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Each woodturner ends up using whatever tools are comfortable for them to use. Over a period of time and some trial and error, I've become comfortable with certain tools and will probably continue to use those same ones. My main lathe is a Powermatic 4224, and it weighs in around 1,000 pounds making it capable of handeling some rather large pieces of wood. The swing of the Powermatic lathe is 24 inches. This means the lathe can turn wood up to 24 inches in diameter and close to 42 inches in length. My second lathe is a Jet Mini-Lathe. The swing of this lathe is 10 inches and this smaller lathe is perfect for boxes, ornaments ,pens and lots of other small turnings.

For hollowing larger turnings on the Powermatic, I like to use a captive hollowing system that I helped to make with a great tool designer and frabricator, John Lea. I do use a few other hollowing tools depending on the shape. Some of these I made just for a particular shape and size turning. John Jordan tools are also in my tool line up and can be fitted to use with my captive system. Bowl gouges I use are Sorby, Glaser and Crown. I'm looking foward to wearing down a couple of these so I can justify finally buying some of the Thompson gouges. The size gouges I use the most are 3/8 and 1/2 and lately have been mostly using the 3/8" size. I like the finer cuts I can obtain with that size. For bowl coring, I only use the McNaughton system and have become used to it. It does tend to give you more room for different shape cores. I use a vacuum system for finishing the bottom of my bowls and actually use it to finish some of the hollow forms I do. For embelishment work, I use most any tool I can get my hands on that can remove or change wood in a unique way. For carving, I use an Automach carver and some hand tools. I like to use a Razor-Tip burner, micro torches, different size wires for burning in lines,rasps and files, air hammer and air blasting cabinet.

Some of the other tools that are not directly related to wood turning are a Grizzly 1023 SL Table Saw, Delta planer, Jet jointer, home made router table, Porter Cable Mortiser, drill press, different size PC dovetail jigs, hand held and other power tools including a nice Delta down draft table to help keep the dust down when hand sanding or other uses. I have what tools I need but like other wood workers, I'm always looking for a special deal on the ones Idon't yet have. Equipping a wood working shop can take years and shouldn't be rushed unless you have unlimited income.