Trying to find a lathe around 200-250 dollars, 300 is possible but may be a stretch.

Can anyone recommend a good lathe? Delta, Jet, and Rikon seem to be the favorites from what I gathered from the site. I'm not dealing with Grizzly. I just want to turn plugs, it can be a mini lathe/bench top lathe.

Also, it must have no toothed gears! Flat belt only so I can replace it easy!

Seems like all I can find are the really expensive lathes.

Is Central Machinery a good brand?

Anyone? Or at least hand carving tool suggestions?

I have a Toolcraft bench top I bought from this site about 4 years ago and it is awesome for what I need. I also have a Central Machinery from Habor Freight (floor model). This is also an awesome machine. Both are variable speed and never had an issue with either. The C.M. is short money, I don't remember exactly but I think around $279 with the stand.

I see a few have been on Craigslist Long Island

http://longisland.craigslist.org/tls/4233810599.html

There's a sweet Jet up here in Maine on craigslist with legs and a nova chuck on it .Also if you type in lathes you see a load of them for short money. Hope that helps.

The Central Machine lathe that is selling for around $200 is the exact same machine as the discontinued Jet 1014. I would not hesitate to buy that machine.

I orderd the HF central machine lathe on Dec 3, took almost a month to come in.

First one was a dud, the have a 90 day return policy so i was able to exchange it at the store. I did that tonight, i brought it home and set it up.

Tossed on a piece of birch and it handled it no problem, looking forward to giving it a work out.
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Congrats. Enjoy