Hi from LI NY

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Rcflyer55

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I'm brand new to turning anything, so I decided to start with pens. I have experience working with wood. I have been building RC planes for 30 years, but I've never used a lathe.

My start actually started on YouTube.
They suggest videos to watch and there was one on machining, and the guy was working on a lathe. I watched hours of all types of metalwork videos and was researching a mini lathe. I was all set to buy one when I found a pen turning video. Not knowing I could have done it on a metal mini lathe I ran out and bought a cheap harbor freight (I know I have on my fireproof suit for all the flaming) lathe.

I attached my first attempt at Turing a pen. It's a comfort pen from PSI. I didn't like the rubber grip so I omitted it. The wood is cocobola. I finished it with Doctor's Woodshop Pens Plus. I have used CA for 30 years and try to stay away from it as much as possible because I developed an allergy to it.
 

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Welcome from Texas.

The Harbor Freight lathes are good starter lathes & lots of folks here have them. My own lathe is an Excelsior from Rockler & it's the exact same lathe as the 10x18 MT2 lathe that Harbor Freight sells with their own name & color. I've had it for almost 3 years now (my how time flies) and it's served my needs just fine so far.

Nice job on that cocobolo pen!
 
Welcome from Southern California! There are a lot of folks here who have one of the HF lathes. Congrats on the pen. I have to take precautions with cocobolo, it's one of those woods that people can develop a fairly serious allergy to.
 
Wow, oh I guess I should say "Welcome" (back to the wow now) there are a lot of new posters today.:smile:

Curt
 
jsolie said:
Welcome from Southern California! There are a lot of folks here who have one of the HF lathes. Congrats on the pen. I have to take precautions with cocobolo, it's one of those woods that people can develop a fairly serious allergy to.
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Thanks for the info on cocobola.
 
Thank you everyone for the warm welcome.

I've been busy the past few days as you can see in the pic.
 

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Another Howdy and welcome from Texas! Those are some nice pens. And don't worry about having a HF lathe - when my son wanted to get into turning 5 years ago I bought him a HF 65345 and, although we have added a Nova Comet II, we still use it frequently when we're turning at the same time or need a second lathe for finishing.
 
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