First I think I may want to appologize for jumping in on my first post with this sort of question set, but here goes anyway....as I think I may have discovered "The Place."
I sort of have a hankering for a small lathe. I definately am not in the market for a full-sized lathe as I simply have no room for such a beast and really no desire for one.
So here is what I currently have on my Christmas list. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
Rikon 70-100 lathe, 14" swing, 16" between centres.
Rikon metal stand
Sorby intermediate 6-tool set (on sale at Woodcraft)
3/8" bowl gouge
1/2" round nose scraper
1/8" parting tool
3/8" spindle gouge
3/4" oval skew
3/4" roughing gouge
Bionic face shield
Pen mandrel #2MT
Caliper set
All this stuff at Woodcraft....the accessories are 20% off with the Rikon lathe purchase (at least I hope all these accessories qualify for that additional discount).
I have also considered the Jet variable speed lathe of slightly smaller size but at least $100 more.
Project wise, right now I have some small tool handle projects (firesteels with fancy wood handles using pen blanks probably), possibly a round "box" (match box) with plug lid and likely a duck call from a kit to start and likely more done without a kit. After these spindle projects I will likely move to small bowls maybe up to about 6-8" or so.
Last time I turned was in 7th grade woodshop.....4 decades ago.
I am getting the Sorby tool set rather than individual tools as it is currently $200 for the set at Woodcraft down from over $300. Any other tools brands types recommendations etc would be appreciated. I was looking at about 4 tools as my minimum but all together they were more than this set on sale. Roughing gouge, spindle gouge or spindle master, parting tool and skew or skewchigouge were my choices.
I am not springing for a chuck right now, but it will likely be something I buy fairly soon. I will likely have to buy a grinder before that though.
I searched thorough this forum over the past couple of days and tried to read all I could find on the Rikon lathe. I see that it had mixed reviews when introduced in ~2006...but seems to have had better QC lately. I have not had the time to dig through all other smaller lathe threads to see if I may have missed a real gem though.
Power tool work is not my area of woodworking, hand tools and carving are my joys, so this venture into the corded world is also new.
So anything missing, anything wrong, anything way out of whack?
Thanks. And thanks for this forum....it looks to be a wealth of info.
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