10 Best Wood Lathes of 2023

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Wolverhampton-based Lumberjack Tools make some excellent woodworking tools that are reasonably priced and well-suited to the home user. The WL305 mini wood lathe is a basic and reliable piece of kit that’s well-built and ideal for beginners. Thanks to its rugged construction and powerful motor, you can turn reasonable-sized pieces of wood easily.

First off, this heavy piece of wood-turning equipment is built like a tank. The cast iron bed keeps the whole thing rigid, and weighing 32 kg, it should try and walk off across the bench. Add to this the rubber feet, and you’ve got a solid lathe to work with.

The single-speed 550 Watt motor is powerful enough for most jobs, and you can change the speed by altering the drive belts onto the different pulleys as you see fit. You can achieve speeds between 430 – 2,800 rpm this way, even though it means turning the machine off each time.

Supplied with a 2 Morse Taper tailstock and headstock and heavy-duty spindle, it can handle plenty of accessories and is strong enough to work on medium size projects. It’s a versatile woodworking lathe that is small enough to fit in your workshop but also has enough capacity to turn decent size blanks.

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Monster Shop are one of those brands that seem to make something for everyone. Need a DJ booth? Candy floss machine? They’ve got you covered. And their T-Mech brand of DIY and industrial tools includes this excellent four-speed wood lathe that boasts an enormous capacity for turning wood. Compared with some of the small benchtop lathes on my list, this one is a real beast.

Firstly, this is an enormous wood-turning lathe for a beginner. With more than 1 metre to play with between the head and tail stock, it’s not really the sort of thing you learn on. It’s so capacious that you could practise turning bannister spindles or chair legs, or just about anything you like.

Power comes from a 400 Watt motor that runs the lathe from 810 – 2,480 rpm with the help of different pulleys. You need to change them yourself, but it’s a price that most hobbyists are willing to pay.

What’s impressive about this lathe for the home turner is that even though it’s huge, it’s still a benchtop machine. So long as you’ve got space for 1,470 x 210 x 360 mm on a workbench, it’s a surprisingly compact piece of kit. Although this isn’t right for a beginner, it’s one of the best lathes in terms of capacity.

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Luxembourg based Proxxon are well known for their precision woodworking tools. The FD 150/E precision lathe is a lightweight but incredibly accurate little lathe that can be used for the finest woodturning any DIYer would want to get in to.

This is a much smaller benchtop machine compared to some of the wood lathes on my list. Measuring 360 x 150 x 150 mm, it’s not designed for turning chair legs, but small pieces with amazing precision. Constructed mainly from die cast aluminium, the weight is kept down without allowing excess vibration. All the machining and finishing on the moving parts is exemplary, and it moves very smoothly indeed.

What I like the most about this wood lathe is the carriage that holds woodturning tools. You can crank it in multiple directions with two handwheels. The operation is smooth, and you can move the blade in tiny increments to delicately turn objects on your workbench. You get 40 mm cross slide and 60 mm of upper carriage.

With the right tools, you’re not limited to working with just wood either. Aluminium, brass, and other soft metals can be turned if you want. The 150 Watt motor isn’t the biggest, but it can put out an impressive 800 – 5,000 rpm, which is plenty for small wood turning projects.

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Charnwood Machinery Ltd have been in the tool business since 1977. Specialists in all things woodworking, they know all about making wood lathes. The W815 mini lathe is a compact and very useful little tool for turning small dimension pieces.

Sitting nicely on a benchtop, the dimensions of 690 x 220 x 310 mm make this wood lathe small enough to not take up too much space. The 250 Watt motor might be a bit underpowered compared to some of the wood lathes on my list, but it can still turn the spindle from 750 – 3,200 rpm. Not bad for a hobbyist tool.

The bed, headstock and tailstock are all made from durable cast iron. It’s the sort of material necessary to ensure low vibration when in use. It’s otherwise a lightweight bit of kit that isn’t too difficult to move around.

The tool rest and tailstock are both easy to adjust thanks to solid cam levers that lock them into place. I’m a fan of this fastening, it’s incredibly strong but also easy to move around when you need it.

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Luxembourg’s Proxxon make fine woodworking tools. If you’re into making pens or other long, narrow objects then their DB 250 micro lathe is the ideal benchtop solution for turning small objects.

Compared with some of the mighty beasts on my list, this wood lathe is tiny. With dimensions of just 550 x 100 x 155 mm, it doesn’t take up too much space and isn’t too heavy either. In fact, it weighs less than 3 kg!

The 100 Watt motor puts out plenty of power for a wood lathe of this size and can spin the workpiece from 1,000 – 5,000 rpm easily. And seeing as it uses electronic speed control, there’s no belts to fiddle around with.

Although you can’t fit large pieces of wood or acrylic into this wood lathe, it still offers excellent build quality in a small package. The stable base is machined from aluminium and all the moving parts feel well machined.

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One of the most trusted names in woodworking tools, Axminster have been plying their trade for more than half a century now and make some of the best wood lathes on the UK market. The Axminster Craft AC305WL wood lathe is a wonderful piece of kit that runs smoothly and has a mercifully quiet motor.

Starting with the dimensions, this is a medium sized benchtop wood lathe that measures 970 x 280 x 440 mm. Made of a durable cast iron construction, it’s a heavy and solid tool that puts out minimal amounts of vibration. Nothing about this wood lathe is flimsy and this wood lathe feels like a quality piece of machinery.

With a powerful 550 Watt DC motor, the dual spindle speeds are electrically controlled. It has superior variable speed settings from 500 rpm all the way up to a massive 4,080 rpm. This makes it a brilliantly versatile wood lathe for all sorts of woodturning applications.

The tool rest can be positioned using quick release cam levers that are ideal for small adjustments on the fly. The nose of the spindle makes use of a common 1″ fitting and a 2MT internal taper, so finding chucks and other accessories is no problem at all.

You get 457 mm between the two centres, and a maximum diameter over the bed of 305 mm. That’s a lot of space to work with, so you should be able to fit most woodturning projects in this size lathe. This is no doubt one of the best wood lathes available right now. It’s comfortable to use and incredibly solid.

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East Devon’s Axminster Tools have been producing industry-standard woodworking kit for more than 50 years. The Axminster Craft AC240WL is one of the best wood lathes for beginners out there. It’s the smaller cousin to the Axminster Craft AC305WL, but it’s just as capable.

With slightly smaller overall dimensions than the other Axminster wood lathe on my list, the AC240WL measures 900 x 205 x 365 mm. The 375 Watt motor powers up the spindle to a healthy 700 – 2,800 rpm, and it’s adjusted with an electronic speed control for ease of use.

You get a heavy duty cast iron bed, headstock, and tailstock, which keeps even this “lightweight” wood lathe stable. It won’t walk around on the benchtop thanks to chunky rubberised feet and a low vibration induction motor.

Just like the AC305WL, the tool rest can be positioned with quick-release cam levers. They’re perfect for making small adjustments quickly. The nose of the spindle makes use of a common 1″ fitting and a 2MT internal taper, so finding chucks and other accessories is no problem at all.

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The Axminster Workshop range of woodworking tools is designed with savvy DIYers in mind. People that spend time in workshops or sheds making things, who demand a bit more from their tools. The AW205WL woodturning lathe is an excellent example of this range. It’s an affordable and compact piece of kit that can “turn out” whatever you need, so long as it’s not too big.

This is a surprisingly small piece of kit. The diminutive dimensions of 150 x 730 x 310 mm almost put it in the “micro lathe” category, so it’s ideal if you’re strapped for space and benchtop real estate is at a premium. The onboard 250 Watt motor is rather small too, but it can still spin up to between 750 – 3,200 rpm.

The base is made from cast iron, which is an ideal material to use when you want a solid structure to work on. Vibrations are kept down thanks to the 20 kg machine weight, and the simple controls for speed and power are easy to work out.

Although you can’t fit huge pieces of wood into the jaws, you can still work on smaller items. The max cutting length of 330 mm and a max turning diameter of 205 mm isn’t much. The headstock taper is just 1MT as well. But, if you’re working on small items like goblets, cups, or pens, it’s one of the best small woodworking lathes on the market right now.

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With products for sale in over 200 countries, VEVOR produce a massive range of products from tools to materials handling products and industrial kitchenware. They also know how to produce one of the best wood lathes for the money. The MC1218 benchtop lathe is a compact but powerful machine that’s ideal for beginners to get started on.

Designed for larger woodturning projects, the overall dimensions of 889 x 330 x 470 mm give this wood lathe a good capacity. With 457 mm between centres, and 310 mm of swing over bed, there’s plenty of space to work with.

There’s plenty of cast iron in the construction of the bed, headstock, and tailstock, which helps to keep down vibrations and makes the whole wood lathe stable. The powerful 550 Watt motor isn’t underpowered and can spin up the MT2 spindle from 650 – 3,800 rpm using a combination of pulleys and a speed control dial.

A fine addition to this hobbyist wood lathe is the 7 Watt LED work light. It has a magnetic base, so you can stick it on to wherever you need it. It’s very bright and should help to create smooth surfaces when turning wood.

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Desktop wood lathes don’t get much smaller or more affordable than this one. The SENRISE micro lathe is an ideal wood lathe for anyone that wants to try out woodturning projects without splashing the cash. It comes with everything you’d need to try out turning and can produce decent results with a bit of practise.

With the dimensions totalling just 305 x 60 x 65 mm, wood lathes like this won’t take up much real estate on your workbench. The tiny 96 Watt motor isn’t big, but it should be enough for the small things you can turn on this minute machine.

Using a standard drill chuck in place of a specialist turning one, the lathe can open to a modest 66 mm. This is fine considering the small maximum capacity this wood lathe has. It’s not the heaviest duty piece of kit and has a basic overall construction.

Don’t expect any cast iron parts, but there’s not too much vibration anyway. You get a set of small chisels included with the kit and a small tool rest to position them on. It’s good fun if you want to try out small woodturning projects before investing more money into a larger wood lathe.