Mini or Midi Lathe

[JoeScroller]

I am looking at the Carba-Tec Variable Sp Mini lathe and the Turncrafter Commander 10" Variable Sp Midi Lathe as my first lathe just for pen,pencil,stopper turning. Does anyone see any dis or advantages to one or the other?
Thanks so much for your input.
Joe

 

[IPD_Mrs]

What is the MT and the head stock thread size on both? You want a standard or common size. For me it would be about buying the best quality you can affort. You can cry hard now or you can cry many times in the future.

 

[Rusalka]

if you can wait until Black Friday, Woodcraft will have the Rikon 1216 VS lathe on sell for less then $300. Rikon's tech support is the best that i have ever dealt with. For example, they are sending for free a new motor and belt for my 5 year lathe. I have no knowledge of the Turncrafter, but if it is from PSI, i would shy away from it just because i have a beef with PSI after they refused to RMA a factory defective $50 pen kit.

 

[holmqer]

If it's your only lathe, then I would go with a midi, the footprint is very close to a mini so no really shop layout issues. I got my first lathe with the idea that I would be doing pens and maybe stoppers and now make lots of bigger stuff. Having the midi gives you more room for growth if you decide to try other stuff.

 

[dankc908]

Usually the mini's have a #1 Morse Taper and the midi's a #2 MT. The #2 is vastly more versatile! I am OK with PSI but I have upgraded my Turncrafter to a JET 1220 VS (both midi's) and relegated the Turncrafter to a buffing station.

 

[OOPS]

I looked at the Carba-Tec and then I went to Harbor Freight and noticed that they sell a lathe that is identical! With HF's 20% off coupon, I purchased the lathe plus their extended warranty for less than $150. I am very pleased with the HF lathe. I am sure you will enjoy the VS, as I do. It has plenty of power for pens and pencils and I haven't had any problems or performance issues with the unit. I have never made a stopper, but I cannot imagine a problem. Also, one of the other reasons I picked this lathe is that it weighed less than 50 lbs. I have small shop and need to move equipment around. In my opinion it was just too hard to move a 100 lb. lathe.

I hope my experience helps you with your decision. I am sure you will enjoy your lathe, no matter which one you choose.

 

[PenMan1]

On black Friday, Amazon will have the Jet 1014 VSI on sale WITH free shipping.

 

[Smitty37]

Mini is fine

If all you are going to do on it is pens, a mini is fine. There are more things you can hang on a midi with its MT2 but for pens you don't need most of them...you can get both live and dead centers in MT1 if you want to go TBC. A Barracuda is available that will go on and you can get both 1/2 and 3/8 chucks if you want to drill on it. I got mine (similar to the HF one above) for about $140.00 and I've gotten about 3 years out of it so far and it still works well.

If you think you're going to want to turn bigger stuff, go with a midi.