Turning speed

[Tony]

Curious to understand what speed range people here use to turn pens.

I work between 550 for roughing out a blank up to 1750 for sanding and friction polish.

Just wondering whether it would be worth changing the belt and moving to a higher speed range.

 

[Penpal]

Flat out turning,,sanding 1500 to flat out,CA1000rpm.

Peter.

 

[Bill Mooney]

Turning 3200. Sanding about 900. melamine finish about 900. Friction polish 3200.
For acrylics I use the same speeds for turning & sanding. For polishing acrylic about 1500.

 

[wm460]

I am same as Peter and Bill, only slow lathe down when drilling on lathe.

 

[Tony]

Thanks all, really appreciate the replies useful to know.

 

[Phil Dart]

As high as you dare for turning. You need to reduce for sanding though - sanding at high speeds just burnishes the workpiece rather than abrade it, and blunts the abrasive faster. Sanding is more effective at slower speeds. I turn at about 3400, sand and finish at about 1000, and drill at about 300

 

[Tony]

Thanks - glad I asked.

Sanding people seem to be lower speed (which may account for some recent issues encountered) - Friction polish higher speed - Drilling lower speed. Sounds as though all 3 belt positions will be needed .

 

[Seb]

Hi Tony

I personally do everything at the highest speed on my little lathe (2800rpm), to avoid having to constantly change the fiddly belt. As others have mentioned, its probably not ideal to be sanding at the higher speeds, but I lighten up a lot on the pressure to counter this, and see good results. I just make sure I'm pretty thorough in sanding with the grain with the lathe turned off after the usual lathe on sanding. I drill my blanks with a drill press to avoid having to remove the mandrel.

I'll likely move up to an electronically controlled speed lathe soon in order to be able to slow it down for certain stages as mentioned by others, but I just thought I'd mention how I do it. I'm very limited for time on an evening so I like to try and get everything done in a couple of hours. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, so fiddling with belts isn't ideal for me.

 

[qquake2k]

I do everything at about 2,000 RPM. Roughing, final turning, sanding, polishing, I rarely change the speed. For wood and acrylic. The only time I change the speed is if I'm turning something bigger, like a pen stand. Then I'll slow it a bit.

 

[Dalboy]

I have a manual change belt lathe and am always changing the belt position after a while it becomes second nature and does not take long. For spindle work higher speeds depending on diameter, thinner pieces = faster thicker = slightly slower. Cross-grain again depends on diameter I will turn at a slower speed than I use for spindle work. Drilling smaller bits faster than bigger bits.
Sandin depending on how I am sanding by hand or a drill mounted disc slower speeds increasing to about 1250rpm if inertia sanding.

 

[21William]

I’ve got a variable speed lathe so no idea of actual speed as I seldom look at the display. High for turning small stuff like pens then quite a lot slower for sanding. With wood, finish sanding is largely done by hand in the direction of the grain.

 

[Neil]

Flat out turning,,sanding 1500 to flat out,CA1000rpm.

Peter.

Same as Peter, but sand only with 320 stationery with the grain.

 

[Tony]

Thanks for all your comments; very much appreciated.