best pen system

[jason lambert]

Well I just order a pen lathe, 3520b! So I need a good pen set up I have done some pens in the past but have nothing what is the best set up. I wast thinking of getting this from rockler:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=18062&filter=pen%20turning

I figure if my wife and inlaws start with pens they are easy and woun't think I'm crazy for buying a lathe.

[Brian Loucks]

Jason,I am as far away from being an expert pen turner as you can possibly get, having just finished my 10th pen, but I am definiely hooked.I thought about dropping $80 on that Rockler jig, but considering how conservative I am with my hard earned money I tryed this first.Cut a V-groove the size of a pen blank on both sides of a wooden screw clamp, (Rockler has them on sale now for 2/$10).Clamp your pen blank into the clamp and slowly drill out using your drill press.Worked quite nicely.To press the pen together, I cut the threads off of a 3/8" bolt and inserted the head end into my drill press chuck. Works great as a press.I guess I'll spend my $80 on a couple new router bits.Take care,Brian

[Steven DeMars]

Well I just order a pen lathe, 3520b! So I need a good pen set up I have done some pens in the past but have nothing what is the best set up. I wast thinking of getting this from rockler:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=18062&filter=pen%20turning

I figure if my wife and inlaws start with pens they are easy and woun't think I'm crazy for buying a lathe.

I have that vise, it is nice, BUT ! ! ! Follow this thread on IAP's Forum . . .

http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=36281&page=3

That is a nice vise . . . many month waiting period, but nice . . .

[Bill Arnold]

Here's another option for a center drilling vise:
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/DRILLCENT3.html

[Greg Just]

I'm about as cheap as it gets and I went to Harbor Freight and purchased a $5 drill press vice. I line up my blank up with a square to insure it is parallell to the drill bit. Works great.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Woodcraft and CSUSA sell auto-centering vices for about $40. I have one from Wood Craft and it works well.

[Rich Souchek]

I would recomend against a drilling vise.
My drilling blanks on a drill press resulted in messed up blanks and a fair portions blown out.
My fix for this was to drill the blanks on the lathe, usind a jacobs chuck in the tailstock to hold the drill bit. The blank is in a 4 jaw chuck.
I got the chuck to turn bowls and small boxes and misc. stuff. The 1/2" jacob chuck was from Harbor Freightand maybe $35.
The drilling is much more precise and much less blow-out of blanks.
I use the jacob chuck to drill a lot of things, from the center hole in vases to the tool hole in wooden tool handles.
Rich S.

[michael gallagher]

I have the Rockler one you have pictured, and I agonized over buyin it but took the plunge. It was expensive.

Why did I do it? The vice I was using on the table of the press would shift minutely (of course it wasn't operator error), nad I kept blowing out or misaligning the expensive Bethlehem olive wood blanks. This thing does it dead on each time - I figure it has paid for itself jsut from not as many errors.

I have no experience with the PSI vise referenced here, but it looks similar in concept and a lot cheaper than the Rockler. I would have purchased the PSI one if I (a) had known about it, but most important (b) while Rockler has a store right across the street from where I work, I sure don't want to drive to Pennsylvania just to look at it prior to touching!

[Doug Rogers]

What Rich said!! I haven't ruined a blank yet. I can drill the blanks faster with my lathe set up, then I can with my drill press.

Doug