I am planning on getting into pen turning. And was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on which lathe to get, model/make. Not too expensive and not too big.

Me Too!!!!

In my case, I have a big box (think refrigerator box) full of pens that have a single fatal flaw. Something like they are missing a cap, section or blind cap. My son's health is now stable enough that he can go to school every day, and now my wife is going back to school, so I now have the time to start fabricating some of the missing parts.

My main problem is tht I live in Japan. Houses are quite small here and I have little work space. I've turned a walk-in closet into a little work room. It is cramped, but at least I have room enough for a bench and a stool. I've been using this space to clean pens and do minor repairs like sac replacements and such. I have a nice boom surgical microsocpe that we used to use at my orthopedic, but it is great for working on pens and metal engraving.

What I need is the smallest lathe possible that still will be able to cut threads for caps, section and barrels. What would you buy for $3000 or less?

I've been looking at the Proxxon Micro Lathe:


The big selling point to me is that they say it is small enough to be able to be used and packed away when finished working.

Proxxon makes two models. One that sells for around $3,000 and one that sells for around $1300. Has anyone used either of these lathes? Can I make pen caps with these? I am only interested in using the lathe for pens. I say that because I have read that many of the engineers here used the mini lathes, but then upgraded to the larger lathes that were more versitile for other jobs.


Obviously I am not alone here. Please teach us newbies which machines you experts would recommend.

The Proxonn lathes are very, very nice. If you can afford them and you are prepared to pay the money, then get one.
I, on the other hand, am not made of money and would suggest a lathe like this (convert to US dollars by multiplying £ price by 2 to get a guide price), or with a longer bed:- http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/...00m-metal-lathe
There are numerous companies selling them under their own labels so I can't recommend a name in your area. They come out of China by the thousand and are frequently referred to as 12x7 lathes (12" between centres and 7" maximum diameter). A slightly longer bed would be more useful - 14" or so.

Their precision is adequate for metalworking, and will be good enough for home use and making fountain pens. The difficulty is that the lower the quantity of 'extras' supplied with the lathe, the more you need to be experienced to make up their lack. If you are a top machinist I'm sure you could use a treddle operated wood lathe to cut metal brilliantly, if not, then the little lathe I pointed to will be OK if you buy most of the extras you can find. See if you can get a bundle when you buy the lathe, it usually works out much cheaper that way.

My lathe is one of these: http://www.warco.co.uk/shop.asp?catid=29&ProdId=133 and is a bit big to move around on a daily basis (weights 150 kg). This lathe is rebadged regularly - see http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/...thes-milldrills for another that's a different colour. If you want a small amount of milling capacity, they do the job, just not terribly well. They are a nice idea for limited space though. I find a shaper does 99% of my milling requirements much better and much cheaper (as I can use the same tools as on the lathe).

Regards

Richard.

Steve & Ron,

Before you splash out at all, may I suggest you have a read here
One of the premier sites for info on lathes of all types.

One thing to bear in mind is that turning is highly addictive even more so than pens!!.
You may think you are buying a lathe just to make and repair pens, but there is the dreaded "I wonder if I could also...."

If you are sure it's purely to make and repair pens, you can get away with something relatively simple and inexpensive.

Ron mentioned threading, and if you are going to go this route be sure you check the range of threads you can cut, some are quite limited.

Just as a quick example of range, I have three lathes. A Record No 4, modified considerably. A little Carbatec (same spindle nose as the Record) and a Myford Super 7.
The Carbatec is cheap and cheerful see here and should be available around $250.
The Record will swing 32" diam and will come in around $1500.
Neither of these are equipped to cut threads, but with a little practice you can chase threads by hand (as mentioned elsewhere in this forum). I got away like this for nearly 20 years before I could afford to splash out ton the Myford.
The Myford is a fully fledged machine lathe, but I suspect, bigger than either of you would want* and would probaly be a bit of an overkill. You can have a look at it in my workshop here
I chose the version without the automatic gearbox, so that by setting the gear trains as necessary threads of all types can be set up.
One of these in excellent condition can be found for around £2000 if you poke about, and it will do your great grandchildren

Main thing is to read, read, then do some more reading before you buy.

One final thing - there is no known cure. Be warned

Regards,
Ruaidhrí

* This is not a "mine is bigger than yours", just that pens are only a very tiny part of my turning interests

Having read the Lathes.co.uk spiel about choosing lathes pointed to by Ruaidhri, it's left me feeling more than a little inadequate.

I am obviously such a poor turner that I don't feel cramped by the lack of precision or features of my lathe. I'm not working to precisions of 1/10000th of an inch... Instead I have to stick with repeatability of a mere 0.005mm (1/5000th inch) because I bought such a poor machine. Oh woe is me! What ever shall I do...?

Honestly, unless you are really brilliant and are working in temperature controlled conditions, I'm sure the least precise component in your designs will be you, and the Chinese lathes are plenty good enough for normal home machining - and certainly for pens.

I do accept that Ruaidhri is right about the size of the machine. You will always have one job where the lathe you've got is just a bit too small! My last one was where I was trying to turn a 1.8m shaft, 80mm diameter solid steel shaft on a 20" between centres lathe. Fortunately only the ends were critical... I have no crane to get the 65 kg work up to the lathe either.



Regards

Richard.

Thanks for all the helpful information.

Close to half a thou on a good day will do me nicely (on the occasions when I don't make a complete muck-up of things).
Some of those things are dream machines, but the site covers a load of stuff

BWT -
That milling set-up on yours looks damned handy. I've no mill & have to make do with fit ups with an Autolock and a vertical slide.
Anyone want to swap a Tom Senior mill for an Irish wife?
(Hope Sheila doesn't read that!!)

Cheers,
R

Aaron Svabeck pen restorer and owner of Pentiques.com speaks very fondly of his lathe. I'll bet he'd be happy to flap some jaw with you.

Do you find yourself picking up random things thinking "this could be smoother." or "I bet I could fix that line...."?

http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Revie...dog/bigdog2.htm

This site is a very good source of information on all the small Chinese metal lathes from 7x10 to 9x20.

They are very reasonably priced and have heaps of features and can be used for tread cutting.

If all you want to to is turn pens you can start with a small wood turning lathe and ct thread with taps and dies.

Starting out with a small lathe is probably the way to go...unless you are SURE that you are really serious about making pens. Then I really recommend a bigger lathe.

I think that you will find that as a beginner, your limiting factor at first will be you, and not your machine, so buying a small lathe for $3000 is probably not a great idea. Precision will be up to you on any machine as a beginner. You could be using a $400 Chinese lathe, and there will be no difference between it and the Proxxon (in the hands of a beginner).

Also, that Proxxon does not have a powered leadscrew....you will get pretty sick of turning that leadscrew by hand. The Proxxon is really more for jewelers and modelers doing very small work. It's really not ideal for pens. You'd be better off with an inexpensive Chinese lathe than the Proxxon.

I started with a small Chinese lathe like the Clarke listed above.

It's main limitation is that it is not powered to cut threads below 12tpi, and it will struggle with 12.

If you are cutting multi-lead threads, then you really should be doing 32tpi quad lead (8 tpi x 4 leads), or perhaps 30 tpi triple lead threads (10tpi x 3 leads).....or something in that ballpark.

This becomes a problem on the smaller lathes. They are not powered to cut threads of 8 or 10 tpi.

Also, small lathes will squeal and complain with harder metals. You will need to use harder metals for creating screw chucks, pin chucks, etc....

Sooooo....if you KNOW that you will be serious, I would recommend a lathe that is 9" minimum.

I use a 12 x 36 lathe.

Now with all this being said......CAN pens be made on smaller lathes?

Of course....mind over matter.

Is it easier on a bigger lathe? Big yes.