Lathe speed control

Hi everyone,

I have a Carbotec 6" variable speed lathe, the little one PSI sells (mine is black, the new ones are red).

My problem is, The speed controller does not hold any semblance of constant speed while under load. Say like if I am roughing out the inside of a little bowl, the lathe keeps speeding up just after I begin my cut. It will do this no matter where the dial is set or whatever I am turning or even sanding. Without any load it will maintain speed perfectly.

I am sure this model of lathe has many users in the group and I am wondering if they all experience the same lack of steady speed, or is this something I should look into. Is this something that all small variable speed lathes do? It seems to have plenty of power though, it just gets going faster than I want.

My Jet mini is not variable and so I don't experience speed changes.

Other than this speed thing, the Carbotec is a good lathe, and solidly built for its size. I have now given it to a friend to begin learning on and he's happy, but I'm still wondering about it.

Any help or advice will be appreciated.

Aloha, Tony

Tony before I got my Jet 1220 I had looked at the Grizzly 1220. It did the same thing as you are describing. When you took cuts it would speeds up. It did this every time we took a fairly decent cut. My friend says that happens with DC motors.

Thanks Bernie.

I kind of suspected that would be it. I guess it's just "get used to it" kind of thing then. I have had no other complaints on the little machine.

Aloha, Tony