PDA

View Full Version : Getting started again



haemish762
20th October 2005, 06:09 PM
Hello all, i have not touched a lathe since i left uni nearly 10 years ago when i had the opportunity to be taught by Bruce and Michael Leadbetter.
Any way, i want to get back into it, mainly bowl turning. I am working on a budget, however i will not scrimp on a good quality chuck. I do not really want to spend more than $500 for the lathe for now. Carbatec and Hare and forbes have some for sale. can anyone point me in the right direction for reliability and price. They both look similar and offer similar aspects, but which one do i go for??
I do not need chisels, i have a set of old good quality hand me downs. I just need a lathe i won't kill after my first "free style" bowl.
If someone can enlighten me or has a lathe to sell a person who misses wood turning, please let me know.
Haemish

Wood Butcher
20th October 2005, 07:00 PM
The mc1100 (or equilivant) is a great starter lathe. Fairly tough and cheap. Don't buy a mini lathe ( they are around the same price) Because you limit the length of material you can turn.

hughie
21st October 2005, 02:14 AM
Hamish ,
I n regard to wood turning chucks. Try Gasweld at Batt st Penrith. They are running Teknatool Nova 2 chucks out a bargain basement prices ie $149, along with any accessories they have for Teknatool stuff, you will have to buy a insert to fit the chuck to your lathe this you can get from Hare and Forbes for around $25 each. This is the cheapest around.

Hughie

rsser
21st October 2005, 09:18 AM
The neat thing about the Teknatool chucks is that if you later buy the Titan the Nova 2 accessory jaws will fit it, unlike the Vicmarc 100 to 120 jump.

(PS the price Hughie mentions is a bargain; but if you're planning on doing mostly large bowls and platters consider the Titan).

As for the MC lathes, there is a bit of variation in what goes into them - the maker is really only an assembler.

That said I don't recall regular problems being posted about either of those two.

haemish762
21st October 2005, 12:48 PM
Cheers. The 1100 sounds the way to go. I wouldn't consider a mini lathe anyway, i would probably destroy it trying to turn a telegraph pole into a tooth pick! As i said bowl/ornamental turning is what i want to do, so hopefully in the no too distant future i can show off some of my attempts.


Thanks, HAemish