On Friday, July 22, 2016 at 4:29:51 PM UTC-5, Electric Comet wrote:
anyone used a mandrel on their lathe

the kind with a taper that goes into tailstock and you can mount a buffing
wheel or cbn wheel

saw a combo but it is way too much and if there was a stand alone mandrel
that was 30 or so that would be a sensible addition

Two things:

I was reading some of the comments on your mandrel requirements, exactly what are you trying to do with them/it?

As for the wood for the knitting needles, I have used African Blackwood, Ash, Jatoba and some others. Basically, any hardwood with a straight grain will work. There are two requirements for turning knitting needles:

You need a set of mandrels:

One fitted to the stock you will be using for the knitting needle. This one goes in the head stock and is a tight fit, as all Morse Tapers should be, but cut like a collet to squeeze the stock so you can just bump the end of the stock to move it through the collet.

The other mandrel needs to be fitted to the Morse Taper on your tailstock but have the center drilled out just over the size of the needle you are turning. This mandrel keeps the piece from whipping around.

The other thing you will need is a micrometer, or a fixed gauge. DO NOT try to use calipers, they simply will not remain true- regardless of how tightly you lock them down.

Position the tailstock about six inches, or so, from the headstock and slowly feed your stock through, turning it to the rough size and then sanding to final size, for each section of the needle.

For a 14" needle, you will need a starting piece of stock around 20" long, and 24" would not hurt.