Musing about fitting lathes to purpose. Suitable or failsafe?
 

While turning little bird houses and ornaments on my little jet instead
of on my old heavy Delta I got to wondering about the satisfactions of
matching machinery and implements to the work at hand, whether about
front loaders, micrometers, frying pans, or lathes.

Of course, small pieces can be turned on big lathes just as well as on
mini lathes, some say better, Any good quality lathe isn't cheap. They
all take up space and cost to operate. This is _not about any of that.

I believe that turning small things on small lathes and large things on
large lathes satisfies something in some of us that is not the same
thing as satisfying practical considerations. Maybe it's a sense of
appropriateness. Maybe it's not even true.
What is your thinking, those of you who use or have used both minies and
maxies? Ignoring all practicalities of space, cost etc., does your
'Turning Satisfaction' whatever that means, relate more to a suitable
fit or more to the reassurance or pride in a larger lathe?

Ho-hum, deja vu, all over again! Tune in next week for a musing about
art vs craft or maybe jig vs freehand; sure to hold you about as
spellbound as this one. :( Meanwhile, be thankful for all you have,
not just tomorrow, always.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter



http://community.webtv.net/almcc/MacsMusings

Musing about fitting lathes to purpose. Suitable or failsafe?
 

I have a big and mini, but no room to keep the mini set up. If I had
more than one at the ready, I would not segregate the workload by size.
I would segregate by function. One set up for buffing, for example.

Joe Fleming
San Diego

Musing about fitting lathes to purpose. Suitable or failsafe?
 

On Wed, 23 Nov 2005 15:06:45 -0500, (Arch) wrote:

While turning little bird houses and ornaments on my little jet instead
of on my old heavy Delta I got to wondering about the satisfactions of
matching machinery and implements to the work at hand, whether about
front loaders, micrometers, frying pans, or lathes.

Of course, small pieces can be turned on big lathes just as well as on
mini lathes, some say better, Any good quality lathe isn't cheap. They
all take up space and cost to operate. This is _not about any of that.

I believe that turning small things on small lathes and large things on
large lathes satisfies something in some of us that is not the same
thing as satisfying practical considerations. Maybe it's a sense of
appropriateness. Maybe it's not even true.
What is your thinking, those of you who use or have used both minies and
maxies? Ignoring all practicalities of space, cost etc., does your
'Turning Satisfaction' whatever that means, relate more to a suitable
fit or more to the reassurance or pride in a larger lathe?

Ho-hum, deja vu, all over again! Tune in next week for a musing about
art vs craft or maybe jig vs freehand; sure to hold you about as
spellbound as this one. :( Meanwhile, be thankful for all you have,
not just tomorrow, always.


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


I thought that I would use the mini for small stuff after I got my 14" lathe,
but it turns out that I would rather use the 1442 for all my turnings...
Right now, my son has moved back in for a while and I've "granted" him exclusive
use of the mini....
When he moves, I see most of the mini's use as a finishing tool...
I like to do most of my sanding/finishing/etc. on the lathe and also like to
have a couple of projects going at the same time, so it will be nice to turn
something and then just move it, chuck and all, to the mini for the sanding and
stuff, freeing up the main lathe and other chuck for turning the next project,
or using the jumbo jaws, which don't fit the mini..
Was that a run-on sentence, or what? *g*

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