Thread: Small metal lathes for pen parts

Hi Danny,
When you say a cheap lathe, what price range are you looking at? I HAD a small C2 lathe, that probably would be OK for making pen parts, depending on what metal you're wanting to use. If you're wanting to make custom pens, probably a metal lathe would be OK for making metal bodied pens! If it's to make threaded sections for pens, buying the necessary taps and dies which most pen makers use, are custom dies not available off the shelf, would save a lot of headaches, unless you are prepared to do a lot of learning on cutting threads etc. If you're wanting to use Brass and Aluminium, these can be turned on a wood lathe using good quality or Carbide tipped tools. The taps and dies can be used on the wood lathe also, the chuck or collet turned by hand as most threads would only be about 10mm long with double or triple threads.
For making accents on grinders, again a wood lathe can be used for these, unless you are looking at using Stainless Steel. In which case a C2 might be OK, but don't take to big a depth of cut as the gears are plastic and strip/break easily, if this happens the headstock needs to be dismantled to replace the gears, DAMHIKT .
Regards
Kryn

Hoping to keep it under a grand, the further under the better! In no rush so I can wait for something to come up either on a big special or second hand. I fully expect to blow that budget by the time I pick up some tooling over time...

Yeah, I am expecting to mainly be looking at brass/aluminium/copper rather than steel, so I will have to look into options for doing it on the wood lathe. Although I do like the idea of the precision on a metal lathe... The C2/C3 mini lathes are the sort of thing I'm looking at I think.

When US turner Bill Ooms demonstrated on this very topic he pointed out that many of the cheaper small metal lathes that he had encountered and indeed the one he had at Turnfest had some strange mixes of metric and imperial parts, gear travel ratios etc

Yeah. that seems to be a common thread with these machines - an unholy mix of metric and imperial, some which are easily swapped out and others which aren't! From what I can figure out so far I think the limitations won't effect me too much.

Hi Danny, found this on E Bay $699 including postage, buy it now, some of the others are about $619 and postage going up to over $1000 plus postage. The dealer is OK except for after sales service, which is dismal, they don't carry spares,Ausee are probably the best for them.
Sieg C2 300x180mm 12"X7" Variable Speed Mini Metal Lathe With Auto Feed | eBay
Kryn

Yeah, I think my plan is to see if something comes up second hand and if there isn't anything for a few months then I will grab one of those little Siegs.

Thanks for the note on after sales, that's good to know - being a rank beginner there is always a good chance I'll break something!

Just remember you get what your pay for. Gawdelpus John's C2 lathe needed a lot of work to get it running smoothly. I have a Steelmaster 920 metal lathe but even that needed some work till I was happy with the performance.

If you're planning on getting a C2 lathe, I recommend you getting this book, THE MINI-LATHE, by David Fenner, Workshop Practice Series 43. There are other books in the series that will be helpful, screw cutting amongst them.
You'll find it most helpful, it's full of handy information, how to use the various knobs and levers, dismantling and cleaning, the various adjustments required to fine tune the machine. "The machines are assembled in China, to prove that all the necessary parts are there" . From memory that is a quote from the book.
Basically the machine needs too be stripped down and reassembled, with directions from the book, you'll have a good unit for light machining work. Unskilled labour is used, and they wouldn't know what it's used for!!!!!
I doubt very much that you'll find a second hand one, as soon as they come available they're gone.
Kryn

Yeah, the more I read the more I realise it'll be a big project. I think I'm going to monitor the second hand market for a good chunk of time in the hope of something coming up rather than getting impatient and going new. Might even grab a small hercus or similar if one shows up when I have some spare funds kicking around!

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

When US turner Bill Ooms demonstrated on this very topic he pointed out that many of the cheaper small metal lathes that he had encountered and indeed the one he had at Turnfest had some strange mixes of metric and imperial parts, gear travel ratios etc

All mini-lathes that are made in Asia are constructed entirely using metric measurements. This means that they have metric lead screws in them. The graduations on the Cross-slide Hand Wheel, and on the Compound Slide Hand Wheel on the lathe, are graduated in metric --- one graduation = 0.025mm.

However, the USA is a country that still works predominately in imperial measurements. To help these lathes to be accepted in the USA market, the marketing gurus have made some changes to the mini-lathes sold in the USA. The Mini-lathes sold in the USA still have metric lead screws. However, the graduations on the hand wheels on these USA sold mini-lathes are customised to show that each division on the hand wheels equals 0.025mm or 0.001 inch. Obviously for anyone who has ever converted mm to inches, those figures on the hand wheel can't both be right. Because the lathe has a metric lead screw, the 0.025mm per graduation is correct, whilst the 0.001 inch per graduation has a error built in.

For a clearer explanation of this problem, and plenty more information about these mini-lathes, have a look at Frank Hoose's Youtube channel. He has lots of videos and a supporting web site, addressing mini-lathes and mini-mills. In particular, this Youtube video, commencing at the 10 minute 23 second mark, explains this particular issue.

Remember, this is only an issue for people who work solely in imperial measurements, and even then, it is an issue that is easily overcome.

Hope that info helps.

RoyG

If you do end up buying one, don't bother buying the carbide insert tools as they are a waste of money on these small lathes. Best sticking with HSS blanks and grind yourself as the carbide is only designed for taking heavy cuts and high speeds (both of which you won't be able to do on these lathes) You will not get a good finish on your work with them.

The biggest problem with the C2 lathe is there is not enough room between centres to drill out things like pen barrels. By the time you put a chuck in the tail stock there isn't much room left.

The C3 is a bit better but not ideal. There are versions with 14" between centres, but by the time you buy one of those they cost as much if not more than a 9 x 20 or a good secondhand Hercus or similar.

If you are a member of the IAP forum there is a fair bit of info from people that went the C3 etc route and then decided to go for a bigger lathe like a 9 x 20.

I have a variable speed 9 x 20 (Steelmaster) and I consider it the ideal lathe for pen turning, they also used to sell a variable speed lathe 8 x 16 lathe which may e worth looking at.

The sad part is that you need to have high level skills to even set many of these generic lathes up to do basic tasks with any confidence. Sign of the times.

There is a wealth of information in the form of Youtubes, websites and forums available on the internet.

Start by going to our sister forum,

Metal Work Forums

then

mini-lathe.com home page

then

Steve Bedair's 9 x 20 Lathe Page

and as I said before

International Association of Penturners

look for people like dalecamino who makes kitless pens, there are some good articles in their library including one or two by yours truly.