CXRCY 12" x 18" Wood Lathe, Benchtop Wood Lathe Machine 3/4 HP Infinitely Variable Speed 650-3800 RPM with Goggle for Woodworking, Woodturning

Addition: I have loved using the lathe. It is actually soothing and seeing your imagination take shape at your whim is very gratifying. The seller has been excellent. One piece was "bad" and the seller replaced in under 5 days! Wonderful communication with me and prompt service! Not a combination that is common these days. I hope they get more as this would be a great starter for the hobbyist that wants to give lathing a go. Two thumbs up!! New photo is of a handle I made my wife just messing around learning. She liked how it looked so I turned it into this handsome handle. Initial review starts below. Ps. Bumped rating for lathe from 4 to 5 stars. I am no stranger to equipment as I was an aircraft mechanic (sheet-metal worker) for many years. I am outfitting my own wood shop now and this is the latest addition to it. Woodworking is only a hobby, so I didn't want to go in debt buying an expensive machine for me to play with. I chose this model as it was reasonably priced and came with a few tools. Again, I have nothing to compare this with because I've never used a lathe before in my life. I've only watched a few videos online to learn the basics. Overall I would give this product of 3 1/2 to 4 stars I was kind and went 4 for the review. I really do not want to mislead anybody about this machine, however I feel it will serve my purposes just fine. If you're looking for an inexpensive small lathe to start out on this lathe should do just fine. I will update if I have any issues as others did with another model that looks very similar here on Amazon. However, I hope this to be a wonderful little machine for a long time to just do small projects on. Pros: Reasonably priced Comes with some basic tools Compact for smaller shops Variable speed control Cons: Mounting system requires you bolt the lathe from underneath into threaded mounting holes. Even though I followed the measurements supplied in the manual I still had to play with it a bit to make it line up. I feel a stand would be easier to work with. I mounted mine to an old piece of furniture. Construction could be better as I noticed at least one defect from the casting process (see the second picture). The paint is also chipping already. It happened before I used the machine or even attached it to the work surface. It is most likely to poor surface preparation before painting. The manual is very basic, so I suggest going online to learn the basics if you do not know them already.

I bought this as my first lathe, wanting to turn pens and bowls. Soon after I purchased it I moved, so it sat in the box unopened (and untested) for several months. Finally got a space and stand for it and have been putting it through some tests. Somewhere around the second or third piece of wood I noticed that the motor could not hold speed. Thought it might just be a local power flux, or that I had too much weight on the mount, but it continues to do that every day since. I either have to speed it way up to get it to turn, or just work in between speed cycles. From the very beginning, it felt like there was minimal support with the tailstock. I would spin the knob to move the spindle forward, but as soon as it hit the wood, the mechanism would spin (which is what it is supposed to do) but not advance any more to help secure the wood. I know drill a good hole into the bottom of the wood for the point to sit in. On the 6th piece of wood the tool rest snapped (see pictures). The tool hit a knot in the pine, pulled the tool down a bit, which forced it back into the tool rest - not much, but enough that it snapped clean in two at the post. That cannot be quality workmanship. Fortunately I have the second one it comes with. The teeth on the spur center are dull and do not catch at all. The tools are also somewhat dull right out of the box. Not having a sharpening station (I'm a beginner, hence the beginner lathe) meant I had to use what I had. Glad I had picked up some carbide-tipped tools also. Yes, my fault for not testing it within the 30 day window (if I had I would have probably returned it), but there is still ZERO customer support - even to order new parts. No where on the internet can I find where this company actually exists. Amazon description says 1 Year Warranty and lifetime technical support - no idea how that works when you cannot contact them. I will continue to use it until it dies - not really much of a choice - but will not replace it with another lathe from this company.

This is a nice lathe. and is 110 ac volt to the wall. One thing i encountered was putting on the power on box to the lathe. It would not fit, the wires were too short, to very short. I had to take off the wires off the inside box, reroute them through the band belt, center of the lathe, and put it together. I would of rated this problem as a '1', but the lathe did work, weighing at 195 lbs, built tough. I made a stand for it, and has a variable speed control. I do like it and is why I rated it at a 5 star, otherwise these designers really messed up on the mounting of the power box, really bad.