Pharmasweaves
Member
Hey all from western Massachusetts. I'm newly married so I had to find a hobby for myself, so I decided woodworking would be fun. My wife's grandfather had an old Shopmate Sabre-lathe (see this thread http://www.penturners.org/forum/f30/noob-needing-help-tooling-up-56548/) so and found some videos on pen turning, so I decided to try that.
At the moment all I have is a table saw and the mini lathe so I am a little limited in what I am able to do, but there is a drill press available as soon as I can find a way to get it to my house (gotta find a truck to borrow), and all I have for woodworking equipment/lumber is the local small Home Depot, so most of my shopping is online. I did buy a hand pump which I use with old disposable humidifiers with the valves hot glued shut to vacuum infuse stains into the wood scraps, which seems to work enough though I have to watch the pressure and pump every so often to maintain the max of around 18 that I can pull with the pump.
I turned my first slimline the other day, found out that patience and following directions is important because I didn't square the ends, which led to some chipping at the ends, but this time I'm gonna wait for my pen mill to arrive before I try again.
I am experimenting with making blanks, but right now all I have is random scraps of wood, some medium stain, and dark scratch remover, so not a lot of variety in colors, but again, the beginning is the time to learn and experiment right?
I think my next big purchase will be a better lathe, I'm trying to find a good cheapish (around 2-300 bucks if possible) midi lathe, but I keep arguing with myself over cost vs versatility. In the meantime, my lathe works well enough for pens (about a 4 inch swing, one speed of 3700RPM, a drill chuck and grinding wheel) so long as I make sure my tools are sharp and take my time roughing the blanks down.
Overall I think I'm gonna like pen turning, although I am learning very quickly that all the stories about how quickly more and more little things add up and get more and more expensive are totally true.
At the moment all I have is a table saw and the mini lathe so I am a little limited in what I am able to do, but there is a drill press available as soon as I can find a way to get it to my house (gotta find a truck to borrow), and all I have for woodworking equipment/lumber is the local small Home Depot, so most of my shopping is online. I did buy a hand pump which I use with old disposable humidifiers with the valves hot glued shut to vacuum infuse stains into the wood scraps, which seems to work enough though I have to watch the pressure and pump every so often to maintain the max of around 18 that I can pull with the pump.
I turned my first slimline the other day, found out that patience and following directions is important because I didn't square the ends, which led to some chipping at the ends, but this time I'm gonna wait for my pen mill to arrive before I try again.
I am experimenting with making blanks, but right now all I have is random scraps of wood, some medium stain, and dark scratch remover, so not a lot of variety in colors, but again, the beginning is the time to learn and experiment right?
I think my next big purchase will be a better lathe, I'm trying to find a good cheapish (around 2-300 bucks if possible) midi lathe, but I keep arguing with myself over cost vs versatility. In the meantime, my lathe works well enough for pens (about a 4 inch swing, one speed of 3700RPM, a drill chuck and grinding wheel) so long as I make sure my tools are sharp and take my time roughing the blanks down.
Overall I think I'm gonna like pen turning, although I am learning very quickly that all the stories about how quickly more and more little things add up and get more and more expensive are totally true.
