About The Oneway 2036:
Thanks to everyone at Oneway, especially Cathy, Kimberly, Gloria and Kevin, the 2036 was ordered, built, shipped and arrived exactly on schedule. Thanks to the folks and crew at ABC Relocation, the lathe was delivered to the house and moved into the basement shop. As shown in the picture to the left, moving the lathe off the truck and around to the bulkhead was the easy part. Getting it down the bulkhead was another story altogether.
Cathy, as you can see, Lynne ignored the lathe and zeroed in on your unexpected and very special package.
Moving the lathe down the bulkhead was not an easy task and took a bit of engineering and a lot of muscle. We had to get the 700 lb. lathe off the shipping pallet and construct special skids, like big skis, that we bolted to the lathe's legs. The lathe was then muscled up over the lip of the bulkhead, tipped up on a 45 degree angle and carefully slid down the bulkhead steps. Thank goodness the three guys from ABC Relo, shown in the picture to the left, had some muscle because it took all we had for the four of us to keep the lathe from going on a downhill race. The lathe cleared the 31.2 inch door opening with no room to spare.
Were I to do this again, I would find some way to winch it down.
Setup: Once in the shop, setup was easily done in three steps. First, I had to attach a part of the motor raising mechanism by inserting a sleeve into the locking slider and attaching it to the screw in the side of the motor compartment. Second, the motor control box had to be attached to the pendant arm seat by unscrewing the front of the control box to get at the four nuts that were inside. I must have mispaced the screws during all the unpacking but fortunately had some that fit. Finally I removed the shipping tape, plugged the unit in and it ran. We could not get over how quiet and vibration free it is. After setting up the lathe, it received a thorough coat of polish, using the good stuff that is usually reserved for the motorcycle.
First Day Of Operation. First impressions are important but can be easily tainted, especially when you've just received something you've been wanting for a long time. For this reason, I resisted the try out your new toy urge and set about adapting an adjustable dust hood and work light. Only after that was done did I turn my first piece, which was an 8-sided staved, inlaid work that was glued up earlier in anticipation of this day. One of the first things I noticed was how little effort it took to adjust and tighten the tailstock and banjo/toolrest. The next most noticeable aspect of the lathe was its speed control.
After nearly 40 years of having a limited number of speeds, a variable speed lathe is a godsend. That it is reversible and has both short or long deceleration is living in the lap of luxury. Dynamic braking does become valuable when you're short on time and long on work. The speed control box, shown in the picture to the left, is on an arm that swings to either side of the lathe. On the control box are the off/on switches, an emergency stop switch, a forward/reverse switch and a slow/fast deceleration switch. The lathe was ordered with an optional, remote off/on switch (the grey box in the picture) with a magnetic base that I attached to the headstock.
The variable speed (Marathon C222) motor is complimented by a three step pulley on the motor and headstock spindle that uses a 10 groove, poly v-belt. This arrangement provides three sets of variable speed ranges: 0-800, 0-1800 and 0-3000. I found changing the belt to be easily done in 30 to 45 seconds. Access to the motor pulley, shown in the illustration to the left, is gained by unclipping the flip-down cover to the motor bay. There is a convenient handle for loosening the motor tilt and a slide out lever for lifting/lowering. Access to the headstock pulley is through a lid on the top of the headstock, shown in the previous picture.
Turning: Differences between turning on the Oneway and the old flatbed lathe were immediately noticeable. Turning on the Oneway was significantly smoother, faster and requires less effort. Shavings came off in a continuous stream of micro-thin ribbons, which used to be a phenomenon on the old lathe. Also noticeable was the absence of tearout around the edges of inlays, which was previously a constant problem.
After turning the small bowl pictured earlier and two, smaller works, I noticed that the effort hadn't even scratched the paint on the tool rest. Hollowing out the small bowl was quicker and smoother. Sanding the interior took less than half the time it used to due, I believe, to the smoother cuts that result from the combined stability of the workpiece and tool/toolrest. Interior tearout was minimal to non-existant, despite the fact that I hadn't bothered to sharpen anything.
First Impressions: My first impressions are such that they bring an analogy to mind. The difference between my old flatbed lathe and the Oneway are like the difference between riding an unsprung, two-cylinder chopper (motorcycle) with "ape hanger" handlebars and loud tailpipes and a whisper-quiet, silky-smooth, six-cylinder touring machine with front and rear stereo and cruise control. The former looks good but is very tiring after a few hours while you can ride the latter all day and still be ready for more.
Use Observations: After weeks of use, I have come to appreciate the massive tailstock for its size, rigidity and quill travel length (4 inches). A good test for any tailstock is to mount a chuck, key in a Forstner bit and then drill out the center of a spindle or small vessel. With the Oneway, there is no flexing or drill "wobble" as the quill is extended to drill the hole, which speaks to rigidity of the tailstock and precision to which it is machined to accept the quill. We do a fair amount of drilling on the lathe, both for creating hollow spirals and creating holes to accept bowl pedestals, so this aspect of the tailstock design was very important.
In addition to the tailstock, there is much to like about the Oneway. Having motor controls on the swinging pendant arm is very convenient, as is the optional remote off/on switch. You can swing the control arm out of the way, position the remote close to your work and have rapid access to the off/on button. The remote is not only convenient but can have safety implications in those situations where you need to rapidly shut down the lathe without having to think about where the control box is. I highly recommend purchasing the optional remote on/off switch.
Extreme low speed availability is useful for "spinning" on a finish without throwing it off the workpiece onto you and the lathe. The lathe has excellent torque down to 25-35 RPM and brute force above 100 RPM. Low-speed torque is important when you want to rub in a tung oil based finish, such as Waterlox, by putting some real pressure on the workpiece just as the finish begins to tack up. You don't want the motor to bog down on you at such times.
The tubular nature of the bed, aside from providing massive torsional rigidity, makes clean up much easier (i.e. with a good coat of wax, most of the shavings slip off onto the floor :-). The spindle height of the lathe, which can be customized to your height, is just right and there are a host of high-quality accessories and attachments available to suit your turning needs. I especially like the design and ease of use of the bowl steady and spindle steady. The live center kit, which comes standard with the lathe, is the best I've seen and has an optional adaptor that allows you to mount a chuck on the tailstock. Mounting a chuck on the tailstock is highly useful for precisely centering a bowl. Having previously purchased a Oneway Stronghold chuck, I was pleased to find the standard kit contained a number of different adaptors for attaching the chuck to various headstock spindle sizes/threads. I wish I had bought a Oneway earlier; however, better late than never. There have been no problems to date.
Extended Use Observations: After nearly 16 months, with almost daily use over the last year, the Oneway lathe has performed flawlessly with no problems of any kind. I have had no complaints or "I wish it had/did" issues with the lathe. Aside from the previously-mention features, I have come to appreciate being able to switch the motor into reverse for its value in sanding pieces with inlays. Being able to sand in both directions eliminates the (slightly) raised edges that can occur between the work piece and the inset inlay, especially when one wood is harder or more dense than the other. The mass and weight of the unit is such that I've also not had the need to bolt the unit to the floor, as I had to do with all my other lathes; however, I don't try to turn extremely large and highly out-of-round blanks. Such pieces are cut first with a bandsaw or chainsaw so as to not be highly out of balance - a habit learned with earlier, lesser lathes.
Probable Future Additions: Having previously purchased many of Oneway's accessories (e.g. the Spindle Steady, The Bowl Steady, Stronghold Chuck, various jaw sets for the chuck, etc.), the only forseeable future additions to the lathe may be (1) the 17 inch bed extension and (2) a vacuum chuck. When the lathe was first ordered, I had no idea it would get as much use as it has and such accessories now appear to be highly desireable and something to save our pennies for.
Related Notes:
1. Owners Manual: Was complete and contained a Q/A inspection sheet.
2. Tolerances: Headstock/Tailstock = 0.002, Side-to-side = 0.000
3. Accessory Kit: Complete with #3MT Live Center. Did not include spur center for headstock.
4. Break-In: The manual recommends keeping the speed below 2,000 RPM for the first 30 hours.
5. Spindle: Spindle has safety locking groove so your chuck/faceplate can't spin off.
6. Indexing: 48 spaces of 7.5 degrees with index on face of largest headstock pulley.
7. Headstock: #2MT with 4 sealed spindle bearings.
8. Tailstock: #3MT with 5/16 thru hole for auger and self-ejecting mechanism.
9. Other: Included was an optional #3MT to #2MT adaptor so I could use existing #2MT tailstock accessories.