Awesome Christmas gift -- if I ever get it...

[Lisa Gilbert]

I'm brand new to turning -- my 13-year-old son and I took a pen class at Woodcraft and got totally hooked -- and brand new to the forum, but you all seem to be a neat bunch of folks, and I look forward to benefitting from your collective wisdom.

My wonderful husband ordered me a Jet 1442 (he doesn't start small) for Christmas. I say "ordered" rather than "got" since we live in the Black Forest in Colorado, and the snow has made the actual getting of the machine impossible. The first blizzard delayed it getting through Denver before Christmas. (We got 30" out here, so couldn't have gotten out to get it anyway.) We got an e-mail on Friday (day 2 of the 2nd storm) saying they had the lathe, but they weren't open due to the snow. We finally got dug out (only 24" this time) yesterday at 3:45, and I called to see if they were open, and they were closing at 4:00, so I have to wait until tomorrow!

I will probably spend a lot of time making pens, because I already have a bunch of people who want them, but I am a flutist, and once I gain enough skill, I would love to try some wooden flutes (I already have a purpleheart mouthpiece and it's incredible). The technical aspects of getting them in tune guarantees I will produce lots of kindling for our wood stove, but I love the sound of a wooden flute, so it will be worth the failures. That would give me the chance to join my passion for music with what looks to be a likely obsession with turning wood!

[David Fried]

Congratulations on your first post and new lathe!!! Welcome to the Abyss!!

I too made the mistake of taking a pen making class at Woodcraft. All down hill from there. Enjoy!!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Welcome to the Creek Lisa! I'd recommend you open your purse ...pull out all of your cash and take a photo of it so you'll remember what it looked like........I started turning in March...always had a couple of hundred dollars in my billfold. Now......I'm always broke but I sure smile a lot!

Welcome to the Abyss.........Have fun!

[Jeremy Gibson]

Welcome Lisa!

It's nice to see a neighbor here once in a while! I'm just up the hill in Divide. I can certainly commiserate about the snow, we got 30" with both storms and now have huge piles.

I can't help much with turning since I have as of yet avoided that abyss. Not from lack of interest, just a lack of space.

[Dennis Peacock]

Howdy Lisa and WELCOME to SMC!!!!!

You're hooked now and turning will very soon be an adiction that you will never really be able to kick. :D

[Mark Pruitt]

...turning will very soon be an adiction that you will never really be able to kick. :D
...or even want to kick!:D Welcome Lisa!!! I'm confident you'll thoroughly enjoy that 1442! Oh, and.....we like pictures!:D :D

[John Hart]

Welcome to the Creek Lisa! Too bad you don't have the lathe yet....Being snowed-in would be perfect pen-making weather.;)

[Pete Jordan]

Welcome Lisa!

You can keep your snow. I live in Michigan and we have nothing. Makes snowblowing much easier.

[John Timberlake]

Wlecome to the Creek. You are starting with a good lathe. Has done everything I want to do from pens to bowls to four poster beds. Just be prepared to spend a lot on the accesories. And enjoy it with your son.

[Mark Cothren]

Welcome Lisa! And congrats on the lathe!

[Christopher K. Hartley]

Lisa how cool is that! what a way to fall headlong into the vortex.:D Welcome to the Creek. We need more of you ladies to liven up the place and keep us on our toes. Looking forward to seeing your projects. When you do that first flute do a sound recording and let us hear it.:)

[Ron Raymond]

Welcome, Lisa...I'm new here too and came the same way you did...that WC pen class with my Cub Scout son! I have no idea what 30" of snow looks like. If we get so much as a flurry here in East Tennessee, everybody makes a run on milk and bread at the store and calls in sick.:eek:

[Steve Schlumpf]

Welcome to the Creek Lisa! Looking forward to seeing pics of your new lathe! You are going to love it!

I'm very aware of the Black Forest area - former CO resident 1972 - 1986. Loved the area!

[Joyce Baldauf]

Welcome. I know you will not only enjoy the people on the forum, but will learn a lot from them.

I got an early Christmas gift this year. My husband bought me a Jet 1642.
Great machine. I know you will have as much enjoyment from your's as I have from mine. And yes, the spending on toys, I mean tools, has only just begun.

Joyce:D

[Jon Shively]

Welcome Lisa, son and husband. I also am a student of the Woodcraft pen class. Can't remember what I did with the evening hours before! Now I spend evenings cutting and drilling blanks or gluing so weekends can spend time turning. This is a wonderful forum of generous and helpful people, congrats on the lathe and by the way, go ahead and keep that snow and storms in your neighborhood.

[Lisa Gilbert]

Thanks to all for the warm welcome! I can't wait to start turning. I cancelled school for this week (we home school 4 little and not so little people), so I could catch up on some serious cleaning that fell by the wayside after I had surgery on both feet in October. Now with a lathe sitting in the garage, that is going to take some discipline to follow through on!

Ron, if I knew how to post a picture, I could show you what 30" of snow looks like, but I suppose that would be way off topic. It's about neck-high on my 6-year-old. We're just grateful a little of the 30" melted before we got the 24" follow-up!

[Barry Stratton]

Welcome to the Creek Lisa! You and your family will find LOTS of helpful folks here.

Pens are a great start.......and VERY addicting! You'll find that antler pens are really popular, especially if you can leave some "bark" on them. I've turned lots of moose, caribou, and sitka blacktail deer antler as well as some whitetail and mule deer. Grab as much of those elk antlers as you can. you'll finds the tips and "burr" or base have the most solid bone. I've never turned pronghorn (the only shed horn - and horns are basically condensed hair instead of bone) but imagine it can be done with the non hollow tips. I've seen water buffalo pen blanks for sale so know that it can be done.

And I can relate to the snow moving:D, we've got 3+ feet on the ground as well....