Turning · review
A micro lathe for model work, with proper electronic speed control and a faceplate — and no pretensions to being a furniture machine.
The end of it Excellent within its scale and useless outside it. Know which you need before ordering.
Every figure is a manufacturer specification, read off the listing itself, and the judgments are ours — drawn from how the specification behaves in this class of machine and from what long-term owners consistently report. Where a figure is missing, we say so rather than fill it in.
A micro lathe with electronic speed control and a faceplate for larger workpieces, part number 27020. Proxxon does not publish the swing or the center distance on this listing.
Every chuck, faceplate and screw center you will ever own has to match the lathe’s spindle thread, and several standards are in common use. An adaptor exists for most combinations and it moves the work further from the bearings, which is exactly where you do not want it.
Read the thread off the machine — not off a forum post about the same model — before spending anything on chucks.
On a machine this size the thread will be a small one, and the chuck range to match it is correspondingly narrow. Establish it before buying accessories.
Pens, bottle stoppers, small boxes, model and clock parts, chess pieces. At that scale the electronic speed control is the feature that matters and the small footprint is an advantage rather than a limitation.
Read on the day this page was built: $295 at the American Amazon shop.
Read from Keepa on the day this page was last revised; stock and price both move without notice.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 2026-08-12. The live price is at the top of the page.
| Type | Micro lathe, for model making |
|---|---|
| Speed | Electronic speed control |
| Supplied with | Faceplate for larger workpieces |
| Part number | 27020 |
| Amazon reference | B000PJ6W4O (identical on 6 markets) |
| EAN | 0798256215971 |
A small one on the faceplate, and nothing like a salad bowl. This is a spindle lathe for model-scale work. Buying it for bowl turning is the one way to be disappointed by it.
Because rim speed follows diameter. A 30 mm (1.18 in) pen blank and an 80 mm (3.15 in) faceplate blank at the same rpm are traveling at very different speeds at the surface, and the larger one needs slowing down — otherwise it chatters, burns, and in the worst case comes off the plate.
A listing is not an offer: the reference exists on these stores, availability changes daily.
7.2/ 10
Excellent within its scale and useless outside it. Know which you need before ordering.
Pens, small boxes, model parts — precise work at small scale
Specifications: the manufacturer sheet for woodworking machines and the matching Amazon product page. Prices and availability: Keepa. Every figure on this page names its source.
Entry lathe · €155 in Germany
The cheapest full-size wood lathe here, and the one that most clearly needs bolting down before it is any good.
Best for: A first lathe for spindle work — chair legs, tool handles, stair spindles
≈ $490
230 V · Ø 254 mm (10 in) swing · 5 speeds
A properly built small lathe with five speeds and a stated swing — the first machine here that publishes what it can turn.
Best for: Bowls up to 254 mm (10 in) and spindle work, in a workshop that wants a machine rather than a starter kit
12 × 21 in · 60–3,600 rpm in three ranges · reverse · 24 index positions
Sixty revolutions a minute at the bottom — the only lathe here slow enough to start an unbalanced blank safely.
Best for: Bowl work up to 305 mm (12 in), where the first minute at low speed is the dangerous one
≈ $990
