Stubby S750 Lathe Review

The Decision

Up until recently, my main lathe was a General 25-650. On the surface, this looks like a well-designed lathe and an excellent value for the money. It turned out to be neither. I won't get into the details, but I ended up returning the lathe to the place I purchased it.

This left me with a big hole in my shop to fill. I decided I didn't want to mess around with lathes I wouldn't be happy with, so I started looking in the high-end lathe market. This meant lathes like the Stubby S750 and S1000, VB36, Robust American Beauty, Vega 2600, Powermatic 3520B, Oneways, etc.

I'd like to talk a little about what made me decide on the Stubby S750, in the hopes that it can be useful to others pondering the same decisions.

First, the short and sweet version: I went with the Stubby because it fits the type of turning I do, is flexible enough for me to do other types of work, and it's got a small footprint, which is good for my shop. The fact that it can be disassembled and moved by one strong person is a HUGE benefit for me - the heaviest piece is 145lbs, easily moveable on a dolly or handtruck. Many of the other lathes would be impossible for one person to move.

Oneway: The professional's lathe. It's big, it's expensive, it's well-liked. However it's got a fixed headstock and a long bed. I'm not such a fan of outboard turning and do almost zero spindle turning. Many people seem to get into a Oneway because they think it's the best, but I wasn't convinced.

Vicmarc: I don't know much about these. The design seemed dated and a bit clunky, but I've never seen one up close so I can't really comment much on it.

VB36: While extremely cool to the engineer in me, it's a bit too specialized for my tastes. And while the plain bearings (like in a car's engine) are interesting, I'd likely forget the oil and blow the thing up.

Vega2600: Cool design, very compact. The 17" spindle length is a bit limiting, but a bed extension is available. The biggest problem I have with it is the banjo. I hate it. I've turned on one a few times and it drove me completely insane. The locking mechanism is a real pain.

PM3520B: Ah, the Mustard Monster. This one has a lot going for it, including tremendous bang-for-the-buck. My real problem is that this value comes from it being made in Taiwan. It's also very big, and the ways section would likely be too big for me to move alone. The headstock is also gigantic and I could see it getting in my way on certain cuts.

Robust: The only other lathe that was *really* in the running. The stainless steel bedways are an awesome feature, but not a deal-breaker for me. Yes, cast can rust. But it can easily be cleaned up and it's magnetic, which I find useful. The sliding headstock is nice, and Brent uses dual, large diameter bearings on the spindle nose. I'm not sure I'm sold on the sliding headstock concept. The swing-away tailstock is a nice feature, but not one that would make me buy it over another lathe. Also of note is a reason the swing-away tailstock is there is because the tailstock weighs a ton.

Brent English seems to be a great guy and is very responsive to questions. Between the Stubby and Robust the question was just which fits my style of turning better, and the answer was the Stubby.

Getting it Home

After Roadway lost my lathe for a day (yes, they lost it on their own dock!!!), it was finally time for me to go pick it up. The forklift operator put the pallet on my truck with surgical precision. It fit between the wheel wells with a hair to spare.

The ride home was uneventful and I started taking it apart to unload it myself. Carefully. Here's what it looks like with everything removed. Much of it was stuck in place with the protective goo that it ships covered in, but the instructions on the Stubby Lathe USA website warned me about that.

Look! A build-it-yourself Stubby kit! Um...anyone know how this goes back together?

The fit of everything is superb. When I put the headstock back in place, it indexed in position such that it couldn't wiggle even a thousandth of an inch. Beautiful.

Here are the auxiliary bed and toolrest. The bed mounts to a few different places on the lathe - the headstock, and the front/rear of either end of the ways - using a pair of keyhole shaped holes that go over a pair of Allen head bolts. The auxiliary bed isn't finished to the same quality as the main bed, and there was rust on a lot of the exposed cast - especially the toolrest post. I spent almost an hour with kerosene removing gunk and wet-sanding surface rust. Once all the goo was gone everything moved and slid easily.

The toolrest isn't really great. Its shape and size make it very awkward for working inside bowls, and it seems to be just plain, soft cast iron. I replaced it with a Robust "comfort" toolrest and have been very happy with it.

One thing to note in this vein: most aftermarket toolrest posts will be too long since the Stubby's banjo isn't too deep. You'll need to cut the post to make it fit properly. Not a big deal, but something to be aware of.

And here are the electronics. Everything - including direction and variable speed - is on a remote box with a magnet so you can stick it wherever you're working. Nice. There's also a separate panic button to kill the motor. Nice again. One thing to be careful of - check the bolts that hold the motor to the adapter plate. Mine were loose.

Next steps were mounting the VFD and wiring up the motor, both of which were easy. I show the VFD mounted inside the legs here, but I later moved it outside the legs where it's designed to go. The only reason I did that is because I put shelving between the legs and didn't want to smash the VFD with anything I put on the shelves. Pictures later.

I put on Bill Rubenstein's awesome convertible drive center to check for alignment of the head and tailstocks. The drive center threads onto the spindle instead of going into the MT2, and you can use it as a 2- or 4-blade center.

Alignment was dead perfect out-of-the box, especially impressive considering I had the lathe in pieces on the floor.

Here's a shot of one of the two massive banjos with my hand for scale. One of the neat things about it - besides being able to switch the toolrest to either end - is you can rotate the toolrest mount to move it in or out from the edge of the banjo, so you can avoid the piece rubbing on the banjo when you get close with the toolrest.

Had to raise the lathe up to working height and level things off. Easy to do with my car jack! You can also get a feel for just how compact this lathe is when it's all closed up.

Here's how it would look if I were going to do a long spindle. Note the auxiliary bed on the left with the second banjo.

And now it was time for my first shavings! Finally! Having great respect for the power of the Stubby I put on my heavy-duty turning gear. Like my new skew chisel?

Man, the lengths I'll go for a gag.

Anyway, I had a great time with the thing. After getting the belt tension right I was able to take as deep a shaving as I wanted. The lathe was absolutely rock solid, without a hint of vibration turning this 16", off-center, soaking-wet cherry blank at 475 RPM.

Looks like I may need to invest in a shower curtain; my whole shop is covered in shavings! I could actually hear the streamers pinging off the overhead light fixtures after ricocheting off my face shield.

What I've Learned so Far

No tool is perfect, of course. There are things I love and things that could be better. Here's my list after about a week of usage. I hope to add more pictures and description of this unique lathe in use in the following weeks.

The Good:

• All the power I could ever need.
• Small footprint, great for a tight shop.
• Wide front-to-back stance, making the lathe very stable for out-of-balance turnings with no need for extra ballast.
• All machining is very accurate. Everything rotates and slides very easily.
• Flexible machine, allowing 16" swing over the bed ways, 30" swing with the ways slid back and up to a 32" spindle turning.
• The fact that it's only 16" over the ways means you have a much smaller and lighter tailstock than is required on a 20" swing machine like the Powermatic, or a 25" swing machine like the Robust while still maintaining the rigidity you need for large turnings. The tailstock is easily lifted with one hand.
• Moveable in pieces by one person.

The Not So Good:

• I'd really like an extra set or two of the Allen head bolts that are used to mount the auxiliary bed. The lathe only comes with one pair. If I want to move it from the front of the ways onto the headstock, for example, I have to completely remove the bolts and re-thread them into the headstock. Not a really big deal, but it'd certainly be a time-saver.
• The motor is fixed in place with an Allen head bolt and a lever. The lever you can operate by hand, but you need an Allen key to loosen/tighten the other bolt. I'd much rather have them both be levers so I don't have to find the tool every time I want to change speed ranges.
• Changing belt speeds is awkward and requires some contortion.
• Finish on the auxiliary bed is not nearly as nice as the main ways.
• Finish on the faceplate nut is very rough and doesn't fit the included wrench.

Am I being nitpicky? Yes. It's a $6000 lathe. I get to be nitpicky.

The conclusion

This is an awesome machine and I'm very glad I spent the money on it. Bill Rubenstein is doing the turning community a great favor by importing the lathe from Australia. I highly recommend you check out his website and shoot him and email with any questions. You can also check out the Stubbygroup Yahoo group for plenty of good information.