Newbie

Try a local woodturning club. Have a look at the area club listings on the American Association of Woodturners site for some possiblilities.

The 10" swing Jet mini-lathe is seen as an excellent starter lathe. There are others as well like Delta, General International, Vicmarc etc

Bill

Before you decide what lathe you want to buy you need to have some idea of what you want to do with it. Turning breaks down, in general, to two basic shapes, stick or bowl, the types of turning are spindle and facework. You should learn to do spindle work first so you learn techniques. A small lathe will restrict the size of things that you can turn, both in length and width. The mini lathes do spindles about 15" long and maybe, 10 in diameter. Take a ruler to you kitchen and you'll find that a 10" bowl isn't very big. The AAW has local chapters all over the place. Take a look at the sig line at the end of this message and follow the AAW link. Go to Local Chapters and look up MO, then find the ones in your area. Join your local chapter, and the AAW, there will be lots of people who'll be happy to help you.

Dave in Fairfax

I'm betting St. Louis has at least one Woodcraft store. They have all sorts of classes on various aspects of woodworking..........including woodturning. This is a good way to get an introduction to this craft.

Barry

It is easy to find a club in St. Louis MO -- our meeting is tomorrow (Sunday) at the Woodcraft store on Olive. It is at 1:00 and usually lasts until 4:30 or so. We usually meet on the 4th Sunday of the month but this month is an exception. Our web site is

You are invited to the meeting. If you come, please introduce yourself to me.

The Woodcraft store offers classes but there may be a better alternative. For members of the club, we have a mentoring program. For no cost, the more experienced members of the group offer free tutoring.

Further, the St. Louis area (actually O'Fallon MO) is the home of the importer of the Omega Stubby lathes -- Stubby Lathe USA, Inc.

If you had asked at any of the woodworking stores in the area, you would have found us. One of our members works part time at the Rockler store. The owner of the store on N Lindberg (Wood n Shop) was a member for years, etc.

BTW, I have only seen one of the turning shows in the DIY series -- the one on making a bird house. I thought that there were lots of problems with the show. Tools called by the wrong names, major parts of the project (the house body was coopered) with no help at all on how to do it and some poor tool technique demonstrated. Overall I'd give it a C- at best.

Bill

RaZMaN wrote:

Dave,

Thanks for the information I checked out the website and found one in the St. Louis area and have sent the person that runs it an email. I love the AAW site. I just don't know how everyone doesn't want to just sit there and look at the work that people have done with woodturning. It seems amazing to me. Thanks again for the information. You can always count on newsgroups having friendly people willing to help.

Bill

Thanks for the information I checked out the website and found one in the St. Louis area and have sent the person that runs it an email. I love the AAW site.

The information on the Jet mini lathe is very appreciated because I just had no idea if they were a good idea or not. Since I have never done a woodturning before I can't invest the kind of money that is needed to get a full size one (I guess that is what you call them).

Barry,

Thanks for the response. I did not know that St. Louis had a Woodcraft store but you were right they do and the is where the AAW meets. I will give them a call and see what they offer. I will also make sure that I post my first turning here for comments. Thanks again.

Bill

Well it is obviously past 1:00 but just barely so I think I am going to run out there and try to catch some of it I hope that is OK. Guess I will find out when I get there. Thanks looking forwarding to meeting you of course by the time you read this..... well you get it.

The Jet mini lathe is excellent. I have been using nothing else for more than two years and have only just graduated to something bigger. I won't be getting rid of my Jet anytime soon though! It will take a bowl up to about 8

Anne

I would have to say I agree with you and what the others have said about it. I went and looked at one today at Woodcraft and it was very well built. Of course before I buy one I need to make sure that this is something I really enjoy doing. Although a 8 1/2 bowl is rather small it is perfect for what I would doing. I really enjoy giving handmade gifts in lieu of purchased items. I think it just means more and this will be perfect for that.