termitepenman
Member
I was looking for a small mini lathe for demonstrations at my sales booth but most were more than I wanted to pay. Then one weekend I was at my local Harbor Freight store. I discovered that their 8" X 12" wood mini lathe was on sale for $99.99. I just happened to have a 20% off coupon with me. I reasoned that $80.00 for a variable speed lathe (750 to 4500 rpm) was not a bad deal so I bought it.
I bought a #1 MT mandrel ($13.00) and 60° live center ($15.00) at Woodcraft and went home to give my new mini lathe a try. It turned a good pen but I discovered that a couple of modifications would be necessary to suit my needs.
The first small problem I encountered was that the tool rest area on the banjo was about 3/16" too high and I could not get my tool rest low enough. That was an easy fix, I just ground that area of the banjo down 3/16" (Photo 4)
The second small problem I encountered was that there was no spindle turner on the head stock. I needed to be able to turn my mandrel during sanding manually. I took the spindle cover off the headstock and found that the lathe had two spindle nuts. I went to TAP Plastics and bought a 2" diameter piece of Delrin ($3.00). I drilled out a portion of one end of the Delrin and compress fitted the spindle nut into it, then I drilled a hole for the knock out all the way through the spindle turner (Photos 1,2,and 3).
I now had a mini lathe to meet my needs for about $112.00. I have turned over a hundred pens on this lathe and have stopped using my larger lathe for pen turning (Photo 5).
I bought a #1 MT mandrel ($13.00) and 60° live center ($15.00) at Woodcraft and went home to give my new mini lathe a try. It turned a good pen but I discovered that a couple of modifications would be necessary to suit my needs.
The first small problem I encountered was that the tool rest area on the banjo was about 3/16" too high and I could not get my tool rest low enough. That was an easy fix, I just ground that area of the banjo down 3/16" (Photo 4)
The second small problem I encountered was that there was no spindle turner on the head stock. I needed to be able to turn my mandrel during sanding manually. I took the spindle cover off the headstock and found that the lathe had two spindle nuts. I went to TAP Plastics and bought a 2" diameter piece of Delrin ($3.00). I drilled out a portion of one end of the Delrin and compress fitted the spindle nut into it, then I drilled a hole for the knock out all the way through the spindle turner (Photos 1,2,and 3).
I now had a mini lathe to meet my needs for about $112.00. I have turned over a hundred pens on this lathe and have stopped using my larger lathe for pen turning (Photo 5).
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