Fish30114
Member
I have been trying some turning of soft metals with my Nova DVR XP and have been successful with a few aluminum pens, but I was drilling some 5/8" copper rod tonight and my lathe just would not get the bar centered up--I manipulated my chuck all that I could but even when the bar was pretty damn true in the chuck, the drill bit in my Jacobs chuck in the tailstock would not center the drill bit--I checked the center on my tailstock and the headstock and it was dead on with two pointed dead centers--my Jacobs chuck is a high quality/high precision model with measured low runout--I don't know what is causing the off center bit--but that leads me to the question at hand, if I want to make good quality metal body pens, even with softer metals, should I be able to do it with my current lathe, or do I need to step up to a metal lathe. As of now there is now way I could drill a tip hole in a piece of stock for the refill to protrude through. I think I will be able to turn this copper bar--but it is drilled a good bit off center as of now--but I don't know if I should even attempt brass with my current rig.
Any advice/input is appreciated.
Thanks--Don
Any advice/input is appreciated.
Thanks--Don