One lathe or two?

[John Pratt]

Turning accounts for about 1-2% of my woodworking but I would like to get into turning some pens for gifts and some Freedom Pens (I am retired military and I work on a military installation). I have a full size lathe in the shop with a 16" swing and 42" between centers. Should I look at getting a Mini or Midi for pen turning? Most of the work I have done on the full size is spindle turning for railings or bed posts, although not very often. How many others have gone the route of just getting a second lathe for small work like pens? Smaller size tools as well? Will I be frustrated trying to turn pens on the larger machine? If a second lathe is the route to go, please give me some ideas for a good pen turning lathe. Money and shop space are not really a problem, however, keep in mind that it does not consume the majority of my woodworking and I don't want to just throw money away. But then again I may become addicted to turning out these little projects.

John

[alex carey]

Dunno about pen turning but my advice is to turn one bowl on your big lathe and see what that does for you. Im guessing you'll get sucked into the vortex pretty quickly.

[Robert Parrish]

John, I have a Jet 16/42 and I turn everything on it including pens. I had thought about buying a smaller lathe just for pens but decided against it. I have everything set up now for connivence so I think another lathe would be a bother. I was thinking that with a midi I could sit down and turn but I found a nice stool for my large lathe that I use when I need to sit. I just added more DC to my lathe today.

[bob svoboda]

I've turned a lot of pens on full sized lathes. The only advantage I can see to a smaller lathe is being able to sit at a workbench. As Robert says, just get a stool if that is an issue.

[Karl Card]

i have 2 lathes, jet 1014 and a rikon 70-100 and the reason I did this is because I have one setup with duplicator and the other one for free hand. It is handy like that. But I also got a real good deal on both of them. I gave 199 for the jet 1014I and 350 for the rikon with free stand.

This way I am not alwasy having to setup my duplicator or get it dialed in to finish a project..

[Wally Dickerman]

You can turn small things on big lathes but you can't turn big things on a small lathe.....

Your large sized lathe will do just fine for pens...I turn pens on a lathe with a 24 inch swing.

Wally

[charlie knighton]

i agree with Wally, but a small lathe would be good for travel

[Chris Stolicky]

I started with the Jet 1014i and then also got the Jet 1642. I love the 1642, but still use the smaller one for pens. Its just more comfortable for be and has better dust collection set up.

I would recommend that whatever you get, VS is worth it. Reverse is also nice, but not necessary for pens. You may want to take a look at the Delta Midi - it seems to be the best bang for the buck in that size range.

[David E Keller]

Since I got my mustard, I've only used my Rikon midi for buffing. I personally don't see the need for a smaller lathe to turn small things. You may want to invest in some accessories for your big lathe instead(mandrels, kits, blanks, bushings, bits, finishing supplies, etc).

[Steve Schlumpf]

John - seeing as how you already have a lathe that is very capable of turning pens on - why even think of getting something else? A lot of us have fallen into the vortex and love what we can create on the lathe - so it takes up a lot of our woodworking time. If you want to turn pens - sounds like you already have the equipment to make it happen!

Have fun with it and be sure to post any pens that you turn!

[dan carter]

I suggest you look into the Delta 46-460. It will spoil you having two machines to turn your projects. I have never regretted purchasing mine; seems that many days I turn on both my mustard Powermatic and the Delta. Certainly nothing wrong with your bigger lathe for pens, but retirement is sweet, you said money and space wasn't an issue. Delta got it right with their new lathe. So giver your all and buy yourself a new lathe. :-)

[John Pratt]

THanks for all the input guys. From the sound of it the larger lathe is good for my needs. I will see how it goes and then maybe add another lathe as necessary or just for the heck of it (no such thing as too many tools). How about the second set of smaller turning tools? Is it beneficial to have a smaller set? Like I said, I am new to this whole pen turning thing and not really an accomplished turner, especially at smaller scales. Any other specialty tools I need for pens, like a press etc..? Maybe a link to a thread that lists the starters kit for pen turning.

[Wally Dickerman]

THanks for all the input guys. From the sound of it the larger lathe is good for my needs. I will see how it goes and then maybe add another lathe as necessary or just for the heck of it (no such thing as too many tools). How about the second set of smaller turning tools? Is it beneficial to have a smaller set? Like I said, I am new to this whole pen turning thing and not really an accomplished turner, especially at smaller scales. Any other specialty tools I need for pens, like a press etc..? Maybe a link to a thread that lists the starters kit for pen turning.

You won't need or want smaller tools for pen turning. Unless you get into mini-turning, regular sized tools will do the job.

There are several good books out on pen turning. I suggest that you get one before you get started. You'll learn what is needed to turn pens.

Wally

[Bernie Weishapl]

John you don't want smaller tools unless like Wally said you are going to do mini or ultra small turning. I use my full size tools to turn pens, ornaments, etc. I have a big lathe and two 12" midi lathes.

[Mac Carlton]

I think a short tool rest would make yours or any large lathe smaller. I know when I did a pen demo at our club on club lathe I could have used a shorter tool rest to get between centers.

[Reed Gray]

I thought my Robust would be all that I needed, but took a 3 day workshop with Bonnie Klein. Ended up getting a jet 1224 VS for making threaded boxes. Her threading jigs would not convert well to the Robust. Only turned one pen. I did use the mini for finishing spheres.

robo hippy

[Bill Blasic]

Different strokes for different folks, they call it a vortex for a reason. I have many chucks because I dislike changing jaws. Next step in this progression, I don't like changing chucks? I now have 5 lathes with different chucks for different operations, overkill?, probably but it works. It also helps when we have a hands on event that we don't have to scramble for a lot of lathes. I do see one more lathe coming in the near future.
Bill

[David E Keller]

John, there really aren't a lot of special tools required to make pens, but there are a few things that are helpful.

You'll need to get a mandrel if you don't already have one. An adjustable mandrel is the way to go there. You can turn between centers without a mandrel, but that's not the way most people start.

You need kits and the bushings for those kits. Extra tubes for the kits are nice to have in case a blank blows up on you... Otherwise, you have to use another kit.

A shorter tool rest is really helpful... I've got 3" and 5" rests that I use for pen turning with the 5" rest getting the most lathe time.

You'll want a pen mill to square the ends of your blanks after inserting the tubes. I use mine in a drill press with a homemade blank holder. I also use my drill press as a pen press by placing a hinge pin in the jacobs chuck... A flat headed bolt would work as well.

You'll need some CA glue, epoxy, or gorilla glue for gluing in your tubes.

I turn the majority of my blanks with a roughing gouge and a 1/2" skew, but there are many, many tools that will get the job done.

I'd recommend visiting the IAP website(penturners.org) for more information. They are a pretty helpful bunch, and the library there is a great resource.

You're welcome to send me a PM if you have any questions.

[Tony Pridmore]

You'll need to get a mandrel if you don't already have one. An adjustable mandrel is the way to go there. You can turn between centers without a mandrel, but that's not the way most people start.

John, my opinion differs from David's on this point (and this point only). The mandrel offers a lot of opportunity for turning out of round (hard to get all the variables corrected to have the blank spin true). Try a 60 degree dead center in the head stock and 60 degree live center in the tailstock. Sandwich a single blank between bushings with the centers. Very simple.

By all means, check out the IAP site David mentioned. I wish we could link to the forum over there because I would put you right on a fantastic tutorial showing how to do the whole process turning between centers as mentioned above. PM me and I'll send it to you.

[Jeff Nicol]

Well for me a non-recovering "TOOLAHOLIC" if the tool fits buy it! I have 3 wood lathes and a small metal lathe with dreams of a giant pto driven beast to turn logs on! The dream is big and my body says no, but the heart is in it still! I have a transmission out of a truck that I would use to change speeds and some big timbers to make a bed. It would not be a precision thing but fun none the less. I guess I am like my Dad, he is going to be 72 in May and started building a narrow gauge train system in his back yard with roughly 1000 feet of track and sidings and the whole ball of wax! This is right after he built a new house for himself. So dreams are fun and maybe some day........They become reality!

So when the money runs out, you have to wait till the next sale of something to get more, or when all the shops and sheds are full!

Jeff

[Ralph Lindberg]

THanks for all the input guys. From the sound of it the larger lathe is good for my needs. I will see how it goes and then maybe add another lathe as necessary or just for the heck of it (no such thing as too many tools). How about the second set of smaller turning tools? Is it beneficial to have a smaller set? Like I said, I am new to this whole pen turning thing and not really an accomplished turner, especially at smaller scales. Any other specialty tools I need for pens, like a press etc..? Maybe a link to a thread that lists the starters kit for pen turning.

John, one point, if you get serious and do a lot of both large and small turnings (like hollow forms and finials). A small lathe is much better suited to the high speed then the large large. While it is true a large lathe can turn small objects, they usually don't match the max high speed of a small lathe (jet 1014 3900 rpm, PM 3520 3100 rpm).
It is a fact that the high speed of small turnings does wear out the bearings faster, so it is logical to understand that replacing the bearings on a mini lathe would be cheaper then on a large lathe

Of course, if you are only doing some handfull of turnings, it will not matter