I came across a deal the other day, 19.5” Lathe and a whole bunch of unopened pen blanks, parts, etc. According to the seller, it came from a guy who was going to try out turning and never started. The chisels were still covered in wax. I don’t think anything was ever used.
I decided to give pen turning a go with all these new toys and am running into a problem. Most components are Penn State and I’m guessing the Lathe was part of a kit at one time. My mandrel (7mm) threads onto an adaptor. The Lathe has what I think is 3/4” 16 tpi threads and I screw on an adapter that is 1” - 8 tpi threads. The mandrel mounts to this adapter. The long 7mm bar of the mandrel is working loose every time I start to hit the blank with the roughing gouge. I try to tighten it but it’s like it’s spinning the wrong way and working loose. It’s coming loose on the headstock side. I attempted to use a jam but but there isn’t enough threads to make that work. I just thought of trying thread locker as I type this but I’m wondering if I just have the wrong mandrel?
Link:https://www.pennstateind.com/mm5/mer...e=pen-mandrels