pipemakersforum.com

Well guys,

I'm thinking of making the plunge and buying a metal lathe. So I have a two part question...

One: Are there any metal lathe gurus out there who would be willing to help guide me in my purchase- lathe suggestions, exactly what tooling I'll need, etc.

Two: Are any metal lathes that will work for pipemaking anywhere near a thousand dollars?

Cheers,
TC

If you search through the tooling sections for a few pages, I think that question will be answered.

I've been wading through that, and have found a few good things, but I may wind up having more specific questions.

Cheers,
TC

I purchased the grizzly 9x19 for $975 off their site, but by the time I purchased all of the other things that I needed I ended up spending about the same as I would have on the Jet 9x19 (not to mention all the lost time). The Grizzly is nice, and I'm happy with it now, but for less headache up front I'd say Jet. But, I'm no expert in the lathe field, I'm sure there are plenty of other manufacturers out there as well.

Is a 9" swing big enough?

tigercasual wrote:Is a 9" swing big enough?

It is. You won't be able to make 12" long Canadians, but it works for most everything else.

Rad

tigercasual wrote:Is a 9" swing big enough?

Depends what you want to make, like Rad says you wont be able to make a pipe much longer than 4.5" I myself use a 3.5" lathe (7" for you americans) so i cannot make a pipe much longer than 3.5" long however i do not find this much of a problem, 95% of my pipes fit on the lathe and if the shank is too long then i drill and turn the shank on the lathe then take it over to the drill press to drill the bowl and just have to shape the bowl by hand without any turning. Once you have done it a couple of times its really not that bad. I couldnt justify the added cost or loss of space for a bigger lathe.

TC, you may find, depending on your budget, that you're going to want to hold on to one of your wood lathe chucks and get tower jaws for it. If you get a Jet 9x20, you can get a spindle thread adapter that will allow you to mount the wood lathe chuck on it and use that instead getting a custom chuck or chuck jaws made. I actually do this on my SB9" and it works out very well.

Thanks Kurt,

I was wondering if there was a way for my chuck to be converted for a metal lathe.

Cheers,
TC

Here's what I use:
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/LA11218.html

They've got all kinds of sizes.