(Some thoughts from Roger Buse, Chairman, VB36 Manufacturing:)

"WHO BUYS A VB36?"
I have been involved with woodworking and woodworking machinery design and sales for the major part of my working life. In all of that time, I have never met a customer who regretted buying the very best machine that he or she could afford. On the other hand, I have sold a succession of slightly improved specification machines to the same customer over a period of years until he finally ended up with the machine he was truly happy with — that is the one that he "couldn't justify" or " didn't have the space for" all those years ago!
When considering a purchase, all sorts of reasons are offered for settling for less than what one really wants. Buying the best is the simplest way to save money and enjoy one's woodworking activities from the start. Unlike differences in Hi-Fi equipment, which may cost many hundreds of pounds for an end result that only bats and dogs can distinguish, the woodturner will immediately know when he is using a machine that has no inherent limitations or drawbacks.
Not much that we choose to spend our time and money on can actually be "justified" in any real sense. People play golf, go sailing, take holidays and so on because they enjoy it — not because they will ever be able to make a living by doing these things. Similarly, if you enjoy woodturning, you will derive even greater satisfaction from your time at the lathe if you are untroubled by equipment limitations and shortcomings.
I am often asked if we have any second-hand VB36's for sale. In fact, although the VB36 is now by far the most widely used lathe in its price category, none of us have ever seen one advertised for sale. If one did appear on the market, we don't imagine that it would cost very much less than the owner paid for it! VB36 owners are not just professional turners, but people from every imaginable background who simply want to enjoy what they do.
"TESTIMONIALS"
Many of us have come to regard "unsolicited testimonials" with some suspicion and so we have avoided relying on "Chris, from Birmingham", or his relatives, for support. (In any case, most turners now know someone who is a VB owner to whom they can talk directly, or we can certainly refer you to one or more local owners.) However, in September '97, a letter appeared in "The Woodturner" magazine. It was sent by Keith Dickinson in response to what he felt was implied criticism of the VB36 in the review of another lathe in a previous issue. I include a copy of his letter here because it addresses the sometimes heard objection that the VB36 "runs hot". The editor devoted an entire page to reprinting Mr. Dickinson's letter. Here it is (without accompanying photographs):

 

"BRITISH ENGINEERING AT ITS BEST"

— I am an obsessive woodturner and two years ago started to plan my own design for a bowl turning lathe. Around the same time I saw an advertisement for the VB36. I asked for information and was greatly impressed by the spec. After reading it, I shelved my plans.
My main reason for choosing the VB36 was because of its bearing specification. I am an engineer working in the Gas Turbine Division of Rolls Royce. We use bearings made on a very similar design principle for the RB211 gas compressor unit which generates 38,000 shaft horse power. It depends on its bearings not only to carry the shaft load, but also to keep things turning without any deviation from a perfect turning circle. I have seen these bearings after 100,000 hours in service (10 years) and found them in the same condition as the day the unit was commissioned.
I mention these facts because in the review of the Turnstyler, it was obvious that theVB36 was being alluded to as the only lathe not using "tried and tested" ball or roller bearings. In his conclusion, Mr. Warr emphasised that the Turnstyler bearings "happily need no attention whatsoever" and "thanks to those headstock bearings which remain cool, even under heavy load" and that "they are friction-free". The implication is obviously that temperature and rolling resistance are the ways in which bearing performance can best be determined — irrespective of bearing type, shaft seals, or indeed the working application. The two types
of bearing (i.e. plain or rolling element) are as different in their requirements and operating characteristics as chalk and cheese, and it is silly to imply that these differences are in themselves meaningful. A plain bearing "floats" the shaft and the heat generated through the work of the supporting lubricant film sinks away through the surrounding mass of metal in a predictable and controlled way. It is supposed to happen. Engineers evaluate and plan for it.
In the case of the VB36 the effect is moderate and precisely what we would expect from a fine tolerance assembly of this sort. In the same way, the four multi-lip shaft seals that isolate the front and rear bearings serve not only to keep the lubricant in, but also contaminants out. Their resistance is one indication that they are doing the job they are there for.
On the point of maintenance, I now use my VB36 for an average of between 25 to 30 hours a week. I check the bearing lubricant reservoirs before starting a turning session and, to date, have not had to add a single drop of oil.
What a pity that genuinely top quality engineering should be allowed to be denigrated in support of ill-informed conclusions. I feel very strongly that the term "British engineering" should do more than simply describe a product that was made in Britain!
P.K. Dickinson (Merseyside)

 

DESIGNERS VIEW OF THE VB36

Insights from the designer
-Nigel Voisey explains the VB36 concept:

As a woodworking journalist through the late sixties and on into the nineties, it was not my way to look for faults and shortcomings in the machines I was assigned to review, but simply to report honestly on what I found. I always hoped to find the best but was disappointed that so many manufacturers knew surprisingly little about how the machines they made were actually used.
I came into woodworking from an engineering background and often made suggestions as to ways in whch machines I found fault with could be improved. More and more of my time was spent in original design work for various manufacturers. The main problem was that manufacturing costs placed severe constraints on the choices that could be made. Market forces dictated that "ideal" solutions rarely saw the light of day, that is, if such changes made machines considerably more expensive than outwardly similar competitors. By and large, the woodworking world at user level is too thinly spread for news of product limitations to become shared knowledge. When a newcomer to woodturning experiences problems with a particular cut, he more likely to blame himself than to recognise the limitations of the equipment he is using.
I had settled for the fact that I was not going to find a way of removing accountants from the design loop or changing the world when Roger Buse asked me to design a lathe that I would be truly happy with. Whatever the final cost turned out to be, we would adjust our market expectations on the basis of that figure rather than design with an initial, choice-limiting cost in mind. I was delighted!
By the mid eighties I think I had used every lathe available on the world market. None of them, not one, offered more than a basic means to make the wood go round. I still find it incredible that until very recently the most popular lathe for top woodturners had just four speeds which had to be changed, more or less blind, through a hatch at ankle level in the pedestal whilst, at the same time, supporting the weight of the motor!