I pretty much agree with Paul T. except on the HSS tool bits. For
turning aluminum, the HSS bits will work well as you can grind them to
have more relief than the carbide tools intended for steel ( there
must be carbide bits for aluminum, but I don't have any ).

Dan




"Paul T." wrote in message news:w1v3b.16260

Don't let any oldtimers talk you into using HSS tool bits for this, that was
cool in its day but times have changed, and its a lot easier to get
repeatable results with the carbide tools, especially for learners. For this
size lathe you would need the positive relief type tools, take a look at
http://www.thegallos.com/carbide.htm for some background on this.



Good luck-

Paul T.