My Mini Mini Lathe and first pen

Hi all, I recently posted a thread about my wanting to get into pen turning. And I put a link to the miniature lathe that I purchased from China, cost of 89 bucks and free delivery. Maybe you thought I was mad buying this but I love it.

Anyway, after some turning tips from my woodwork mate down the road and buying a set of high speed chisels (from Gasweld) the other day, I have now turned my first pen, and pretty happy with it also.

I'm going to resurrect a dimmer box my electrician son made me up a few years ago to cut down the revs on it somewhat, as the slowest speed is pretty fast. Has about 6 speeds on it.

I had thought maybe I would end up buying a better and larger mini lathe but at this point, have my doubts on that now.

Here is a couple of pics.

Paul

Hi, I'm glad that you are happy with your micro lathe, and that it does what you were wanting it to do.

I am a bit suspicious about getting out a dimmer box to adjust the motor speed though. Granted, I know nothing about the machine beyond what I see in the first three pics. but two things that I do see are cables coming from the back end of the motor and what appears to be a power converter of some type (black box under the tip of lathe tool). These two items suggest that the motor is not operating directly at mains voltage, but via some other variety of power derived from the previously mentioned converter.

A dimmer module would slow the motor if it was a direct mains powered series wound brushed motor, similar to those used in corded portable mains drills or non variable speed routers or similar. However, once there is something else in the system to try and manage motor speed, or even a simple step down transformer, installing a dimmer module on the mains input lead or between the power supply and the motor will not effectively control the motor, and may effectively prevent it from working.

From the pics, I suspect that your machine has a direct drive low voltage motor, as there is no country that would allow individual single insulated cables to exit a motor at mains voltages and meet standards. I don't know how they provide the different speeds you mention, but it is most likely by varying the voltage supplied by the power supply/converter.

I admit that I may be barking up the wrong tree, and if so I apologise in advance for raising doubts. I suggest that you have your sparky son look at the machine and consider the aspersions I have made before you try to control the speed with a dimmer module.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by malb

From the pics, I suspect that your machine has a direct drive low voltage motor, as there is no country that would allow individual single insulated cables to exit a motor at mains voltages and meet standards. I don't know how they provide the different speeds you mention, but it is most likely by varying the voltage supplied by the power supply/converter.

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I think China would. If you search through the forum, you will find a guy who imported a machine that eventually needed total rewiring. This looks a very simple machine and I think it's just a universal motor directly on AC.

Hi and thanks for your input there Malb and Just. That is a bit over my head, but I shall phone my son tomorrow and relay your thoughts. He lives 700kms away, I did send him those same pics, so he can see what I will be (endeavouring) to talk about.

I'll let you know how I go.

Thanks again
Paul

Top pen there Paul. Just as I thought, you can turn your hand to anything and produce quality work.
What is the finish you have used? Looks nice and shiny.

Hi and thanks Dallas. I followed the exact finish from those videos on the Timberbits site. I bought my kits and a few odds and ends from them also. But they dont sell the Accelerator online, only sold if you go to their shop in Sydney. So I bought some accelerator from another bloke online, but it drips out, and doesnt pufff ??. So I applied the fine CA as per the video then dripped some accelerator onto the timber, repeated this maybe ten or so times. Then went through the micro mesh and thats how the pen turned out. Then I watched the video again where that same bloke changed to Glen 20, and it made my timber (second pen) go all white and blotchy. I bought a lot of brass tube blanks, and have heaps of timber, so its all experimental. You're an old hand at this pen making Dallas, any tips?
Paul

PS I forgot one bit, on that first pen after all the micro meshing etc, I applied a coat of Behlens Buffer's Polish. Its a buffing polish used on guitar finishes, that I used on the last guitar I made, still have a large bottle of it.

You certainly can't complain about the quality of finish you have achieved. Many people have all sorts of difficulty applying a CA finish so you should be proud of yourself.
You don't have to use accelerator as all it does is make the CA go off quicker. Just be more patient and let the lathe spin for a while longer and the process will happen itself. Having said that, the accelerator is handy if you want to get the finish on quicker. To check if it has gone off I just very lightly touch the spinning blank with the paper towel (that's what I use to apply the CA) and if it wants to pull at all I just wait a bit longer and when you can put the towel on with no gripping you're ready for the next coat. 20 coats later and you have finished the coating application the same as David shows. I only use the thin CA as I find the thicker versions seem more difficult to apply smoothly.
After the micromesh I polish with Brasso and then more polishing with Meguiar's Plastx
Yes the Glen 20 is a waste of time.:((

Hey Dallas, thanks for that very comprehensive analysis of your method. It's funny, what your saying is exactly what I was thinking today. Why muck around trying to source some accelerator, just take a bit more time. My second pen attempt, the Glen 20 totally stuffed it up. I spent more time trying to get rid of the white blotches it made, I ended getting my skew chisel out again and taking it off with that. Needless to say that pen is a bit skinnier now than when I started, but it ended up coming up pretty good. I did to go to a medium CA, but think I will stick to the fine CA only. Late in the day I started my 3rd pen, had prepared some RedGum Burl, and with only two coats of fine CA so far, its looking veryyyyyyy nice indeed. I was mucking about with 3 boxes that have been taking me ages to make trying to get them towards being finished. So was playing with my pocket lathe in between.

Thanks again
Paul