Need help to get a wood lathe

[Clarence1]

Hi,

I just realized that getting good little round wood bases is sometime difficult. I'm not going at a lot of shows and the only way I can get good base is ordering them on the internet. My only problem is that the cost is pretty expensive for one piece of wood. So a 45mmx45mm x 50mm height wood cost around 20-25 us plus shipping around 10-20 us depending where its coming from. Im in canada, Quebec BTW.

I was wondering if I should get myself a wood lathe. I already have access to good exotic wood. I don't mind paying for a good tools since its gonna be used for bases but other things too.

If anyone could recommand a good lathe what would it be. Price range between $500 to $750 would be ok for me. I saw a couple of lathes:

-General international maxi 100 or 200
-Jet
-Microlux

Thanks for sharing!

Clarence

 

[Tommi]

Hi Clarence, have you tried eBay there are loads on there.
Cheers
Tommi

 

[RFL]

Bases

I don`t know where on the internet your getting bases at that price, but the well know and respected Ken Thomas in Penn. USA sells finished Rosewood rounds ( among other woods ) 2" wide by 2" high with ogee edge base for $9.75 plus actual shipping and they are excellent, the best there is really. Ken may not want to turn rounds smaller then that ( with good reason) so:

The recently arrived John Jefferies in Long Island USA will do any style and size down to those tiny rounds and he also is an outstanding craftsman with different woods.

I`ve also bought from Wiremill Designs in England, who will do very superb tiny rounds, you need to order in some quanity to make sense of shipping ( 3-5 ) but small packet air to the US is only about $11 and he usually has about a 2 week turnaround.

Learning to turn small rounds which look good is far from easy, which is why few do it, and $700+ for the tools buys lottsa bases IMO, but go for it if you want.

If you want to contact any of the above PM me.

Regards
RL

 

[Guy]

Years ago I used to make all my own bases and found that I was spending all my time producing a good base and very little time painting. I buy mainly from Ken Thomas and usually buy a quanity of at least 4 to 10 to keep them in stock. Now I have alot more time to paint.