Tweet
The lathe arrived today. Although I will not be able to play with it for some time I did remove it from the packaging and set it up on a work table just to inspect it and make sure it would run.
I must say I am very impressed with the fit and finish of this lathe. There is no paint where it shouldn't be, the bed is polished nicely and not a spot of corrosion. The handles are all chromed metal and feel very solid. The only plastic part on the lathe is the belt cover. Changing belt speeds is about as easy as it could get. With the cover open you have complete access to both the upper and lower pulleys. Its a little tight on the bottom pulley so big hands may have a little problem. I was able to change speeds in about 30 seconds.
I measured the runout with the faceplate installed. There was less than .001 of runout. In fact it ran so smoothly that I left the dial indicator touching the faceplate and turned the lathe on. Extemely smooth running.
As I am a novice at this lathe business I am not quite sure how much noise I should hear with the lathe running. It seems louder than I would have expected so I called rikontools.com tech support. They were very helpful and they think the level of noise is normal for this lathe.
As there is no runout I would think that the bearings are fine and its just normal noise. Time will tell if there is a real problem or just my ignorance of lathe noise.
The lathe is vibration free even sitting on a table and not bolted down. The manual is so, so but what manual isn't these days. All in all I am happy with my acquistion. Got the picture from woodcraft.com, not a very good one.
Categories
Collapse
Article Tags
Collapse
- BT3x00 (71)
- bt3000 (5)
- bt3100 (2)
- diy (2)
- dust collection (11)
- Enhancements & Modifications (5)
- Fence Attachments (12)
- General (5)
- Hand Tool Accessories (3)
- Hand Tools (14)
- Measuring & Layout (6)
- miter fence (3)
- Mobile BT3x00 (9)
- Mobile Tools (9)
- Other Reviews (4)
- Other Tools (5)
- Power Tool Accessories (28)
- Power Tools (75)
- rails (3)
- rip fence (5)
- safety (5)
- Sharpening (4)
- t-nut (3)
- vix (1)
- wide table kit (2)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
by twistsol
Summary
I built my miter station last summer and used the Kreg Precision Trak & Stop Kit. The kit was just the starting point. 8 feet of track and a single flip stop didn’t meet my needs since I was building a miter station the width of my shop, nearly 24 feet. I added four 48” pieces of top track and three additional swing stops so I could have two left and two right. Finally, I added metric rules to the top. Total cost breakdown is as follows
...-
Channel: Tool Reviews
-
-
by LCHIENI have always had trouble mounting small hardware on small wood boxes, with the hasps and hinges always looking slightly off perfectly square - particularly a problem with flat head screws and countersunk hardware which aligns the hardware to the hole location and centers on the hole.
I'm talking small wood screws. I place and mark the hardware carefully and mark the center of the hole with a sharp awl.
The problem comes about with small bits like 1/16 and 5/64 and 3/32"...-
Channel: Tool Reviews
-
-
by twistsolSince my new shop is in the basement, dust collection is a bit more important than when I had my own building and could do as I pleased in the shop. With that in mind, I upgraded the dust collection on my table saw. I purchased the Grizzly Overarm Blade Guard to use with the saw.
First impressions were that this is an extremely solid and well built unit. It's made mostly of steel and connects to a 4" DC hose. There were a number of issues getting it set up and installed, and a...-
Channel: Tool Reviews
-
-
by twistsol
I decided to look for the rock bottom cheapest 32mm drilling system available that would let let me create real 5mm holes spaced 32mm apart, that was easy to use, and didn’t require a bunch of setup time. I’m really surprised at how much I like this little Keg jig especially when you consider the price of $34.99, and it has everything included. There were a couple of jigs cheaper but you needed to buy a self-centering 5mm bit to go along with them so they would...-
Channel: Tool Reviews
-
-
by LCHIENHere's a tool I found useful for marking. Accutrax pencil blade marking knife.
I have one I've been using on and off for a while. Its a fine pencil lead in the shape of a utility blade that can be installed in any utility knife handle and used with a straight edge, combination square, saddle square etc. to mark easily seen, fine lines on wood..
Here's mine. I have not broken it, it seems to be quite sturdy. The sharp edge lasts a long time. I'm still on the...-
Channel: Tool Reviews
-
-
by LCHIENHey, I'm sharing one of my favorite tools. A Veritas Saddle Square. Actually I have two in different sizes. This is the large size for marking 2x4 and 4x4 (shown on 4x4 here). One of those tools that makes woodworking a pleasure.
They're great for continuing lines from side to side. And even side to opposite side.
Works really well when the board has a rounded edge or some wane where the edge is not really sharp and square but the two adjacent faces are square to...-
Channel: Tool Reviews
-
The SawdustZone Statistics
Collapse
Topics: 61,598
Posts: 560,746
Members: 20,811
Active Members: 32
Welcome to our newest member, Ecoist.
What's Going On
Collapse
There are currently 1753 users online. 1 members and 1752 guests.
Most users ever online was 51,371 at 12:27 AM on 04-21-2025.
Footer Ad
Collapse
One note on my out of round above, I managed to get the tolerances of the Beale chuck at the mandrel down to .0025. The face of the back plate is good and square now, making the chuck seat VERY good.
After that decision this AM I decided to make a round thing out of a square one. Used the gouge, skew and parting chisels. Went better than I expected and I think I will enjoy this turning thing.