Newbie looking for advice

[Malabris]

Hey guys, I want to get into turning but need some advice...

I took woodshop for a couple of years back in high school and really fell in love with the lathe and have decided to start turning on my own. I've turned a couple of bowls, mallets, baseball bats, etc., but my shop teacher was always watching the delinquents and never really had time to show me much, so I just kind of winged it.

I want to start from scratch and want to learn everything from the ground up. I'm really interested in turning bowls, but am limited on room and will probably have to go with a mini tabletop lathe. I know I won't be able to turn big stuff on it, but I'm not really interested in turning big stuff anyways.

Can you guys point me towards any useful books or literature I should read?

Any suggestions for a mini lathes that I could turn bowls on?

Thanks

[_fly_]

Don't know where you are but here goes:

Best: pay to teach you.
Second: Joins a mens shed, they usually have good guys who teach.
Third: You tube vids as you can see whats happening/
forth: the books.

[DJ’s Timber]

Your location would also help us to advise as well.

[Malabris]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I'm in Los Angeles, near LAX.

[Evanism]

LAX, guess that rules out .

A midi lathe is absolutely the best way to go. We have the Woodfast M305 here. It is a common enough model and there are many identical ones that sell through Amazon, Rockler and Others.

Next are chisels and accoutremant.

Get the Robert Sorby 6 pack beginners kit of chisels.
Get a grinder and a CBN wheel.
Supernova chuck, or similar
Grab some books by Richard Raffan either off Amazon or borrow them. Richards name is chosen simply as its a good start. Amazon will give you many good suggestions based on this as a start.
Wood. Lots of wood. 4x2 pine, glued together into 4x4, cut into 12" lengths. Practice turning 50 of these to chopsticks. Do 50 of these in pine and you are ready to move on....

You are so lucky in the USA. Resources are abundant and timber is cheap beyond belief.

This advice is a distillation of what I received from the fine members of this site over the last 3 months. Remember though, a forest has many paths and yours will differ from mine, but this advice has heeded me very well and I'm in debt to those who thought me so far.

[Osbojo]

Get on to a local club then you can't go wrong. Glendale woodturning club is in LA. Have a look at woodturning on Line for their contact details or maybe a club closer to LAX (south LA from memory??):

Woodturning Online - US Woodturning Clubs. Woodturning Online offers wood turning projects, woodturning plans, articles, and information on wood turning, bowl turning, pen turning, the wood lathe, segmented turning, lathe tools, and more for the wood (http://www.woodturningonline.com/Community/Club_Directory_US.html)

Good luck,
Os.