Turner wrote:
I am looking for a good
reliable, vibration free midi lathes to turn pen and small
variety repetitive parts. I prefer a lathe with a hollow
spindle to turn rods' end later. I have an old PennState
Industries Summer catalog 2006-064. Four midi lathes look
interesting. TurncrafterPro - TCLPOVS (variable speed),
TCLPRO, TCLPLUS and Carba-Tec 4SE.
Not clear if you're planning to become a production
turner for profit. If so, you can't compete with a
guy in India or China making 20 cents an hour. But if
you're getting into turning as a hobbiest dump the
idea of "minutes per piece" and think of turning more
as therapy - great mental problem solving, good exercise
for eye/hand coordination, a delight for tool phreaks
and a wonderful way to use what would otherwise be
scraps or land fill material. And if you're lucky there'll
be Zen Moments when time and space disappear as
you, the tools and machine, and the wood work together
"just so" and the results get you thinking "Now where
and how did this beautiful little object come from?!"
The hollow spindle that'll allow you to feed dowels thru it
is going to be a problem - most mini/midi lathes will only
allow maybe 3/8" diameter. Not big enough to turn anything
other than maybe a pen or hair stick. Also requires
starting with round stock - dowels don't come in Bubinga
or Rosewood, Ebony, Zircote, Padouk or most of the other
beautiful woods to turn.
Can anyone help me? Is a variable speed lathe better than a
fixed speed? Which duplicator should I buy, Vega or PSI
duplicator attachment?
While others will certainly disagree, variable speed makes
life a lot easier when turning. Being able to dial the speed
up or down, rather than playing with belts and pulleys, will
allow quick speed adjustments to the range you're comfortable
with. You WILL, at some point, get a chuck, and start doing
things other than "between centers" - lidded boxes, small
bowls, cups, hollow forms, plates etc. Those often start
with less than perfectly balanced blanks. Dialing in a speed
just below where things are vibrating then roughing to round
is REAL handy.
So - seriously consider the JET variable speed mini/midi
lathe - and a decent chuck with some extra jaws - I've
got two Tecknatools SuperNova2 chucks I'm very pleased
with, though OneWay and a few others are just as good.
The JET VS is going for around $350 US.
The SuperNova2 chuck goes for around $170 US give or
take $10.
Look for
- one hand tightening of the jaws - less expensive chucks
use two tommy bars to tighten the jaws, leaving no hand
to hold the part. A "ball head" T-handled allen wrench
is preferable over a chuck key because you can angle
the wrench when tightening - handy in some applications.
- no sharp edges or corners protruding where they can
bite you. You WILL at times work with one hand VERY
close to spinning steel. Rounded edges and corners
may bruise you, or just get your attention - but won't
remove chunks of meat!
- a full range of jaw sets. One size doesn't fit all and
the more options you have in the future the better.
I will be turning small repetitive parts, symmetric knob,
chess set or key chains, just a few examples.
You're definitely gonna need a chuck.
I am glad your
curious encourage me to post more.
You might want to use Google's "groups" search for
postings on the subjects "chucks", "variable speed",
"midi" etc. in the "SUBJECT contains" field
and
rec.crafts.woodturning in the "GROUP" field
http://groups.google.com/advanced_se...-8859-1&hl=en&
I
don't have a whole day turning one at a time. In my previous
employment I have a complete tool room designed and making
form tools, churning parts out in seconds.
Get off the clock! Time is NOT money, despite what you've
been told over and over again. Time is time. Time "spent"
doing anything you enjoy and that provides a sense of
satisfaction and accomplishement is always a good "investment",
the ROI being something money can't buy.
Turning has so many different paths, most you have no
idea of right now. But in the not too distant future a
neighbor will take down a fruit tree and give you some
of it to play with on your lathe. A box of scraps a wood
working friend has will be given to you and you'll make
neat things out of it. The idea of making EXACTLY the
thing you started out to make will go away as the wood
your turning shows you things you hadn't considered.
You're on the edge of a very slippery slope - woodturning
is addictive - and can, over time, become fairly expensive
- chuckS, jaw sets, live center sets, stebb centers in
varisous diameters, tool rests in a range of sizes and shapes,
gouges and chisels, grinders and jigs, rolls of sand paper,
texturing tools, indexing heads, special hollowing systems,
the list is endless. I don't think there's another woodworking
machine that spawns so many "must have" accessories.
I fell into wood turning because of a little UniMat metal
lathe. Here's some about where that went.
http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/T.../Turning1.html
Have fun finding your perfect lathe - and accessories!
charlie b