# Metal vs Wood Lathe



## aggromere (Jul 8, 2010)

I've been making pens for over a year now and owe all the successful attempts at pens to help I have received on these forums and from other members.  I moved from Phoenix to Tampa thanksgiving of last year and set up my shop and have been turning pens again for about 6 or 7 months.  I've just about reached the conclusion that advanced pen making is more of a machinist activity than a woodworking one.  I sell far more non-wood pens than I do wood pens except for some I make to look like cigars.  For that I use wood to mimic the look of tobacco.  Oh well enough about me.

I would like to be able to make kitless pens without tubes and thread my own barrels.  The only success I've had with tap and die is simply tapping the hole when I make bottle stoppers.

I use a Jet 1014 vs mini lathe and it is a great tool.  However, I'm looking to ugrade some items in my shop and was thinking about getting a metal lathe.  I would like to keep the cost under $2,000 for the lathe and tools and such.   I've been searching the internet and think something like:

*http://www.grizzly.com/products/Combo-Lathe-Mill/G4015Z*

would be a good tool.  Not sure what the milling attachment does, but if it can help me make inlays and such I guess it would be a good addition to the lathe (if it works).

the thing I really like about the Jet lathe is that it worked perfect right out of the box.  I really don't want to buy a lathe, like from harbor frieght and have to do a lot of twiking to make it work.

So my questions are:

1.  Would the Grizzly lathe i linked fit the bill for me or is there another lathe I haven't discovered that would work better.

2.  Am I wrong about the machinist aspect to advanced pen turning?

3.  Since I started making pens I have wanted to make a four point pool cue pen, more of a mini pool cue with a pen in it than a pen that looks like a pool cue.  Would the milling attachment to the lathe help with that or do I need some other type of tool.

4.  Would I be better off just adding a good milling machine or router or something instead of the metal lathe.

I currently drill and square blanks on the lathe and have a byrnes tablesaw and a byrnes disk sander and an old bandsaw I use for cutting some oversized stock.

I would appreciate any feedback anyone can give me on which direction I might go.

Thanks for all your help.


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## Jim Smith (Jul 8, 2010)

I have both a wood lathe and a small metal lathe and find that there are applications that are best suited for each.  If I were in the market for another metal lathe, I think I would check on Craig's list rather than buy a lower quality, cheaper lathe new.  For example there is a very nice Emco Maximat 10 in the Phoenix area now http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/tls/1797250341.html that looks like it would be a terrific lathe and milling maching.  I have an Emco lathe and they are very well made machines.  Just one man's opinion...

Jim Smith


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## skiprat (Jul 8, 2010)

aggromere said:


> *http://www.grizzly.com/products/Combo-Lathe-Mill/G4015Z*
> 
> would be a good tool. Not sure what the milling attachment does, but if it can help me make inlays and such I guess it would be a good addition to the lathe (if it works).
> Remember that the milling head will only mill stuff that is bolted to the moving carriage or drill stuff in the lathe chuck. Therefore you will need other stuff like an indexable rotary table. If you buy the rotary tools then you now don't need the mill as you can use the lathe to do horizontal milling.
> ...


 
My 2p:biggrin:


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## creativewriting (Jul 8, 2010)

Peter,

I have a much smaller grizzly (7x12) and love it.  When I was doing my research before purchasing the lathe I have I spoke with a few guys that machine for a living and they intructed me not to get a combo machine.  They said if you need a lathe get a lathe.  If you need a mill get a mill, but don't get the combo.  Why this is I am not sure, but I took their word for it.


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## BRobbins629 (Jul 8, 2010)

I don't know anyone on this site who has bought any kind of metal lathe and been sorry.  Generally easy to sell if you have buyers remorse, but I would bet against it. Depending on your budget and space, the 7 x 12 is a minimum at the lower end and the 9 x 20 as the next step.  A few have larger, but are not really necessary for pens and many other things.  Like Skip says, its a good thing to disassemble, clean and reassemble.  It will help you more than you realize.  There are personal preferences and pros and cons of size and a gear box or replaceable gears.  Ask for opinions and you will get many.  Many here will have your back as you learn to thread - which can be done on any of these; some easier than others, but possible on all.  

You will find many more uses than you mentioned.  You can make special mandrels, bushings, repair broken parts of other equipment, door knobs and more.  I would budget $3-500 for accessories. Some are: quick change tool post, boring bars, tool blanks and/or indexable tooling, indexing plate, threading tools, drill chuck, 2 to 3 MT adapters so you can use your wood lathe chucks, milling attachment, etc.


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## aggromere (Jul 8, 2010)

Cool.  I guess I will get one.  Anymore suggestions about brands and models and such and basic tools I will need would be greatly appreciated.

I want to be Skiprat when I grow up!


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## aggromere (Jul 8, 2010)

Hey, what about this one.

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=4100&category=1271799306

or

http://www.micromark.com/MICROLUX-7X14-MINI-LATHE,8176.html

Anyone have any opinions on either one of them?


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## jtdesigns (Jul 8, 2010)

Just got the grizzly 9 x 19 and so far so good.  Headstock/tailstock alignment was dead on.  Aesthetics was good (paint job).   I got it because Grizzly has it on sale for $895 (reg. $995).


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## ldb2000 (Jul 8, 2010)

Something not mentioned yet . A metal lathe comes with a very big learning curve . Don't think you are just gonna chuck up a pen blank and start cutting triple start threads . There is allot of learning to be done . Also if the lathe you are thinking about uses preset threads you will be limiting the usefulness of the lathe unless it has a really big amount of thread sizes and even then might still have useful limits . A lathe that uses change gears is more of a pain to use but give unlimited usefull thread sizes and other uses like spiraling and such .


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## aggromere (Jul 10, 2010)

That's a good point on the learning curve.  The son of a friend of mine is a machinist and operates metal lathes and other such gizmos for a living and said he would come spend a few weekends with me in the workshop.  However, he said he doesn't know which small lathe would be the best for pen turning.

In my quest to find a good small metal lathe I have been looking at several.  the ones I posted earlier and lathe packages from these guys.

http://www.sherline.com/

So, I guess what I've come up with is either:

1.  Grizzly
2.  http://littlemachineshop.com/product...ory=1271799306
3.  http://www.micromark.com/MICROLUX-7X...ATHE,8176.html
4.  Or a sherline

Any suggestions you guys have would be great.


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## randyrls (Jul 10, 2010)

aggromere said:


> That's a good point on the learning curve.  The son of a friend of mine is a machinist and operates metal lathes and other such gizmos for a living and said he would come spend a few weekends with me in the workshop.  However, he said he doesn't know which small lathe would be the best for pen turning.




Of all of them, the Sherline will be the best of class.

You want to make sure you are measuring apples to apples.  Many of these small lathes are measured differently.  For example  if measured spindle nose to tailstock nose you get 14";  if measured dead center in head stock to dead center in tail stock 12".  You will also chew up a lot of that 14" if you put a drill chuck and drill bit in the tail stock.

Understand that these are Chinese machines.  Some will be perfect out of the box; Most will require a few tweaks to get the greatest accuracy; A few will be bear traps!

All these lathes will be encased in heavy grease and require a good cleaning before use.  The Sherline may be an exception.


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