Bauer 14 X 20 EVS Wood Lathe

Three month review of Harbor Freight's Bauer 14 X 20 EVS wood lathe with comments on Bauer spindle chuck, with turning.

[Danpstew]

Dan for your first video, I applaud you.
Good lighting. Clear sound. Good camera position.
This is only My Opinion.
I would like to know more about your choice of tools.
Many thanks.
Danny
Crosby, Texas
( Carbide Tool video, please)

[martymar]

Good video brother. Keep it going! I’d love to see more turning.

[davidpass]

I have the Bauer 14x20 lathe as well. I added the Wen 24 inch extension bed (34035EX) to it. Fits like a glove. The Wen LA8800 & LA8800EX lathe stand & extension fit as well. I like the WEN stand because of the open design, no wood chips can get caught in and around the motor. If this happens, the motor looses it ability to cool properly. All total, mine now weighs in a little over 200lbs. That includes the Woodriver Steady Rest. My only complaint is when turning objects longer than 30 inches, 1 hp isn't quite enough. A super light touch is required. Overall, I am pleased with the lathe. It is far better than the 10x18 Central Machinery lathe (have that one as well). The 10x18 is in the process of being converted into a polishing system.

[RonMc-kk]

I did major comparisons with wen, grizzly, artisan, ryobi, and a couple other's, all basicly the same lathe as the baur for the prices of all were $200 to 1000.00 more money. I did buy the bauer with the stand for the grand total of $706 00. So far, I agree with your total assessment. The addition of the speed control from a low of 45 to 3600rpm plus is great at the touch of a knob & belt. I have also done some slow speed metal machining & added drawer set up to both leg sets. They may get in the way in the future, time will till. All around, good job on this video, agree all the way.

[crazykuya]

Great video, sir. I have the Bauer lathe as well. Actually, I'm on my 4th one! The previous three lathes, their motors gave out. Thank God for the extended warranty! Haha.. I also had tailstock issues and had to lubricate it more. When turning bigger projects, it does feel kinda underpowered. Thank you for the video.

[emeralddragonflystudio]

Great video. Would love to see more of your work. Maybe some tutorials. Again great job.

[TheKingOfTheBrocean]

I absolutely love this lathe too. Super quiet and i have turned some things that were significantly heavier than i would recommend and it cranks through it.
I also just put the 14in lathe sized grizzly extension bed on and it fits perfectly

[DKWalser]

Some commenters have asked why many, if not most, experienced turners prefer using traditional lathe tools rather than carbide tools. There are two answers to this question. The first is that traditional lathe tools, such as spindle gouges, skews, and bowl gouges, use a 'bevel rubbing cut'. Carbide tools, like traditional scrapers, use a 'scraping cut'. In general, a bevel rubbing cut leaves a much cleaner surface than does a scraping cut. Thus, using traditional tools allows an experienced turner to achieve sharper, cleaner details with less sanding than can be achieved with scraping tools -- carbide tipped or not.

The second reason traditional tools are preferred has to do with flexibility. With traditional high-speed steel tools, a turner can quickly and easily change a tool's profile to meet a particular need. For example, I was recently turning a ring holder and was hollowing a small dish shape from which a finial would protrude from the center. None of my spindle gouges would fit into the tight radius of the curve of the bottom of the bowl, and none of my round nosed scrapers fit the curve, either. So, I took my smallest round nosed scraper and gave it a smaller, tighter profile. In less than 5 minutes at the bench grinder, I had the perfect tool for the job. You can't do that with carbide tools. If you don't have the right-sized carbide cutter, you have three options: buy another tool, change your design, or spend a lot of time sanding to get the shape you want.

None of this means carbide tools are not a worthy addition to a turner's arsenal. I have and use carbide tools regularly. They just work better for some things than for others. Bottom line: You can make the same projects with carbide and traditional tools. With carbide tools you'll spend more time sanding (and your details might not be as crisp as a result). With traditional tools, you'll spend more time sharpening.

[watupwitu]

I ended up getting one thanks to your review. I'm really happy with it so far, it's been about a month. I had a WEN but it broke, but all my goodies fit with this one. Thanks for the review!

[rauladame]

Thank you for mentioning a review of the chuck and backplate. I have been looking at those.

[norm]

Thank you for sharing. Nice lathe setup for your segmentation work

[brucegerber]

Thank you, I am going over to HF and take a look at this one.

[Jord]

I don't do segmented turning and watching the multicolored chips go flying when you started turning was very festive! haha I think I'm getting this lathe. I have one of the smaller delta/rockwell gap beds but the variable speed would make my life so much easier.

On your carbide remarks, once you have jigs set up for your gouges, sharpening takes at most 2 minutes then I'm back on the lathe. I don't have any experience with carbide tools yet, but I think I'm going to pick one up.

[davedubanoski]

I'm looking for a new lathe. Thank you for the review. Yes it is extremely quiet. I guess I know what my next lathe will be.

[gileslaney]

Very good video Dan and very informative. I need another lathe but the cost of most new larger lathes are shocking. I have the older Harbor Freight 12-36 lathe with the 3/4 hp motor and when I'm turning hard dry wood the unit bogs down very easy. I have entertained the idea of installing a larger motor but I have been eyeing this new Bauer unit you just reviewed. It appears to be similar in design to units from Jet and Grizzly so parts swapping might be easy if needed. What I want to know if the 1hp motor on the Bauer have you had any problems with it bogging down under normal use? FYI I also use the carbide tools and to me they work far better than my old school tools. Those do not stay sharp long enough in my opinion. I have a little sharpener from Rockler that I have been using to sharpen my carbide inserts and I get them to last a lot longer before replacing them. Thanks

[stevemcirvin]

Very helpful. Congrats on your first video!

[georgezarins]

Just a heads up, I also had issues with the motor running hot on my 10 inch lathe from HF. Turns out the mounting bracket for the motor (The part with the handle for tensioning the belt) was installed incorrectly from the factory. There are three holes drilled in the mount that need to line up with holes on the motor housing to allow proper cooling, but the way it was installed originally blocked those holes. I was able to line up those holes correctly and haven’t had any issues since.

I am thinking of upgrading though so thanks for the video!

[rauladame]

You made a spacer for the tool rest!? I have never heard of that. That is awesome! A spacer makes sense, physics wise, I'm going to try a spacer, that you.

[rauladame]

You re-lubed the tailstock? That is a maintenance practice, as I see it, for warranty consideration. I re-lube everything from HF because they use poor quality grease. I change grease on some power tools from HF and the noise and vibration was greatly reduced to make the tool comparable to name brand tools.

[beav]

This seems like a great option for newer turners, or price conscious intermediate turners. I bought a Laguna 12x16 a few years ago and I like it very much. If this was around then, I'm sure I would have given it a good look.