"Silvan" wrote in message
...
David Babcock wrote:

Well I guess I found out I like turning, SWMBO yells at me to "turn of
that damn machine, dust yourself off and get in here for supper", never
thought I would have to be called to eat.

You've discovered the real secret to my recent weight loss.

Not the lathe per se, since I just got that, but my shop in general.
Usually by the time I get around to dinner, it's stone cold, and not very
appetizing.

I'm a total newbie turner with only one hour of experience (and a busted
fingernail and a dent in my wall to show for my troubles) but here are my
thoughts...

I have a JET mini. Similar to the Delta midi from what I hear. My
immediate aim is to turn a chess set, which will require some fairly tight
little curves.

Based on my initial experiments with some really crappy 8-piece turning
set
I bought off of eBay five years ago (took me awhile to get the lathe!) I
can't see buying the mini tools anytime soon. Certainly not to start
with.

* I was able to get pretty tight little curves in my spindles with
full-sized tools

* I had enough trouble controlling full-sized tools, and I think small
tools
would be way more likely to turn into pointy missiles in my fumbly,
uncertain hands.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Tools turning into pointy missiles? Leads me to ask one question........ are
you mounting the wood and shaping with the tools, or mounting the tools and
dragging the wood over the tool.
I myself have had some pieces of wood break when trying to get to thin, but
they usually just fall to the bench, not go flying across the room.

Dave