[Woodworkers] Best Lathe

[Rick Allen]

I use a Oneway 2436 3HP.  I have been using this lathe for nearly 20 years.  When I first bought the lathe I was disappointed.  I had been using a Record Power CL something with 12” swing and a swivel head that let me turn larger stuff.  The Record was a nice lathe and I turned a lot of stuff using that lathe.  When I got the Oneway I was expecting it to be 4 or 5 times better.  What happened?  The Oneway was way less intimate.  The Record let me be very hands on.  Everything I turned involved adjusting the lathe.  As much effort and thought was devoted to the lathe as what I was turning.  With the new Oneway the lathe didn’t seam to want my involvement.  It took me several months before I understood that the Oneway let me focus on the object I was turning instead of the lathe.  At the 2 year point for the Oneway it stopped working.  I was despondent.  At that time I was turning about 30 hours a week as my primary non-work activity.  I emailed Oneway for help explaining what the problem was.  Kevin responded and said that it was likely as switch.  He gave me his home phone number and suggested I call him that evening.  I was at work and really needed to be at the lathe when talking with him so we could get the lathe working again.  Imagine that, the owner of the company giving me his home phone number so we could troubleshoot me problem.  I got home and was going to call but decided to take a few minutes to inspect the switches.  Indeed the stop button on the wired remote was the issue.  The Bessel for that switch had dented when it fell and was preventing the stop switch from releasing.  I emailed Kevin the next day and thanked him for his help.  That was the only issue I have ever had with the lathe.  I figure I have over 5000 hours on the lathe.  When I bought the lathe it was the top lathe.  Since then there have been several brands and models that have shown promise.  Several of those promising lathe are no longer made.

If I were going to buy a lathe today is would likely be the Oneway 16” lathe.  Oneway products tend to lack any material or workmanship issues and there service is outstanding.  Everything about the lathes they make is designed to work with ease.  As an example,  the hole in the banjo which accepts the post of the tool rest isn’t round.  It is round on one side and slightly enlarged on the other side.  What this does is let’s you secure the tool rest but also easily adjust the tool rest when you loosen it.  This design also lets tool rest which may have oversized or undersized posts to work flawlessly.  There are many many other design choices that are present in Oneway lathes which are designed to make the lathe work better with less user involment.