So you want to start Woodturning?
Woodturning is a wonderful pastime, one of life's pleasures and not to be missed. It is just as fascinating to watch an expert turner at work, as it is to see a potter throw a pot on the wheel. The turner magically and effortlessly shapes a rough piece of wood into a useful and attractive object in a matter of seconds. Woodturning is great fun and easier than it looks. It comes close to being the ideal hobby and if you want, it can lead to a money spinning sideline or full time career.

Choosing Equipment
A pole lathe turner of the old school could set up woodturning in the middle of a beechwood with little more than a gouge, a chisel, some rope, and an axe! He would construct his primitive wooden lathe on the spot from the materials around him. However, I am a lathe and tool dealer and want you to buy a lot more than this! Seriously though, I will try in the following pages to give you an honest and unbiased guide to buying equipment on your limited budget. Experts will seldom agree on what is really essential but I suggest that the following will set you up nicely to start with. You will soon be in a position to bribe the accounts department (with suitable decorative offerings) into financing the purchase of some desirable extras.

You will need . . .

• Lathe and Bench. lathe page
• Set of Tools. Starter set & choosing tools
• Safety Equipment.
• Sharpening Equipment. Grinding etc
• Selection of Abrasives & Polishes
• Wood to Turn. How to get and use free wood
• A workshop to keep it all in.
• All the information and help you can get

Sources of Information
You can read lots of books, watch woodturning videos and talk to any knowledgeable friends. Better still, you can go on a short woodturning course. This is a good way of finding out for yourself desirable and undesirable features on a lathe.
Try contacting your local woodturning club for information. It is likely that they will be very helpful. You may even find that you can go to their demonstrations for a small contribution to club funds. (Link to clubs)
Your local library may have books on woodturning and know about local woodturning clubs. Your local schools and colleges may provide evening classes.
Buy a few woodturning magazines. Reading a selection of these will give you lots of good information on sources of supply, local club events, dealers and demonstrations to see. Look at the small ads for second hand equipment.
Last but not least check out the internet! There are club sites, dealer sites, tool manufacturers sites, news groups and woodturning associations on the web. See our links page
Sources of Supply

• Specialist woodturning supplier
• Your local tool shop/ DIY store
• Woodworking exhibitions
• Mail order supply house
• Second hand ads

General hints
Always buy the best tools and equipment you can afford. Quality is better than quantity. Woodturning lathes and tools are easy to sell secondhand in the small ads in the local paper if you make a mistake.

Choosing your first lathe - desirable features to look for

• Cast iron headstock and tailstock.
• Cast iron bed.
• Pivoting headstock with solid mounting, positive clamping and convenient means of returning the headstock to the "straight ahead" position.
• Solid bowl turning bracket or "extension arm" which does not flex.
• Secure and convenient locking, clamping and repositioning of toolrest, tailstock and barrel.
• Nicely shaped toolrest which adjusts 1/2" above and below centre height.
• Four speeds minimum with lowest speed 500 r.p.m. or lower. Highest speed 2000 rpm or higher.
• Mechanical or electronic variable speed system to save fiddling with pulleys and belts. Otherwise a belt and pulley arrangement that is easy to get at
• Dust proof induction motor of 1/2" H.P. minimum. Should have capacitor start and centrifugal switch for high starting torque.
• Push button switch with "no-volt-release• sealed against dust.
• Heavy duty ball or roller bearings not solid or sleeve bearings. But see "bearings" later.
• Widely spaced bearings which preferably support both ends of the spindle.
• Morse taper sockets in headstock spindle and in tailstock barrel plus convenient means of ejecting taper fitted accessories. Number 2 Morse taper is better than number 1.
• Easy spindle locking (so you can unscrew the faceplate or chuck easily)
• Standard headstock spindle nose thread to enable you to buy chucks from a wide choice of suppliers not just the lathe maker.
• Register on the headstock spindle nose for true running of chucks.
• Tailstock with hole right through enabling you to drill flex holes in lamps using a lamp auger.
• Long tailstock travel for drilling and proper hand wheel which is easy to turn.
• Good reliable make. Well known makes have better resale value.
• Good dealer backup and spares availability.

Features to avoid

• Light sheet metal construction.
• Spindle with a bearing at only one end.
• Tailstock with threaded barrel which rotates in the housing when you tighten it.
• The necessity to use a spanner to reposition toolrest and tailstock.

You will not get all the good features above combined in a budget lathe - a budget lathe is here defined as one under £1000 but you can get a reasonable starter lathe with most of the essential qualities you need for around £200. This £200 budget starter lathe will be made in the Far East (even if it is rebadged by a British importer) and the quality of the engineering will be - lets say - a bit third world. The motor and electrics will be a bit iffy (not unsafe but rather primitive) and the finish on the castings will be just awful. Nevertheless it will do the job and thousands of these lathes have been sold in the UK and they are giving their owners a lot of pleasure. If you want something better - nicely finished heavier castings with a ground bed, a proper capacitor start motor with plenty of starting torque etc then there is quite a jump in price - expect to pay £400 for a decent machine that you may never need to upgrade.

Next page - lathe features in more detail    back to home page

Copyright 1991 Roy Child. Revised 2002. HTML version Aug 2003.