Consider Buying a Mini Wood Lathe for Small Woodturning Projects

If you don’t know what a wood lathe is, it is a type of lathe that’s specifically designed for woodworking. They’re used for cutting, sanding, drilling, face, turn and deform wooden pieces. Obviously, you don’t use a wood lathe on metal, as it’s much harder material, and for that you use a metal lathe. Wood...
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Finally, here is a durable but high-quality mini wood lathe by RIKON. Let’s look into the specs so you can decide if this wood lathe is for you:
This runner-up can do larger projects and it has amazing variable speeds such as 60-3000 RPM.
Before you get started, you’ll want to want to rough the blank. Once you do, you can pretty much get started.

Top 3 Picks

SHOP FOX Lathe
These types of wood lathes are good for making different types of curved designs and spindles. Basically, you can shape wood into anything you want. Like the pen lathe, you can store this anywhere you want as it’s usually smaller and compact.
There are three types of wood lathes that you should know about, they are:
Of course, for the speed, it has variable speed control from 430, 810, 1230, 1810, 2,670, and 3900. So, as you can see, you have so many speed options you can choose from.
JET Variable-Speed Wood Lathe
Stand with your arms at your side before your lath and bend your elbow to 90 degrees. Even with the elbow, the heart of the lathe is. From there you can make minor modifications. Around a center point I like around an inch. Place yourself in a loose position before the job with the width of your foot apart. Hold in one hand your chisel and tightly tuck your arm to your side. The chisel is regulated by this hand. Put the other hand on the tool rest front and grab the chisel shank. This hand leads the cuts as they advance. Don’t push the chisel off you when you’re cutting. Rather, move your body as it advances carefully.

How to choose a wood lathe?

Yes, you can turn your woodturning hobby into a business. You can sell your work on Etsy or locally, or wherever you wish.

Sturdy base

You’ve seen all the wood lathes we’ve reviewed today, as we think they are some of the best on the market today. We believe that any of the 5 we reviewed today will be perfect for your next project. We would love to read your comments which you can leave below if you have enjoyed reading this guide today.

Lathe Measurements

You will want to use the wood lathe by following these simple tips:

The Motor

Cons:

Headstock/Tailstock

This is the largest wood lathe you can get, and it’s usually placed on the floor. You can do any kind of project with this lathe, but however because of the size, you’ll want a dedicated space for this wood lathe. Most woodworking shops prefer these wood lathes because of their versatility.

Tool Rest

Pros:

Power Switch

You’ll want to keep in mind that how powerful the motor is really does matter. Usually with lathes, you get between ⅛ to 3 HP. Obviously the bigger the motor, the larger piece you can turn. Luckily lots of wood lathes come with variable speed control that usually ranges from 400 to over 3000 RPM.
SHOP FOX W1704 1/3-Horsepower Benchtop Lathe

Types of Wood Lathes

Cons:

Pen Lathes

WEN 34027 12-Inch by 16-Inch Variable Speed Multi-Directional Cast Iron Wood Lathe
It has an impressive list of variable speeds from 500 to 2000 RPM, so you’ll have full control of the speed you want while turning your projects. It also has a 4.5 AMP motor, so it’s pretty powerful on its own. You can control the speed with a knob, making things so much easier. You can use small to medium objects on this wood lathe, and still have plenty of room to work with (bed space).

  • Good for fine detailing smaller projects such decorative wooden products
  • Compact
  • Lightweight

It has an impressive list of variable speeds from 500 to 2000 RPM, so you’ll have full control of the speed you want while turning your projects. It also has a 4.5 AMP motor, so it’s pretty powerful on its own. You can control the speed with a knob, making things so much easier. You can use small to medium objects on this wood lathe, and still have plenty of room to work with (bed space).

  • Can do almost any wood working job
  • Preferred by woodworkers

It has an impressive list of variable speeds from 500 to 2000 RPM, so you’ll have full control of the speed you want while turning your projects. It also has a 4.5 AMP motor, so it’s pretty powerful on its own. You can control the speed with a knob, making things so much easier. You can use small to medium objects on this wood lathe, and still have plenty of room to work with (bed space).

  • Budget-friendly
  • Durable
  • Perfect for small projects
It has an impressive list of variable speeds from 500 to 2000 RPM, so you’ll have full control of the speed you want while turning your projects. It also has a 4.5 AMP motor, so it’s pretty powerful on its own. You can control the speed with a knob, making things so much easier. You can use small to medium objects on this wood lathe, and still have plenty of room to work with (bed space).

  • Powerful for its size
  • Comes with tool set
  • Digital readout to monitor speed
It has an impressive list of variable speeds from 500 to 2000 RPM, so you’ll have full control of the speed you want while turning your projects. It also has a 4.5 AMP motor, so it’s pretty powerful on its own. You can control the speed with a knob, making things so much easier. You can use small to medium objects on this wood lathe, and still have plenty of room to work with (bed space).

  • Budget-friendly
  • Comes with lots of accessories
  • Powerful
It has an impressive list of variable speeds from 500 to 2000 RPM, so you’ll have full control of the speed you want while turning your projects. It also has a 4.5 AMP motor, so it’s pretty powerful on its own. You can control the speed with a knob, making things so much easier. You can use small to medium objects on this wood lathe, and still have plenty of room to work with (bed space).

  • Good control and variable speeds
  • Durable
  • Efficient
It has an impressive list of variable speeds from 500 to 2000 RPM, so you’ll have full control of the speed you want while turning your projects. It also has a 4.5 AMP motor, so it’s pretty powerful on its own. You can control the speed with a knob, making things so much easier. You can use small to medium objects on this wood lathe, and still have plenty of room to work with (bed space).

  • Durable
  • 12 position indexing head
  • Great variable speed control
When you’re woodturning, it’s important to rest the tool against the tool rest. You’ll want the rest to be at least 10 inches long and of course the wood lathe to be made out of cast iron so you don’t have to deal with any vibration. If the tool rest is loose, that can be a very dangerous situation, so make sure it’s installed right before using.

  • If needing new parts, you could be waiting a long time

FAQ

How do you use a wood lathe for beginners?

We do want to talk about this one cool feature that this wood lathe has which is the 12 position indexing head. Why are we talking about this feature? It can create a lot of different patterns and it makes the spindle stay locked in place so that you can truly focus on what’s really important, your project.
It must have a stable base for a wood slab to yield high-quality turned products. And it must have a robust bed to have a stable base. We mean the main horizontal bean at the base of the rod with the bed of a lathe. It is typically cast iron. It should be heavy and as the wood spins on the motor it will minimize the vibration. Vibration is not pleasant in the smallest measure and can not only make it impossible, but also unsafe to transform wood. The heavier the foundation is, the easier it is to transform it.
Cons:
Set your tool rest to ¼” away from your work. You’ll want to start at low speeds until you are comfortable enough to cut with higher speeds.
It’s very important that you rub the bevel before you get started as well. It directs the cut so you’ll want to make sure it’s pointing in the right direction before using.
You’ll want to consider these factors when choosing a mini wood lathe because these factors are important depending on what projects you’ll be doing:
Cons:
Here we have another heavy-duty wood lathe that is 12×18 inches that will let you work with the speed you want. It has a 550W motor with 650 to 3,800 RPM so it’s powerful enough to do the job you need to do with precise speed. This model is also built on cast iron, so you won’t have to worry about durability. As you see, this one is on the larger side, so there’s plenty of space to work with. A cool feature with this wood lathe is that it has a digital readout, so that you can monitor your speed, which is a pretty useful feature in our opinion.
Most people don’t really think about this because all they care about is whether it turns on or not. But you could accidentally turn it on or off, so the placement of the power switch is actually pretty important so that it’ll be easy for you to turn on and off when needed.
RIKON 70-100 12-by-16-Inch Mini Lathe
Pros:
If you don’t know what a wood lathe is, it is a type of lathe that’s specifically designed for woodworking. They’re used for cutting, sanding, drilling, face, turn and deform wooden pieces. Obviously, you don’t use a wood lathe on metal, as it’s much harder material, and for that you use a metal lathe.
Cons:

Is it hard to use a lathe?

wood lathe

What is the best wood to turn on a lathe?

Bottom Line

Pros:
Wood lathes are smaller than the metal ones, and not as powerful, but you can literally create wooden masterpieces (deforming) with this powerful little tool.

walter@graefika.com
Author: walter@graefika.com