I buy most of my Viking Bandsaw blades from) what the problem was. He said I should tighten the tension on the blade. It seems simplistic but that largely did the trick.

So what else have I done?

I changed the default belt out to a linked one.

I have added a Cobra Coil Tensioning Spring

I have already mention that I added a riser so I resaw

I also added resaw fence.

Lastly, I added a Blade Quick Release. House of Tools was selling them for $40 on clearance. As they normally sell for $100-$150, it seemed like a good deal.