Well, jimintx, I sincerely apologize. I guess the memory of that wood flying around kind of stuck in my mind. If I had not been reaching for a bowl gouge….. Wood came right over the tool rest.
BTW, my Powermatic comes in somewhere in the 600+ pound range so it was not shaking. I'd have to look at the manual to see the actual weight. New ones weigh even more, over 700 lbs.
Oh, and when I do anything like that now, I tend to use my Powermatic 3520 in slow range, which I believe is something like 15 to 1200 RPM. I will mount the wood, and turn it on as slow as it will go by turning the speed dial to 0 and then turning on the big red button. Then I move the speed dial up slowly, starting at the aforementioned 15 RPM, until I reach a position where I feel I am somewhat safe, things will not go flying, and I can still use a very sharp tool to take light cuts until things are fairly balanced. My guess would be somewhere less than 300 RPM.
What that speed is, I don't know, since my Powermatic is an older one, with no speed readout. Since most of my turning life I've never had a speed readout, I tend to ignore them anyway. On my Turnmaster, there is a speed readout right there, just to the left of the chuck. Nice, but I just don't use it. Once I bought one of those cheapo HF speed readout tools. Cool tool that collects dust on the shelf by my lathes. Used it once, twice, checked it against the speed readout on my Turnmaster, (which mostly matched), and put it up. It will come in handy for something down the line, just don't know what yet.
Oh, and my Powermatic 3520 is a 2HP, 3phase, and that lathe comes with a single phase converter to run on 220VAC single phase. I incorrectly put 3HP, in my previous post. Still, quite a horse that I have proudly owned for sixteen years. Works like the day I bought it.