Lathe tools needed

[Roy Boomershine]

I'm needing some new tools at school for my woodshop classes. I used to get Buck Bros. tools but I don't see them in my regular school supplier catalog. Are they still available and where? The Buck tools were fairly inexpensive for me and on a school budget that's important. I've looked on ebay for tools but they usually come in sets and I'm just mainly needing roundnoses and a few parting tools.

[Ralph Lindberg]

Roy, go to Penn State Industries and check on Benjamin's Best. They are HSS (M2), not the highest quality, but they are reasonable tools at a reasonable price

[Bernie Weishapl]

+1 for PSI. Good tools for the money.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Need cheap? Check out Harbor Freight. Cheaper then PSI, but not as good. Not terrible, I still use most of the chisels from the 8 pc set. It's 40 bucks shipped to your door. I use the BB from PSI a lot.

[Scott Conners]

I recently bought 3 tools from Laguna while I was at a demo. They sold out on most of the popular tools, due in big part they were impressive for the price. Long, full size blades and good handles, for super cheap. So far (had them 2 months) the steel feels as good as any of my other budget brands (excluding Thompson etc). Much nicer than the harbor freight set, I bought a few bowl gouges to try new grinds, and a big 1 1/4" bowl scraper. I'm really pleased with them.

[Mike Spanbauer]

the steel feels as good as any of my other budget brands (excluding Thompson etc).

Lol Scott, that may be the first time I've ever seen anyone refer to Doug's tools as a budget brand.

OP: I concur on the Ben's Best recommendation. Decent steel, great value, wide variety. The Harbor freights are about the same as far as steel quality, but I didn't like the feel of the handles personally and you are married to the set as a kit, whereas you can purchase just about any single tool from PSI that you need to fill out the arsenal.

Cheers,

mike

[Jim Kountz]

The Pinnacle tools from Woodcraft are decent tools as well. If you catch them on sale they are a good buy otherwise I would just bump up the the Thompsons.

[Scott Conners]

Lol Scott, that may be the first time I've ever seen anyone refer to Doug's tools as a budget brand.

Mike, I may have phrased it wrong, but I was specifically excluding Thompsons as "budget" brand. What I meant was that the steel is a good as any of my non-top-shelf tools. Top-shelf including such as Thompsons and some of my Sorby and Henry Taylor.