Attended the Klingspor WoodWorking Extravaganza with JP Timberlake this morning. One item of note is a new Delta Midi-Lathe to be unveiled in January. It's a little longer than their current lathe, has a little more swing, eletronic variable speed in 3 speed ranges and reverse and is about 25 pounds heavier than the current model. It nicely bridges the gap between lathes that seem a tad to small and those that are much too big. It is expected to retail for about $500.

Klingspor's will have them available for sale at the Expo in February.

.............

Tom,

Still on the topic of lathes, what model by any brand would it be that allows the turning of a rod grip, attached to the blank along with the reel seat, while the blank passes thru the power end of the lathe? I saw a picture of this very thing in a rod manufacturers advertisement brochure and thought it would be excellent to chuck it in this fashion. The seat end cap had been left off so the tail piece could fit inside the butt end of the blank. I know this type of lathe would need a different style of "chuck" end as opposed to one you would need to turn solid stock. I have a full wood shop but have never needed a lathe until I thought recently how nice it would be to devote some time to custom seat inserts and trim rings for grips. And of course, one missed opportunity always leads to the purchase of at least TWO more pieces of equipment!!! Of course this is true because if it wasn't, we would be able to hear echos in all of our shops. Keep 'em turnin'

Thanks again for your time and effort on this board and I look forward to seeing you folks again at High Point in February 2009.

Charlie
TightLIneRods@aol.com