I saw a lathe tool that could be used on a lathe up to____ inches of swing. I looked it up and that was confusing too:

Many lathes are specified with multiple dimensions for swing, so you might see:

Swing over bed: 10"
Swing over carriage 8"
Swing over compound 6"

 

What does it mean to you?

 

This is my take on it:

Swing over bed:  Largest diameter which can be turned without hitting the ways.

Swing over carriage:  Largest diameter which can be turned over top of the cross slide.  Banjo on a wood lathe. 

Swing over carriage:  Largest diameter which can be turned over top of the carriage.  The carriage rides on the cross slide and carries the tool holder on a metal lathe.  Does not usually pertain to today's wood lathes as there is no cross slide.

Excellent picture and explanation Dan, thanks.

I always considered it the largest chunk of wood that you could put on the lathe.

A 6" swing over the bed wouldn't allow me to put a 7 or 8" turning blank on, I could only put a 6" turning blank - resulting in something smaller than a 6" diameter bowl.

We might be talking the same thing...

What Handy Dan said.

I have a lathe the part of the bed can be removed to allow

for a larger swing.  Also swing over carriage... You could call

the Tool Rest the carriage part if it bolts under your project.