Hi cd,
I bought most of my kit from Turners' Retreat stand at the Stoneleigh Park Show last autumn. I'll just list it for clarity:
1. a mandrel with a morse taper to fit my lathe, complete with 7mm bushes.
2. a barrel trimmer to square the ends of the blanks with the tubes, so that they fit snugly on the mandrel for turning.
3. a set of Crown pen-turning tools comprising a small gouge, a small skew and a parting tool. This set, in the light of experience, was not essential. In place of the small gouge you could use a small bowl gouge for the roughing, followed by a small spindle gouge for the remaining turning. The small skew can be useful for final planing cuts, especially on difficult woods. The small parting tool I have never used because I use the barrel trimmer, although I do use a 1/4" beading/parting tool as a scraper for final finishing when turning acrylic and corian.
4. a few ready drilled blanks.
5. a few pen kits - standard 7mm slimline click-pen kits, 24ct gold plated, about £3 per kit.
6. some good quality superglue, or Titebond polyurethane (takes a few hours to set but is gap filling if you get a loose tube).
7. sanding and polishing materials (I use different processes depending on the material I have used) which you no doubt already have.
That is all you need really to get started. I haven't bothered with a press. I saw a demonstrator at a show using a 'quick clamp' of suitable size. I do the same, having added hardwood facings to the soft jaws of the clamp to provide enough resistance to the components to press them in place (some bits will otherwise just sink in to the soft jaws!)
I now cut all my own blanks from woods with interesting colours/grain patterns and for drilling them use a 6.9mm bit (from Axminster, who will no doubt have the rest of the stuff listed above) as I find this provides a better fit for the brass tubes than a 7mm bit. I made a very simple jig to hold the blanks vertically on the drill press table for drilling.
Essentially, to start with, you just need to stay with a mandrel with 7mm bushes together with 7mm pen kits.
If I can help with anything else, ask away.
Cheers,
Trev.
