Quote Originally Posted by Runner4404spd View Post
this is silly setup a gang slide on your 7x12 lathe and have at it. you can mount all of your tools to your slide either in individual holders or to a single multi station larger holder. i bet you could mount enough tools that you wouldn't even need to change the setup for doing the individual parts, just have to keep them close together.
I did a mock run of parts tonight, and I'm starting to think along similar lines to what you're saying... Even if I mount a turret to the mini-lathe I'll still have to reposition the tailstock for pretty much every operation.

The parts I ran tonight actually took 2 hours each. I'm not sure how much faster it would be doing them manually even with the best adaptations for the mini-lathe. If I was to get a proper turret lathe then I would imagine it would be pretty fast, but failing that I think the best course of action might be to go CNC. It kind of defeats the purpose of a hand-made pen, but no-one is going to buy a $100 pen...

Lots to think about.