Legacy Woodturning, Pen Mandrel, 2MT

Mandrel came bent way out of line. Once lined up with the tail stock the middle is bowed out and causes really annoying vibrations and damage to the wood blanks.Update: upon further inspection and trials I found that the mandrel itself is actually quite straight. The major issues all came from the collet chuck. When I ran the mandrel through my drill chuck it worked just fine with minimal wobble and I've since turned about 30 pens on it.Adding one star to my original review for having a usable mandrel but the chuck is still completely worthless

Like many other reviews the mandrel rod is bent. I was hoping that others were just tightening the mandrel down too hard or pressing to hard when shaping but unfortunately that was not the case. Bottom line the hardware is a good idea but the mandrel rod will likely be bent. Does not provide the time savings efficiency I was hoping for as pens were not turned true. For the price I had somewhat higher expectations. The plus side is you get 5x 7mm bushings that appear to be very close if not identical to slimline bushings.

This is a great mandrel, I’ve already made about 50 pens on it. I do highly recommend getting a mandrel saver at the same time, this will help prevent your mandrel rod from bending.

Just what I needed to get started in pen making. Should have ordered the mandrel saver at same time though. Make sure you know what Morse taper your lathe has.

Good product. Used it a few times so far turning pens. Seems to be holding up with no issues. I’d buy again.

With the mandrel bent it's impossible to turn a balanced pen so the ends are always out of round, I bought a mandrel saver and that helped some but not enough to not purchase a new mandrel and pitch this one in the trash. don't waste your money

Was bent and wobbled

This item works well and was reasonably priced.