Well, once you get the lathe you have to have the right tools and accessories. So, what advice do you have for me if I want to buy quality tools at a good price? I'm a carver so I know the value of quality tools, but I'm new to turning so I don't have the exposure you all have to the options. Where and what should I be looking at for tools? Initially, my first big project is turning a laminated sphere so I'll have a lot of end grain on the OD. Also, I'm curious about the accessories like a four jaw chuck. I'm here to learn from your experiences.
Step the first - play with it and whatever you have. Before you dive into that laminated sphere, stick some firewood on there and make it round.
Lots of folks here get a super-cheap set of Harbor Freight gouges for practicing sharpening, etc. on, and then replace the ones they actually wear out with "good ones". Not my personal method, but I still have and use (along with others) the 54 year old set that come with Gradpa's ShopSmith and sat unused for probably 23 years until he passed that on to me, since I don't think he ever used it as a lathe.
While there are a world of vendors who would love to have you spend several thousands on accessories, it ain't the most needed thing in the world. I did a lot of blemish-free bowls with a waste block, some glue, and chunk of newspaper or brown paper bag - glue the block to the blank with paper in between, screw the block to the faceplate, turn the bowl, split the bowl off the block with a knife, sand the remnants of paper off the bottom.
Lacks a little of the instant gratification of the chuck setup, but holds as well or better.
Some folks do the same with hot glue and various "chuck plates" (faceplates with blocks attached having rings for gluing to temporarily)
Some accessories depend on what you want to do - ie, pens have a bunch of stuff you either "need" or "might find convenient" which are mostly useless for anything else.
For finishing, either the Beall buffing system or a home-brewed equivalent is a definite step up in quality from a non-buffed finish.
Packard is one excellent catalog source for things. Last time I really bothered to look (I haven't bought any new toys in a long while) there was some stuff in the catalog that was not in the website. I'm personally fond of Jerry Glaser's gouges, but there are other quality options at less cost, such as Packard's "house brand" tools in powder metal or the OneWay unhandled gouges.
Ecnerwal has some good suggestions. Packard is a good source, I prefer Craft Supplies USA, but I buy from both. Take a look at the list of vendors on my More Woodturning web site. My first good gouge was a Robert Sorby 3/8" spindle gouge that I ground away until it had only
1/4" of flute left. I purchased a couple of others of the same design and have used them heavily. I do like the Hamlet ASP tools as well as the Crown Propm tools also. Practice a bit before you take on the sphere, they are not the easiest thing to turn. In fact, they are best turned with a swinging jig, but fairly reasonable spheres can be turned as I describe in the article at . This article was written several years ago, when I was first introduced to making spheres free hand. There are a number of other useful articles at the website.
Craft Supplies USA current has a sales on Henry Taylor tools that you might want to check... Sale ends Dec 31. I have some of the Taylor tools as well as Sorby bowl gouges and am happy with both.
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