Metal Lathe

Better off reading up over here:

www.pipemakersforum.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=43&sid=ebf4d981db0ec01cb5ee1dc912df3da8

And particularly this thread:

www.pipemakersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=5154

As with anything, if you decide to really go for it, “ Buy once, Cry once” when considering the cost. Unless of course there is a perfectly serviceable low cost secondhand option.
It is just me, but I wouldn’t buy a Harbor freight lathe thinking that some day I would get the one that I really want.... that is if I could reasonably do it.

I'm a beginning carver, and just now getting to where I make a decent pipe. I have only an old Craftsman wood lathe, a drill press, and some hand tools. I've recently learned to carve my own stems. My stems and pipes are not as precision as a metal lathe would make them by magnitudes, but if I do my part I can make a quality pipe with a quality stem.

That said, I am a hobbyist carver, I turn out maybe one pipe a month these days. If I was doing this for a living a metal lathe would be on my list of must haves, if for no other reason it gives me a way to duplicate my work more efficiently and precisely.

I'm not trying to discourage you but buying low quality tooling will result most often, in sub-standard results. Junk tools = junk pipes. Hobby-level wood lathes aren't accurate, and neither are the drill presses that are sold to most hobbyists. Tenon and mortise holes require the precision boring of round holes and reaming to size. A drill press will not give you the rigidity nor the accuracy of a metal-lathe or of a bench top, milling-machine. You'll need to bore concentric holes down the centerlines of your chosen materials, for both the stem tenon/shank mortise...a drill press isn't accurate enough to "drill" round holes, and unless accurately trammed, the table is often tilted, and not on the exact perpendicular plane (left to right, back to front) to the centerline of the quill. You-tube has some good videos that show the process. Don't do this step and you'll drill tilted, inaccurate holes.

That money that you'll spend on buying decent machines and all the tooling you'll need to feed these machines, will also allow you to purchase some commissioned, high-grade pipes from the experienced pipe-carvers. Ordering a $500.00 high quality pipe from a good maker, will serve you for a lifetime. Spending $500.00 for a metal-lathe, and some tooling, is chump-change. Then there's sanding equipment, cost of raw materials, cost of expensive premium briar blocks, etc, to consider.

Honestly, start your pipe-carving with those pre-drilled briar blocks. Make a couple of pipes from these blocks, and see where it all goes. Take all your time, and treat these cheapo blocks like they were premium briar, sanding, staining, polishing, etc. and get a feel for what it takes to create a quality pipe. You'll know a lot more about making pipes after completing a few of these pre-drilled kits. You-tube pipe-making tutorials, are invaluable....but they never show you the screw-ups, and scrap buckets filled with all the rejects.

Good luck with your endeavors.

I have heavy hands! I don't have the touch for wood lathes. I know a mess of people who only use wood lathes. I'm pretty sure Scottie Piersel uses a wood lathe for everything. I just like the metal lathe, which I believe affords me more control, and works at slower speeds. I'll HAVE TO use a WL, if I make a really long shank at some point, since my clearance on the ML won't be enough. I didn't mean to come across as saying a ML is a must for everyone, but it was for me. My tools would catch constantly, and PING!

I went to a technical high school back in the fifties..I learned how to use all those metal working machines including a lathe..I was offered a couple jobs in machine shops..I turned them down..I just don't like those machines..But then folks like different things.