1st turn at spinny stuff

[Brett Baldwin]

Hi all. I've been wanting to give the lathe a go for a while now and the Rockler pen turning day gave me a great opportunity. For $10 I got a pre-made rosewood 7mm pen kit and time on a Jet mini-lathe and tools to mangle it with. I had the option to do an acrylic one but I thought "That's not wood!" and went with the rosewood. Apparently that was a good decision as the staff watching over all of the newbie spinners there said the acrylic was harder to work. In any case, it wasn't long before I had a decent shape worked out and fairly smooth. Here is what I came up with.
38509
The shape doesn't feel as good as I hoped and I should have sanded it more on the lathe but a little hand sanding at home and a few coats of wipe-on poly cleaned it up fairly well. I believe I'll be going back for the Freedom pen Turn-a-Thon to give it a few more goes and do a little something for the troops. Thanks for looking.

[Mark Cothren]

Nice work, Brett! Keep 'em coming!

[John Hart]

Yup...Nice work Brett. Welcome to the Vortex. Might as well get your own Mini now and save yourself the anguish of waiting!!;) :)

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Brett.....Nice first turning! Welcome to the Abyss!

[George Conklin]

Yup...Nice work Brett. Welcome to the Vortex. Might as well get your own Mini now and save yourself the anguish of waiting!!;) :)

Welcome, Brett.

[Corey Hallagan]

Nice job Brett! Keep em coming!

Corey

[John Miliunas]

Nice job, Brett and welcome to the world of turning!!! :) So, you gonna' go for one of the mini lathes, get a midi or just go whole hog and set yourself up with one of the BIG dogs? :confused: I mean, you may as well admit it right now that a spinny thing is in your future, so you should probably start doing a bit of research on it! :D :cool:

[Brett Baldwin]

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

John, I do admit that I will be getting into turning at some point and I have been following the threads as to the merits of the various lathes. The Vortex has gotten a hold but I think I'll resist it for the time being. I have many other machines I've barely given a chance to create sawdust to and I feel the need to sacrifice a bit more wood to them before allowing the Vortex to suck me in. We'll see how long I last.

[John Miliunas]

..... before allowing the Vortex to suck me in. We'll see how long I last.

Brett, stick that pen in your pocket and then make sure to use it around your friends. After the umpteenth, "Gee Brett, that's cool. Can you make me one?"... you'll be looking a bit closer at which lathe you really want!!! :D :D :D :cool:

[Steve Ash]

Brett, stick that pen in your pocket

I'll add to John's comment.....Brett, stick that pen in your pocket along with your checkbook or plastic and go buy a lathe and tools for it.

The vortex is got a hold on you now, and as so many others have said...it's useless to resist.

Great job on your first turning.

[Mike Ramsey]

Nice job on that first pen Brett!

[Bob Noles]

Brett.....

Nice pen, but I'd stay away from this bunch..... look what happend to me :D

They will have Tyler spinning thongs in here next :eek:

[Don Orr]

Brett, nice job on your first, of many I'm sure, pen. Welcome to the vortex. I know you think you can resist, but...
Those other machines will be a little jealous but they get over it fast when they get covered with chips and blanks and tools and other turning stuff.:D

Have fun!