Turning
A lathe is chosen on two dimensions and one hidden commitment. We compare swing over bed and distance between centers, the quality of variable speed at the low end, and the spindle thread — because every chuck and faceplate you ever buy has to match it.
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
Micro lathe · electronic speed control
A micro lathe for model work, with proper electronic speed control and a faceplate — and no pretensions to being a furniture machine.
Best for: Pens, small boxes, model parts — precise work at small scale
≈ $295
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
Ø 200 mm (7.87 in) wheels · 2,850 min⁻¹ · 16 mm (0.63 in) shaft
A 200 mm (7.87 in) bench grinder for sharpening tools — at 2,850 rpm, which is the specification you have to work around.
Best for: Reshaping chipped edges and grinding primary bevels, followed by honing elsewhere
400 W · Ø 350 mm (13.8 in) · 1,000 mm (39.4 in) between centers
The most capacity per euro of the European lathes on this page — and a listing whose title and part number name two different machines.
Best for: Long spindle work — stair balusters, table legs — if you can confirm which machine you are buying
≈ $480
10 × 14 in · 250–3,200 rpm in three ranges · TEFC · 95 lb · 24 index positions
Ninety-five pounds and a published footprint, with a bearing-spacing claim no other lathe here makes.
Best for: A bench that can take 43 kg (94.8 lb), and spindle work where the tool rest edge matters
≈ $565
14 in swing, 16 in with riser · 20 in centers · 150–3,500 rpm · 1 HP / 750 W
The largest swing on this shelf once the riser block is fitted — and two power figures that agree with each other.
Best for: The largest bowl on this shelf, turned from a blank that has already been rounded
≈ $580
8 × 13 in · 150–3,200 rpm · 1/3 HP / 250 W · metal frame
The small VEVOR: a hundred and fifty rpm at the bottom like its big sibling, on a third of the power.
Best for: Pens, handles, small boxes and spindle practice, on the smallest sensible budget
≈ $195
70 × 160 mm (2.76 × 6.30 in) · 24 V DC 96 W · 7 speeds from 4,220 rpm · 8,450 and 8,500 both claimed
Seven speeds, and the slowest of them is faster than the fastest speed of every other lathe on this shelf.
Best for: Beads, pen blanks and small finials, turned from stock already round and already balanced
≈ $43
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
A table leg wants seventy centimeters between centers, a tool handle twenty. The stated distance between centers closes or opens whole projects.
A rough log turns off-center and walks a light lathe across its bench. The stated machine weight is the only thing that soaks up that wobble.
A twenty-centimeter blank must start below five hundred revolutions or it will jump. The stated minimum speed decides what can safely be mounted.
The slowest possible until the piece is running round. An unbalanced blank at high speed is the main danger on this machine.
Constantly. A sharp gouge cuts effortlessly and leaves a clean surface; a dull gouge tears and demands force, which is again dangerous.
A roughing gouge, a spindle gouge and a parting tool cover the essentials. A set of ten tools does not speed up learning.
Very well, and more easily than dry wood. You have to accept that the piece will move as it dries, which is sometimes the point.
For faceplate work it changes everything. For spindle work it is not necessary — a drive center and a tailstock are enough.
A full face shield, not glasses: a piece that comes loose leaves at face height. And a mask, since turning produces a great deal of fine dust.
Cutting against the grain, a dull tool, or a badly placed rest. On end grain the technique differs and tearing is the norm unless you adapt.
It must be bolted down, or the wobble of a rough blank shakes the whole thing. Bench lathes are meant to be bolted, and it is that fixing, not the lathe's weight, that decides stability.
The wood lathe is the machine where the tool and its sharpening count more than the equipment. Choose length between centers and swing according to what you want to turn, favor mass, and always start slowly on a rough blank.
There is no table here, and the reason is in the listings. The figure published most often across these 10 products is motor, given by 7 of them — short of the four in five a column needs to compare rather than to display gaps. Each product page says what its own maker published.
$490 – $990
4 models
Einhell TC-WW 1000/1, Laguna Revo 10|14, 10 × 14 in, VEVOR 14 × 20 in, 1 HP
Specifications: manufacturer sheets for woodworking machines and the matching Amazon product pages. Prices and availability: Keepa.
Most recent revision in this category: October 7, 2026.
Prices quoted in these summaries are dated readings. The live price is shown next to each product.
