RIKON Power Tools 70-105 10" x 18" 1/2 hp Mini Lathe

Received lathe pretty quickly. It is heavy. Set up was quick also, but it suffered some minor damage. The cover to the motor was caved in and made loud noise when turned on. Had to remove cover and take the dent out with a hammer. It now runs smooth and quiet. I love everything about it. I will add another review after I use it for a few hours. Used the lathe to cut a gear shift knob, worked like a dream, cuts smooth, speed change is quick. Nice bang for the buck. Customer service is not responsive on my motor cover defect. But the lathe is awesome to use.

My husband bought this for his hand made, wood working projects. So far, it is working great, no pro lens. He loves it.

My husband can’t get enough of this lathe. It was a great present.

When I first turned-on the Lathe, I heard a clatter from a fan blade hitting something inside motor. I immediately turned off Lathe, and removed the protective cap. I then noticed the damage to the cap. Checking out the fan I noticed a crack in one of the blades. When I hand spin the blade there is a slight wobble to the blade. I will contact Rikon customer service tomorrow. I would like a replacement cap and fan. What I see of lathe looks good. I have had an older Rikon for more than 20 years and it always worked great.

i got his lathe just before Christmas 2015, I was impressed with the machining and the smoothness of the travel on the tail stock. Stock. I was looking at buying the one from Harbor Freight and the Excelsior from Rockler as I think they are about the same lathe. This one was on sale at Woodcraft for $50.00 more but it has a 5 year warranty instead of a 90 day at Harbor and 1 year at Rockler. The motor seems to be an up grade as it has some cooling fins on it. Other have had concerns about how hot the one from Harbor gets, this one so far has run just warm. It is very well balanced with no vibration. I got it to play with turning some pens and toys, so far it has been great as i;m just learning. I've had an old Craftsman lathe for years and never did much with it because I was always fighting ( i didn't know that until now) so it wasn't much fun now with this one it has become a joyful thing to go to the shop and play. It is heavy enough an smooth enough that I haven't bolted it down and it hasn't move even with some big peaces of wood that were not squared and were out of balance at the beginning and it still handled it just fine. Great little lathe for turning pens and toys or small projects