IT's a shame the Clemens Lathe is no longer available, it's much better than the REnzetti, and was well worth the price. The Renzetti is a great lathe though, and is worth the money, but there are just some things that suck about it....
1. price $875 + you need 2 rod supports if you will do any sanding = $70 each = $140. If you do any rods longer than 6'6, you need an additional 3' bed for $60. That's $1075.
2. A lot of the wheels on the REnzetti rod supprots siezed up while sanding grips. I was doign aDEmo for someoen on sanding a grip, stepped on the foot pedal an 8 seconds later a plume of smoke rose off teh butt wrap. SInc the wheel didn't turn, teh rubber on the support heated up and ate right through the epoxy into teh threads. Same thing happeend to 2 other people i know personally and saw for myself. Seeems teh high price tag wasn't enough, they used a cheaper part which prevented teh wheel from turning. IT was replaced after guys were able to meet with Renzetti at a Rod Show.
3. The thread carriage is very hard to access teh spools. With the Clemens, all teh spools are easy to change, and easy to roll back i the event you make a mistake. I do not use teh piano wire tension device, and I never have a problem on the Clemens. When work on people's Renzetti I have all sorts of issues, and usually end up embarrassed since I always have these issues in front of 20 people doin a Demo, lol.
4. The thread carriage base - Tah cam action thing is a pain to use, not to mention they installed it backwards from th factory on my friends lathe, then blamed him for not knowing how ot use it. 9 month slater he brought it to the show in NC, adn REnzetti said tht it was installed improperly from teh factory and fixed it for him.
