What tools to start with

[whenu]

hi all, am new to woodturning and have picked up a lathe of unknown provenance but model MCJ1000.
What would be a good starting set of tools?
Thanks for your time, Lance

[mkypenturner]

hi lance
from looking at you being in kiwi land im not sure but prob the best place to start with would be carbatec.com and choose NZ

[vk4]

Lance,

Look for a local club, and ask for advice and instruction on how to use your NEW TOY,

Be aware that if you don't know what your doing accidents will happen.

jeff

[whenu]

Will be like starting from scratch as I think the last turning I did was at Manual Training at college.
The bloke I bought it of lives just down the road so will see him about the basics.

[Christos]

I also started turning and have been reading this forum to gain some insight. I have started with the between center turning just to get a feel of the chisels.

So far lots of wood chips for the garden.

[rsser]

Depends on what you want to turn to a large extent .... mainly spindle pieces or mainly bowls, platters, boxes etc?

Spindle:
Roughing gouge, parting tool, skew chisel and a milled spindle gouge (3/8" flute width). You can scrape with a skew chisel if you need to but having a rounded end scraper can be useful. And there are other spindle gouge choices that might be better depending on what you will be turning. For easier detailing, a detail gouge (which is a milled shallow flute gouge); for easier long curves, a 1/2" forged spindle gouge.

Bowls:
A 3/8 or 1/2" bowl gouge (flute width); left-hand curved scraper; and something to form spigots and recesses for chuck mounting of bottoms. A parting tool will do at a pinch; a scraper to match the chuck jaw dovetail angle is better and you can make your own. A 3/8" spindle gouge can be very handy for cleaning up around the foot and for final shear cuts on a bowl outside to clean up tear-out.

Hope this helps.

[Dalboy]

If you want a starter set of tools you could not go far wrong with the Robert Sorby set
http://i702.photobucket.com/albums/ww21/diggerdelaney/Pens/3rdPrize.jpg
The tools are from left to right
Bowl gouge Speaks for itself
Skew Chisel for planing wood turned in spindle mode Never on a bowl Needs plenty of practice
Parting tool for parting off in spindle mode and can be used to produce beads
Scraper for small scraping jobs not inside deep bowls
Spindle gouge for work on spindles ideal to produce coves
Roughing gouge for roughing down spindle work ready for the other spindle tools to do the finer work.

Some sort of dust extraction along with other safety equipment should also be high on your list

Everybody has their own preference for make of tools. If you have a club near you go down they may let you try different makes which you can the decide which are best for you

[orraloon]

Some good advise there but you also have to be able to sharpen them so some sort of grinder is required.
As you will waste a bit of steel learning sharpening process I would get a low cost set of tools first. As you get better then get good quality tools. Carbatec and other places like Gasweld have a turners set in hs steel that does a reasonable job.
Regards
John

[NeilS]

What Ern said and consider the Woodcut (http://www.shop.woodcut-tools.com/section.php?xSec=3) tools made in your own country which are used by many experienced turners.