How many use a metal lathe to turn pens?

[johnspensandmore]

I'm thinking of buying a metal lathe to turn wood/acrylic/metal pens. Do they work as well as a standard wood lathe? Thanks!

 

[mredburn]

THere is a lot of discussion in the NEW Metal Lathe forum that will help you.

I turn mine on a metal lathe.

 

[jeff]

Moved it to the new metal lathe forum!

 

[bitshird]

I turned the first 100 or so pens on a Jet 920BN and you can get contour in the barrels, just use lateral feed and your cross slide wheel.

 

[Dalecamino]

I'm thinking of buying a metal lathe to turn wood/acrylic/metal pens. Do they work as well as a standard wood lathe? Thanks!

I'm using a metal lathe now.

 

[Penultimate]

Greetings,
I turn on a 7x12 mini lathe. I learned on my Father's Southbend lathe a long time ago. I make my own bushings and centers too.

 

[Texatdurango]

I'm probably the odd duck here, I use both the metal lathe and my Jet mini wood lathe about the same.

When I'm making one of my own creations from scratch I will usually make the entire pen on the metal lathe because I can make a pen so much more precise.

But, when someone orders a kit pen I don't have available I will generally dump out the bag of parts and hop on the Jet mini. Sometimes having a ribbon of acrylic flying over your shoulder when turning between centers is just hard to beat even though I've done it a million times! :biggrin:

 

[BigShed]

I also use the metal lathe and the wood lathe about equally, horses for courses.

I quite often start on the metal lathe, ie round off an acrylic blank etc, and finish off the flowing shape on the wood lathe. Wood closed end pens are done on the wood lathe etc.

Finishing off is nearly always on the wood lathe.

 

[bluwolf]

George, I don't think you're the odd duck at all. I would think that the bulk of people use both lathes, myself included. Both types have their strengths and weaknesses. When Chuck was buying his metal lathe he was thinking about selling his wood lathe. I told him, don't do it, you'll be sorry:biggrin: I can't think of the last pen that I didn't go back and forth between them.

 

[cnirenberg]

George, I don't think you're the odd duck at all. I would think that the bulk of people use both lathes, myself included. Both types have their strengths and weaknesses. When Chuck was buying his metal lathe he was thinking about selling his wood lathe. I told him, don't do it, you'll be sorry:biggrin: I can't think of the last pen that I didn't go back and forth between them.

I agree with Mike. I use my Fisch to rough turn all my blanks, the the 7x12 to finish up. The pin jaws I have on the Fisch (too cheap to get a collet chuck, but there is always Christmas in September) hold the blanks a bit better than the 3 jaw. There isn't a whole lot of room for the hand tool attachment and a full size skew. I'm looking into a carbide cutter for this type of work, possibly a home made tool or the Woodchuck.