GMC ML1000 Wood Lathe: Discontinued — What to Buy Instead
A budget bench lathe from a brand that left the market in 2008. What still matters on a used one, and what a modern lathe does better.
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The ML1000 was a benchtop wood lathe sold in Australia by GMC, a brand placed in receivership in 2008. No warranty, no parts, no support.
What makes a lathe good, and what does not
Turners who have used a lot of lathes will tell you the specification sheet is close to irrelevant. Two things decide whether a lathe is pleasant or miserable:
Mass. A lathe that moves under an out-of-balance blank is dangerous and produces chatter you cannot sand out. A light benchtop lathe bolted to a light bench is the worst combination; bolted to a heavy bench, or with sandbags on the stand, it becomes usable.
Speed control. A stepped-pulley lathe makes you stop, open the cover, move the belt. In practice that means people leave it in the wrong speed. Starting an unbalanced blank too fast is how a lathe throws work across a shed.
Everything else — swing, centre distance, morse taper size — is just a matter of what fits.
If you own one
Check the tailstock. Bring the tailstock centre up to the headstock centre and look at the points. If they do not meet, the bed is twisted or the tailstock is worn, and the lathe will never turn a straight spindle. That is not economically repairable on a lathe of this class.
Check for a Morse taper 2 headstock and a 1in x 8tpi spindle thread if you are buying accessories — those are the common sizes, and generic chucks and drive centres in those sizes are still easy to get, which means a working old lathe is worth keeping.
What to buy
The JET JWL-1221VS, linked below, is the benchtop lathe most often recommended to people stepping up from a machine like this. The reason is the variable speed: electronic speed control with a dial means you actually start slow, and that one difference changes how safely you can rough a blank.
If you turn bowls larger than the swing allows, no benchtop lathe will satisfy you. Save for a full-size machine rather than replacing this with another small one.