Harbor Freight launched a new Central Machinery 10″ x 18″ woodworking lathe, featuring a 1/2 HP motor, cast iron construction, and tool-free speed changes.
Harbor Freight’s user manual describes the lathe as a 5-speed wood pen lathe, but their marketing images also show it off being used to make wood bowls and other common wood-turning projects.
The new Harbor Freight Central Machinery lathe comes with a 3-inch faceplate, 6-inch tool rest, knockout bar, live center, spur center, accessory holder, and hex wrenches.
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Key Features & Specifications
- 1/2 HP motor
- 10″ diameter and 18″ length capacity
- Belt driven spindle
- 5 speeds: 760, 1100, 1600, 2200, and 3200 RPM
- Tool-free speed changes
- Cast iron construction
- 33-3/4″ overall length x 9-1/2″ width x 14-3/4″ height
- 1-3/4″ quill travel
- Weighs 77 lbs
- ETL certification
Price: $300
Discussion
This looks to be a competitive wood lathe, and I’m a bit impressed with the presentation.
There’s something up with the weight specs – HF says the shipping weight is 75.17 lbs, and product weight is 77 lbs. The product weight cannot be more than the shopping weight.
The new Central Machinery lathe looks to be an update of an older model.
According to email ads and old coupons that can still be found on the Harbor Freight website, that lathe was compared to the Grizzly T25920 ($504 at Home Depot) and Shop Fox W1758 ($714 at Acme Tools). The Grizzly is a 3/4 HP lathe, and the Shop Fox is a 3/4 HP lathe with more features and accessories.
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The older Central Machinery lathe was on sale for $290 in January 2022.
It’s unclear as to if or how Harbor Freight updated or improved the workings of the new lathe, but it at least received a very nice face lift. The new wood lathe features a grey and black color scheme and cleaner branding.
On the product page for the new model, Harbor Freight encourages comparison to the Jet JWL-1015VS, a 10″ x 15″ wood lathe with 6 spindle speeds and “wider bed ways” to “increase rigidity.” The Jet also has a 1/2 HP motor and cast iron base.
I would be more inclined to compare the new Central Machinery wood lathe to the Wen LA3424, which is a 12″ x 18″ model. The Wen has a slightly different speed range and longer tool rest.
The Wen is rated at 4.5A, which converts to a higher 2/3 HP. The Harbor Freight is rated at 3.3A according to the user manual.
Nathan
Wonder how much it wobbles? While I wouldn’t trust it to run true.
Are the all called pen lathes because they are table top models?
MM
There are a lot of people who make pens as a hobby, there are loads of kits for this purpose sort of like how there are kits for making your own pocketknife. I don’t do it myself but I often stumble across “pen blanks” of special woods while looking for materials for other projects. You could get by with a extremely small lathe for that purpose, something like 2″ swing x 6″ between centers would do it easily. I’d think that people who were just looking to do pen turning could get by with a much smaller lathe than this one.
Joatman
I almost bought a lathe from Rockler about 10 years ago just to make drumsticks. Not a far stretch from making pens. After pricing everything, I decided I’d just stick to buying them. Wouldn’t pay off.
Chris I
Way cleaner, too.
Marty
I’m always a bit weary of anything from HF with moving parts..Well, anything that can wear out within a day or so anyway. If it’s made in China the name goes on before the quality goes in..
Mike
I started making pens on a grizzly mini metal lathe, and then moved up to a actual pen lathe, which is about the size you mentioned, but, when making some longer pens or seam rippers, 6″ isn’t long enough, my mandrel that I use is 12″ long, I do use a mandrel saver, but yeah 2″x6″ isn’t really big enough
Bonnie
I would generally call these mini lathes, but plenty of vendors also call them pen lathes. They’re just smaller and more narrow capacity lathes, you can get fairly large lathes that are also designed for bench-top use.
David Kaminski
I’ve had mine for 4 years now and still works great. I’ve turned some decently large bowls and vases. For the price it’s been a decent machine. You get what you pay for. Unless you want to spend a grand or so.
Matt
I’ve had mine since 2009. World like a champ, and I have hundreds of hours on it.
Luke
Hi, I do wood carving (bowls) and am looking to upgrade to a lathe. Do you know the maximum size bowl it could make?or perhaps more relevant what size bowls have you made? Thank you in advance!
Tony
The “wobble” is caused by not having your piece of wood trued up before mounting into the lathe. I’ve had bowl blanks on this lathe that were 9” in diameter and 3-4” long. If I had them trued up there’s no problem with wobble. ( I also level it with the adjustable feet.) Blanks that were not trued up required me to hold the lathe under the ways with one hand while holding the cutting tool on the rest with my other hand.
Rog
I’m conflicted about HF’s move upmarket. On one hand their quality (should) go up and their tools look nicer, but on the other I miss the days when you could use them for trial or “throwaway” tools due to the low prices and coupons.
Jack D
They still have the really low end stuff that’s practically throwaway, you just have to look harder for it…LOL. While it’s nice to have the better quality in brands like Bauer and Hercules, I too miss the days when brands like Chicago Electric and Central Machinery were their bread and butter.
TonyT
Yeah, I trust HF’s quality more than random Amazon brands….
Paul
For Sure! I see so much no name junk on Amazon these days. HF is a better option.
Jack D
Judging from the– very minor–differences in the two images above, it looks like they have at least gone to a newer mold for the cast iron pieces. I would be interested in hearing about any internal changes. That said, it’s a nice update for one of their older brands that seemed to be overlooked over the last few years.
Personally, lathes don’t interest me. Not sure if that because I just don’t have the letting for it, or because I’m terrified of them…
Nick B
That minimum speed is too fast to be any kind of bowl lathe unless you’re starting with an almost perfectly round blank. Comparing to the Jet that’s variable speed with a much wider speed range is just unrealistic.
That said it’s probably a perfectly good lathe for pen and spindle turning as long as you’re not wanting to drill on the lathe since the minimum speeds are still too fast for anything more than a twist drill bit.
JFG
Historically the HF 1018 lathe was a really solid entry level machine. I used one of the old ones for 8 years or so before replacing it with a larger lathe. It uses 1x8tpi threads on the spindle which makes it accessible for widely available chucks and uses MT2 tapers for drive and tail, also widely available.
The old machine was a solid performer, really, one of HF’s best products. If the updated version has the same build quality, it’s a solid entry level lathe.
Matt
Very helpful, thanks. I’m thinking about getting en entry level lathe to make small bowls and plates maybe. Also on the list are a small CNC for templating. And my six year old wants me to get a 3d printer to make Pokemon. So many toys, so little time and space.
Andrew Simmonds
I have the old 1018, there are better lathes if I saved up I could have gotten a better one, but I make everything not just turned projects so it suits my needs, variable speed would be so nice, if I were a professional turner (I get paid to turn things but I wouldnt consider myself pro by any other means) I would get the Jet if I wanted to only make bowls I would look at a midi sized. Wanna try turning and see if its fun to do as a hobby hell yeah snag that HF use it and you will learn the things you want upgraded on your next lathe. I have a Nova chuck on it and they run true.
Benjamen
The original Central Machinery was really, really close to the Excelsior MC1018 Rockler used to sell, and the new one still looks like it is the same castings as both, just a little cleaned up.
If you look up MC1018 lathe, you will find a few more manufacturers that sell the exact same lathe with a different color schemes and maybe some cosmetic changes.
It’s possible that all these companies are using the same castings, and then putting on their own parts like motors and pulleys to try and distinguish themselves.
MM
I bet it’s a lot like what Stuart disussed here:
https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/benchtop-power-tool-clones-conundrum/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
…just a handful of factories making the same thing for different customers with different color schemes and minor details.
Bonnie
I assume it’s all the usual white-label stuff.
Adam
Of worthwhile note is the fact that Rockler has also updated their 1018 lathe. Of course, everyone knew that they were the same casting, but it’s clear one of two things happened: either the foundry has updated their castings, or a different foundry is producing castings that are subsequently being badged for the individual buyers.
https://www.rockler.com/rockler-10-18-mini-lathe-bundle
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I was just gonna say – looks very, very similar to the Excelsior. Which is a nice entry level lathe and plenty big enough to turn small bowls, table legs etc. and had standard size spindle screw and inserts for accessories.
I wonder if they’re selling the same type of bed extension that Rockler does for Excelsior
Martin Miller
Looks like it requires changing belt positions to change speed
Eliot Truelove
You asked the question on Facebook about what your viewers think of the new look, and I think the days of loud colors, unless from established brands, are behind us.
Black, white, grey color pallets don’t stand out as much as Red, Yellow, Teal, Blue, etc. and it’s more suited to be a mainstay of a shop that sits in a corner until you need it, much like the cast iron and steel monsters of yesteryear that our grandparents used to win wars and build nations.
I quite like the refined simple look, but I really know nothing of lathes to comment on anything else about it.
Matt
Totally agree. I have lots of black and yellow for my day job, a bunch of Wen tools from my early woodworking days. A big blue Kreg router table that I love. Some red craftsman tool chests, a a hundred colorful tool boxes.
I just built a 400 sq ft workshop in my backyard and got a SawStop and Hammer jointer/planer, both of which are tasteful black and grey and cast iron. I was just realizing that my “pro workshop” that clients visit looks more like my daughter’s preschool classroom with all the bright colors.
I’ll probably spray paint some of the more offensive colors when it stops raining
Chris
Very befuddling development. When I saw HF clearancing out their two Central Machinery wood lathes while introducing the Bauer-brand chisels and chuck, I would have bet it was a lead up to a Bauer lathe or two. Bauer seems to be the wastebasket marque for HF tools, but for a short while it looked like they were bringing Admiral up as a woodworking-specific brand of tools. That would have been great, and it would have been easy to envision Admiral as a home for the miter saw, a contractor saw, track saw, router table, an eventual Domino ripoff, and, of course, lathes.
Chris
I really hate they did away with the Admiral blades. I really like those in my table saw and chop saw. They seemed to last and made a really clean smooth cut. For the price you couldn’t beat them
Drew M
First product photo clearly shows someone who doesn’t know how to use a wood lathe.
Second photo appears to show someone stabbing a spindle gouge into a bowl but it is honestly hard to tell what exactly is going on in that photo.
Lisa
Definitely someone trying to get hurt lol
Drew M
To be honest, a modern “full power” wood lathe is really quite dangerous. Between the length of tools, leverage ratios and the crazy amounts of torque the motors have, I have been honestly mildly afraid that if I moved the tool wrong that the tool would dig in and break my arm.
I was thinking about the “popular” “beginner” carbide insert tools and realized that they are a false economy. They do not teach you anything that will help you become a better or more skilled wood turner. They don’t teach you to cut. They don’t teach you how to sharpen. They only teach you how to scrape and how to sand.
ShopmanDave
I bought the green version about 4 years ago, but I upgraded it with a kit from Penn State Industries. The kit includes a beefier motor and a variable speed controller. Before the upgrade, the stock lathe bogged down when I tried turning small bowls and larger “spindles.” After the upgrades, I can turn those bigger items if I take light cuts with sharp tools. The upgrade gives a wider range of speed for drilling, sanding, etc. The HF lathe is heavy enough to dampen minor vibrations, and the bearings are still tight. With the cost of the lathe, using a coupon, then the cost of the upgrade, it was still less than comparable brands. I DO wish mine had the smoother castings of the new model…
its_jake
i was wondering why they suddenly had no wood lathe anywhere on their site… didn’t seem like them to suddenly NOT offer such a popular “oh i bet it’s cheap enough at HF” tool
eddie sky
I watch some wood turners on youtube and comparing this … junk. I mean, give me a digital controller for speed, a speed chuck with removable fingers (inside bowl, outside bowl, pin).
If serious about turning, walkaway. But if you need to turn a handle or pen…$200 is cheap. Still spend that on good turning tools…
Stephen M Kosovich
I noticed a picture showing that this lathe is turning a bigger bowl on the outside position, Iike a larger and much more expensive lathe. Am I the only one that noticed this?
James McFarland
When will start carrying FULL sized lathes again?? You can’t turn out table legs or stair pickets on these small machines!
Tjm
I have the original purchased over 10 years ago for making pens. Runs true, has a variable speed motor and IIRC cost about $118. Still up and running.
Tom
So after all the above comments, what would all of you suggest for a beginner wood lathe? I will probably start out with simply projects (pens, bowls, etc)and eventually move up to bigger and more difficult ones.
Also would like to purchase shop manuals that will help to answer questions and/or explain how to use a wood lathe properly.
Tx,