TerryB wrote:

Well, I checked out my lathe and found it to be a very cheap one. It
will not take a #1 or even a #2 taper as it is a solid shaft with
threads only. Of course I knew it was cheap when I bought it many many
years ago. Now what I ask myself? Is my new found talent gonna break
my bank? Will I invest fortunes to get all I need to turn pens? Well,
not right away I says to me. I just cannot justify $500plus right now
for a one item setup. Meaning that with as much as I have used my
present lathe, I have barely recooped my investment in it and that was
less than $150. I got nothing but time, more time than money. I will
continue to look at my options and home cooked ideas to full fill my
pen obsession, such as it is.

Take a look at Penn State Industries http://www.pennstateind.com. They
have pen mandrels for 3/4x16 and 1x8 threads as well as one for a drill
chuck--look on page 21 of the online catalog.

But all is not lost, this all inspired me to chuck up a chunk of
firewood and turn my wife a lamp base to replace the glass one I broke.
But my greeness to turning green wood has cost me as the nice turning
I made now has cracked pretty bad. I knew it would crack but I never
expected it to crack so much or so fast. Bummer! It maybe salvagable,
time will tell. It would be a real waste of hickory. Nice coloring
and a quarter sized knott in just the right place to make it
interesting. I have not bored the hole all the way from end to end
yet, but not sure that would help any now. Any advice is readily
accepted as I surely don't know what to do now. Other than start over
with dry stock. The piece I used was 16" long and close to 8" across
at the base and only 4" across at the top. A pretty good sized piece
of unbalanced mass spinning in front of me for a long time.

Nuff rabbit chasing.....Thanks for the pointer to the group!!

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)