Do you use a metal lathe?

[skiprat]

......if you do, here is a fantastic site to visit. This has to be the best site for newbie and pro metal lathe turners. Even his ( Steve Bedair's )links to other great site are unreal too.

http://bedair.org/9x20camlock/9x20project.html

 

[btboone]

I like his telescope focus knobs and his ball cutting fixture.

 

[Thumbs]

Thank you, Steven! Bookmarked that one![]

 

[angboy]

Probably a stupid question that will show my ignorance, but what is the difference in a metal lathe and a wood lathe, especially since people turn aluminum pens on our metal lathes? For some reason it seems to me like what would be different would maybe be the turning tools you use, but that any lathe that spins things around would work whether the item spinning was metal, wood, plastic, cactus, flower petals or any of the other myriad items people have creatively made into pens?

 

[btboone]

The difference is the tooling and attachments. Metal lathes have a toolholder that is advanced by handwheels with a cross slide. They can take heavy cuts in straight lines very accurately. They usually have means to make threads of set pitches as well.