# Wood lathe



## phishyone1 (Jun 27, 2008)

Anybody ever use or buy a wood lathe from Harbor freight? I seen one for around 90 bucks there.......... I make floats for steelheading and thee occasional musky bait, so was thinking this would be good enough.... Any info would be appreciated! If any recommendations on a good lathe for reasonable price would be good too............ Thanks


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## muskyhound (Jan 22, 2011)

can't comment on the harbor freight one, I have a craftsman with a duplicator attachment which is nice for making baits, if you buy the harbor one make sure you look into the duplicator if you plan on making the baits consistant. $90 bucks I wouldnt expect much...


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## backlashed (Mar 19, 2011)

I haven't seen a machine from harbor freight that I would take if you gave to me, JMHO. 

Look into a pen lathe from pennstateind.com . We used them hard with the kids at school starting 12 years ago and they take kid abuse pretty well. They use a mandrel for many of their kits, perfect for a float I bet. Santa is going to bring me one for Christmas this year. 

This is a new one they have but I have no experience with it. Should be great with floats and lures. Penn Pal

You could also look into a midi lathe, but they seem pretty expensive for what you are getting.


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## socdad (Jul 25, 2005)

I have a small jet I picked up from a fellow OGF member. A pretty good discussion about the HF lathe (as well as others) can be found at &#8230; http://www.penturners.org/forum/f30/looking-lathe-109440/index5.html
This is a pen turning website but pretty good general info.

Jeff


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## "Big" mark the shark (Jan 21, 2010)

phishyone1 said:


> Anybody ever use or buy a wood lathe from Harbor freight? I seen one for around 90 bucks there.......... I make floats for steelheading and thee occasional musky bait, so was thinking this would be good enough.... Any info would be appreciated! If any recommendations on a good lathe for reasonable price would be good too............ Thanks


I started on a Harbor freight and there ok not the greatest but it did what 
I wanted it to do. And thats make poppers and some floats.One thing I would recommend is to buy some carbide tipped tools for turning.
This was done on a Harbor freight lathe.


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## BigFoot158 (Jan 14, 2012)

I have seen the utube videos and it seems like some have problems and other learn to overcome them.


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## phishyone1 (Jun 27, 2008)

Thanks for all the replies......... I appreciate it guys


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