Where to start?

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Maple...just because it's cheap and common. And it depends on what you want to turn and how big you want to get.
 
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If practicing with pine (2x4), be aware that it offers some challenges. When you get the hang of pine (those 16 blanks should be plenty!), most other woods will be easy.

In other words, pine is a good way to start - it's easier to go from pine to maple than the other way around - just don't get discouraged if it doesn't go well the first few blanks you practice on.
 
If your looking to practice, grab a hatchet, head into the woods and just find a good branch on the ground. Usually wet wood is easier to turn.
If you want to spend a little money head to Homedepot and pick up a few of their "hardwood" 1"x1" or the 2"x2". They are by the finishing wood and spindles. These make cool little boxes and other projects, but harder to turn than wet wood.
They also have red oak and poplar sheets, 1"x2" and 1"x4" in the same section. One of my first turning, was a fruit bowl that I made by alternating these woods. It was very tuff because I didn't know how to sharpen my tools or anything.
Hope this helps. Good luck and post lots of pics. I love stealing ideas, lol.
 
I started with free wood. Do you work at a place that throws wood away? Do you buy firewood. I keep your eyes open I've found some really nice free wood. Also let your friends and co-workers know you turn and would take a piece of any tree they may trimming or removing. I've given pens to them from the wood they gave me. It really goes over well.
 
Pine. If you stay at it and can get a really good finish from the tool working with pine you will get a good finish on any wood. Granted, you may have to sharpen your tools more turning a harder wood than pine.
 
I agree on the pine. Also research sharpening. Sharp tools are the secret when cutting any material. Safer, better performance, better end product, less sanding,

I can not think of one down side to sharpening. The single best thing you can do to improve your turning results is to master sharpening your tools.

That being said, Pine and other soft woods are definitely the most cost effective way to learn turning technique (other than found wood).
 
Maple certainly, but I would probably pick up some pine or poplar cheap-o stuff from lowe's. The coniferous woods will be much softer, which makes them more forgiving, but also require sharper tools. I would just get some practice turning spindle for awhile before even attempting a "real" pen, just to get the feel of your lathe and tools.
 
There should be plenty of oak in your neck of the woods, cherry is good. Home Depot and lows carry hardwood dowels you can cut pieces off to turn pens.
 
If you're impatient and really just want to see if you can actually make a pen that writes (as I was) get some pre-cut pre-drilled blanks from psi or somewhere. The advantage is then you don't need to mess around(in my case not having any tools other than a lathe) and you can spend your time getting good at using your lathe tools without spending time cutting drilling and barrel trimming. And you have a pen to improve on.
 
jzerger said:
If you're impatient and really just want to see if you can actually make a pen that writes (as I was) get some pre-cut pre-drilled blanks from psi or somewhere. The advantage is then you don't need to mess around(in my case not having any tools other than a lathe) and you can spend your time getting good at using your lathe tools without spending time cutting drilling and barrel trimming. And you have a pen to improve on.
Click to expand...

This brings up another point. You can "practice" drilling the blanks on the lathe if you don't have a drillpress and vise.. Kill two birds with one stone as they say.
 
If you have a GOOD drill press I recomend a homemade or store bought blank drilling jig.

If not I recommend a scroll chuck and drill chuck for the lathe.

I started with my crappy old Craftsman drill press and standard drill press vice. That was a PITA.

So I built a blank drilling jig. That would have worked fine if my drill press table would have stayed put or my drill press had enough quill travel.

I spent a long time drilling by hand with a cordless drill. Having years of fabrication experience, I was able to pull it off. But, it was also a huge PITA.

Once I finally bought an MT2 drill chuck and a scroll chuck I kicked myself for trying to be cheap for so long!

Not that you asked all that, but that was my biggest aggravation when I first started.

I started practicing with pine. Once I got that and moved to hardwoods, the hardwoods were a breeze. Then you just have to keep practicing and work on technique.

I have gotten a HUGE amount of help from people on IAP. For some reason it took me forever to find the library, a lot of good info in there!
 
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