. . . can fit on the head of a pin?
A while back I got into, and then out of, turning small. Not miniatures of something larger but just little delicate things I called Spinarets, a cross between a spire and a minaret. At the time I was using a skew - a lot.
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Since then I found that using a 1/4" bench chisel like a bedan let me turn to even smaller diameters. But a catch with it was catastrophic. A quarter inch of cutting edge is just too twitchy when you're turning down near the 1/16" diameter range. The width of the cutting edge was the problem. So - I tried using something with a quarter of that sized cutting edge - a 1/16th inch thick parting tool. And not one of them fancy Store Bought parting tools - but an old bayonet saw blade with the teeth ground off - blue masking tape for the "handle".
Used like a tiny bedan, the thin parting tool alowed me to turng down into the 0.04" diameter range. That's a bit smaller than 1/16" and a bit larger than 1/32" - over an inch and a quarter length. Not quite the diameter of a straight pin - but . . . I think I can get even closer.
My goal - to turn a piece that answers the question "How many angels - can fit on the head of a pin?"
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If you haven't YET tried turning a "long" really small diameter piece - have a look and consider doing something that's small - really small. I'm going to try and do a video of how I use my parting tool to turn small. Will post the URL when I've got it on YouTube.
Questions, comments, suggestions always welcomed.