All models of Wivamac DB lathes feature a headstock which both rotates (through 360 degrees if you are so minded!), so that you can turn items "off the
bed" and which translates - that is, it can be slid to any position on the bed and locked in place there. Thus you can set the lathe to give easy access to the workpiece, wherever that may be.The headstock is a slim, clean
design, free of switch plates, pins, buttons and other protruberances. It is no deeper (front to rear) than the lathe bed itself. Hence access all around the workpiece is unsurpassed: no more having to work around the
bits of the headstock which get in the way. The full height of the headstock assembly shares the same narrow profile so there's nothing to obstruct you whichever way you approach the workpiece. A full-height transparent
door covers the drive belt area and gives ample access for belt changing whilst permitting the current belt setting to be seen instantly at all times. Belt tension is essentially self-adjusting with just one lever to lock the
motor in place after changing belt positions.
Lathes built for professional use need to be tough and capable of arduous duty. This is achieved by the use of very substantial deep groove precision ball bearings operating
back to back. Reference to a design manual will show that this - not taper roller bearings - is the preferred bearing type for use in a lathe. Despite our most muscular efforts, axial loads on a woodturning lathes are
relatively low, whereas axial loads are reasonably high and high speed operation is a must. To keep bearing loads low, the bearings are widely spaced.
The large-diameter spindle pulley bosses of the lathes carry a ring of
24 holes which provides high-precision indexing of head position (except DB802). There is also a convenient spindle-locking function provided on all models, independently of the indexing. To make it easy to take advantage of
these facilities, the rear of the spindle carries a smoothly-machined aluminium handwheel for rotating the spindle by hand - a very useful feature as one's work develops and more involved creative methods are used. The
headstock is through-bored and opens into a 2 MT throat for drive centres etc. The standard spindle thread is M33 x 3.5 mm which is becoming the "universal" thread for larger lathes: as a special order option, the lathes can
be supplied with a spindle finished with a 1" x 8 t.p.i thread.
Finally it may be worth reiterating the fact that all of the DB series lathes have a centre height over the bed of 260 mm (10.23"), giving the capability to turn
items up to 520 mm in diameter, over the bed:
that is an enormous capacity by any standards and unsurpassed by any lathe in its class. And that, mark you, is not only on the larger models, but even on the economic and compact DB800/801 range.
