Powermatic 3520 Lathe Review

The basics

Weighing in at 680 pounds of old-school cast-iron, the Powermatic 3520 Wood Lathe (or “Mustard Monster” as it’s known to its admirers) is a behemoth. That weight and mass is a major pain when setting it up and moving it, but once you’ve got it in position, you’ll appreciate the extra vibration-dampening mass.

The 3520B is the third step in the 3520’s evolution – first the was the 3520, followed by the 3520A, and now the 3520B.

Notable changes between the previous model and this one:

• The hollow tail stock has a door, keeping woodchips and dust off your Jacob’s chuck, Allen wrenches, and other small tools.
• The head stock ships standard with an indexing plate
• There’s a small storage shelf mounted to the left of the headstock
• The RPM is displayed on a LED readout (the only really great improvement over the A model).

Accessories include bowl guard (to keep you safe if a piece of spalted or otherwise weakened wood explodes on your), standard size tool rest, small face plate, wrench (for loosening the faceplate), and knockout rod (for removing spur centers and other accessories from the headstock).

With a list price of over $4k ($4,200 to be specific), and a street price of around $3.5k (a bit less at Amazon, a bit more other places), the Powermatic 3520 (named for its 35 inches between centers and 20 inch swing) is no small lathe … and no small commitment.

As has been said elsewhere, though, it will save you lots of money if you avoid buying smaller lathes on the way to this one!

Delivery

The Mustard Monster comes bolted down to a pallet, with a light plywood or heavy cardboard box secured over it with bandstraps. Removing these reveals the monster in all its glory. The luck recipient now gets to unbolt the four legs and proceed with trying to move a hunk of recalcitrant iron around.

Others have used engine hoists and other tricks. I disassembled the 3520. The headstock and tailstock, designed to slide up and down the bed, come off with just a twist of a clamp arm. The bed, weighing in at 313 pounds, can then be unbolted from the two legs.

Electrical

Like many heavy duty tools, the 3520 comes without a plug – you have to mount an appropriate one to the end of the cord. The 3520 is set up to draw household 220V (about 16 amps of it – you’ll probably want to run a dedicated circuit for this beast!), but can also be converted to three phase power, if you’re operating out of an industrial building, where that’s available.

Headstock

The 3520 uses a hybrid system to let you pick any speed you want – first, you can open a hatch on the front of the headstock and move a belt from one set of matched pulleys to another (this is the high/low selector), then you get an analog dial (also on the front of the headstock) that lets you pick a precise speed within the range.

Both systems are very easy to use. With the belt in the low range, you can pick speeds from 50 to 1200 rpm. With the belt in the high range, you can more than double the top speed, and g et up to 3200 rpm.

There’s also a switch to reverse the direction of rotation, which is nice, as many authorities suggest that sanding should be done with the lathe in reverse.

The handwheel on the left hand side of the headstock is big, beefy, and has smooth finish (important, as you’ll likely be tempted to apply some braking pressure from time to time!).

The spindle is hollow, meaning that you can use a knockout rod, inserted from the left side, to help you pop out accessories on the business end of the headstock. If you’re interested in vacuum chucking, a hollow spindle is a near necessity, so this is a nice feature to have. The work end of the spindle is threaded 1 1/4” x 8 TPI on the outside, and has an internal taper of MT #2. Both of these are fairly common specifications for larger machines, which is good news, because almost every spindle-mounting accessory (collets, scroll chucks, wood taps to make your own faceplates, pen turning mandrels, buffing wheels, etc.) you’ll want to use comes in these formats.

The headstock is longer (left to right) than many, but the Powermatic engineers did this for good reason – with ball bearing races at the extreme left and right ends of the headstock, the spindle is strongly supported, so when you hang a 50 pound chunk of wet oak off a faceplate and start throwing it around at a high speed, the 3520 just shrugs and goes along with you, where a lesser machine would rip itself to shreds.

To remove faceplates and other accessories, one depresses a spindle locking pin (again, conveniently located on the front of the headstock), and then unscrews the accessory from the spindle either using the included wrench (for faceplates) or some other appropriate tool.

As mentioned previously, the headstock can be unlocked with just the turn of a clamp lever, and slid left and right on the bed. The main reason for doing this is to move it all the way to the right, and thus allow one to turn items so large that they won’t spin over the bed.

Tailstock

The cast iron tailstock on the 3520 is beefier than the headstocks on many other lathes. The ram is just under 1 1/2” in diameter, and has 4.5” of throw. Once the tail center is brought into position, it can be locked in place with just a quick throw of a locking lever.

The base of the tailstock is hollow, giving a recess about 5” x 5” x 5”, good for storage of small items. On the A model, this was open at the front. On the B model, there is a door that keeps out woodchips and other detritus.

The MT#2 taper on the tailstock accepts a live center, which has both a “cup” style center, and a screw-on cone that covers the cup.

Banjo and toolrest

The A model shipped with a heavy duty banjo that, like the headstock and tailstock, can be locked or unlocked with a simple swing of a clamp arm.

The B model one ups this by providing T-slots that run the length of the banjo, providing mounting points for dust collectors and other accessories.

The banjo supports a 1” post, which are is bit larger than average. The extra thickness and mass is definitely nice, but it does mean that not all after-market toolrests will work with the Powermatic.

The 14” toolrest that ships with the lathe, though, is fit for most tasks, and Powermatic sells several additional specialized toolrests (like a curved bowl-turning rest, a double rest, etc.)

Accessories

Powermatic sells a short bed extension, for when you need just a bit more length (18”) between centers ( P/N 6294727B). The short bed extension bolts to the tailstock end of the bed, and cantilevers out into space. Interestingly enough, the short bed extension can also be mounted lower on the lathe (not in line with the main bed), letting you turn up to 38” diameter items.

Also available is a 50” long bed extension (P/N 6294726B), which nearly doubles the distance between centers, and requires an additional set of legs to support it.

If you’re interested in large faceplate work (40 inch diameter bowls or wall hangings, etc.), (a) you’re quite mad; (b) you can slide the headstock to the right end of the bed and turn off the end. To do this, though, you’ll want to invest in Powermatic’s outboard turning stand (P/N 6294732) – a cast iron tripod that you can move around the floor of your shop.

A variety of minor accessories are also available, including a remote on/off switch (P/N 6294733), a spindle extension (P/N 6294735), a metal spinning toolrest (P/N 6294730), and a dust collector (P/N 6294796).

Conclusion

I’ve lived with the Powermatic 3520 for several years now, and have yet to experience a moment of regret for shelling out the big bucks. It’s a monster, through and through, and not only provides enough muscle for any task including roughing huge bowls fresh from the tree, but delivers enough finesse and precision to do delicate work like making pens, chess pieces, and ornamental birdhouse ornaments.

I’ve yet to see another lathe that I like half as much as the 3520. I’m not an employee of Powermatic or in any way associated with them, but I am a true dyed-in-the-Powermatic-yellow enthusiast.

- Travis Corcoran