Lathe

I am looking to buy a lathe for cork grips and reel seat inserts. I would like to hear what is the best bang for the buck.

Thank you.

fishonfly

billh@mastersgreen.com

I don't want to give you bad advice but I will share with you my experience with a Harbor Freight 7 x 10 lathe.

I bought this lathe about 5 years ago and quickly found out that the bed was far too short to do some grips. Fortunatly, there is a web site that sells "add ons" for this and many of the small lathes that enabled it to handle longer items. Ordered directly from Harbor Freight, the shipping is free and if you watch their site, you will often find this lathe on sale for $349. The bed extension (I went with the 14" bed that gave me a full additional 6" of working space) was another $150 plus the shipping on it. Not counting the additional tooling that I have bought that I would have had to buy with any lathe, I have a little over $500 in it and it does quite well, holds tolerances very well, and for no more than I use the lathe now, has been a good investment for me. Later this year, I do plan on getting a much larger lathe as I intend to start building rods on a full time basis and will need a little more horsepower than this lathe is capable of giving. For a hobbyist lathe, I think it was a good investment.

There are many other options on the market that will do as well as what this one has done, or better. I would look at Sherline for sure, but plan on doubling the investment or very close to it. There are many many people that use a fixture and a drill to do exactly what you are talking about doing and you can find plans for that fixture at Rodbuilders.org. What I can do that the drill cannot do is make my own inserts, make ferrules, cut ferrule stations on bamboo rods, and do precision alignment of ferrules on rods that need ferrule replacement. Plus, I can use the lathe for making many of the tools that I use in making rods.

You will find many people that recommend many different kinds of lathes for rod building and names like Harbor Freight, Grizzley, Sherline, Atlas, etc will all get mention with both good and bad comments. what you don't want to do, is buy a wood lathe that doesn't have a through hole in the headstock as you will greatly inhibit your abilities for what you want to do.

Read about all of them at their sites, then decide which one best meets your needs and go from there with the capital you have to invest. I am sure you will make the right decision and be happy with your choice.

Hi. I've turned a lot of wood on a few different lathes. Haven't turned cork grips or reel seats but I've turned other things with similar wood and with cork. I've owned a Sears lathe, a Grizzly, and now own a Nova. I've also turned on a Jet, Powermatic, Delta, Oneway, and a few too fancy to even consider.

My recommendation would be for a Jet mini-lathe with variable speed. It's the right size for the work you want to do and is well regarded by those who've used it. It's a good lathe.

Enjoy the turning!


Diane

I second the jet. I love mine. I've successfully turned a grip and a walnut reel seat, and I have no idea what I'm doing. It's an addictive little device, 'cause now I'm turning pens and other doodads too.

if you are never going to turn anything larger than pens , rod handles, wine stopper thinggys, the Jet is a good bet.

JET, Grizzley, Delta all make very good std lathes for around $400-$500 with a bed length of 36" +. might be better in the long run unless space is a limit.

my $.02

[This message has been edited by zzdruid (edited 23 January 2006).]

Delta and Jet make great lathes in the $300 range. The Turncrafter Pro from Penn State Ind, is the same lathe for about $250. I got one and love it. Heavy duty.