Advice on First Lathe

[Ashwin]

Hi All,

I am from India and new to Pen Turning. I am in a serious dilemma and would very much appreciate some advice. The problem is I am not able to find a proper lathe in India. I found a few options but I am confused on what to buy. My requirements are for pen turning only. I have listed my options below. All price excluding taxes and transportation to my state.

1. Jet JWL 1220L model. Its costing me around 641 USD.
2. Axminister AC240WL. Its costing me around 617 USD
3. A metal mini lathe and that's costing me around 664 USD (Spec sheet attached)

Now which one shall I take. If I buy the wood lathe I might have to invest in the chuck and other add taps and dies to make a pen. But with the metal lathe I can use the same to put threads also(Correct me if I am wrong). Please advice on which one will shall I go for.

 

[Dehn0045]

the Jet is the best value you have listed. Its a bit larger than the other two, so space might be a consideration. In my opinion start penturning on a wood lathe, if you still enjoy it and want to expand your craft then switch to or add a metal lathe. The metal lathe that you listed here is pretty small and would probably be challenging to work with even with pens.

Basic buying recommendations - get the largest lathe that you have room for and can afford, MT2 tailstock minimum, avoid VS on lower end lathes (instead get a bigger lathe and deal with changing belts)

 

[magpens]

My advice (maybe I am biassed) is to go for a metal lathe at the beginning since I get the impression you are headed towards kitless fountain pens.

However, the metal lathe that you picture is too small, as Sam pointed out.

You need a metal lathe of minimum size 7 inch x 14 inch, which translates to 180 mm x 360 mm.
If you go any shorter than 14 inch you will be cramped for space to fit in the chucks that you want .... 16 inch long would actually be better.
Don't forget that you need to allow room for a Jacobs chuck for drilling ... mounted in your tailstock.
And you will probably want to upgrade the headstock chuck to 4" x 4 jaw in order to grip blanks which are 3/4" round.
The Sieg lathes (made in China) are very commonly used by the pen-turning community.
They are available with a wide variety of brand names and it should be possible to get them (or suitable equivalent) in India.

It is true that with a metal lathe you can cut threads, but I think your initial thread cutting should be done with tap and die until you develop your skills at using the lathe to cut the threads.

 

[Aurelius]

Right now, I am in the process of getting together the tooling to start turning pens so here is what I have found so far.
First, as has already been said, get the biggest you can afford.
As for threading, my understanding is that, yes, you can do it on a metal lathe (and a I plan to learn how to at some point down the road) bt it is a skill unto itself and is going to take time and effort to figure out. If you are the type of person who wants to go that route and will enjoy that, by all means do so. The advanatge of using taps and dies is that they are faster and easier, leaving you free to put your efforts towards learning about the pen turning parts and not worrying about that for now.
Finally, I would like to point out that there is a Group Buy going on right now (ends in a couple of days) where you can get everything you would need at a pretty good price since we have enough to have hit most of the volume price breaks. The thread is here.

 

[penicillin]

I won't comment about specific lathe models, but I wanted to make two general comments:

Nearly any lathe will turn basic pens from wood and plastics like acrylic. Think about the future and what else you will make with that lathe. That should help you choose the right lathe for today and for the future.

The one most important feature on a lathe for me is a variable speed knob. I would not buy a lathe that didn't come with a variable speed knob.

 

[leehljp]

If Wood Lathe:
VS or EVS - Electronic Variable Speed
Morse Taper 2 - MT2 has much more options down the road
12" or 14" in case you decide you want to do bowls. I have a 12" and was happy with it until I decided to do a few bowls. I learned very quickly that I could not turn close to 12 inches with rough blanks, which meant that my bowls were usually 10" max.

I lived overseas from the US for many years and had to plan my purchases for when I was back in the US. Ordering with shipping was expensive but I did get a freight allowance. Therefore I planned my purchases to get as much as possible for the least amount of freight cost.

Many people are now doing what you are considering with the metal lathe. But metal lathes are smaller. Make sure you get one long enough to allow for the length of the chucks and live centers or other items AND the length of the pen blank.

The metal lathe you linked has 10". If you need to add a special chuck that is 2.5 to 3", and a different tail stock center, you could easily lose 4 inches of turning space. You would be severely limited for space for the blanks.
A 12 inch metal lathe would be much better.

 

[ryoko]

If you do go with a bigger metal lathe make sure the spindle taper is mt2 like the one you linked. I had to buy a mt3 to mt2 converter which at the time was not easy to find