First Pen!

Created on: Tuesday 17 April 2007

Fun Day!

Ended up figuring out how to make a mandrel. Turned down a piece of 3/8" 6061-T6 rod to just pass the pen barrel sleeve. Flattened the corner near the chuck with the cutoff tool to hold the barrel sleeve in place. Threaded the other end 3/8-24 and used a piece of brass tubing I had from a bargin collection to hold the barrel and wood assembly tight with the 3/8" nut. Tailstock side was center drilled to accommodate a live center. I was worried that the aluminum would be too flimsy but it appears to work fine.

Turned this down with my round nose HSS bit measuring frequently, when I got to 0.45 I stopped and sanded lightly with 220 grit paper, then 600 grit and finally with shavings. The wood may be Home Depots hardwood, but it is still pretty porous.

The threaded couplings were pressed in using a piece of wood on the small anvil I have, worked fine :-).

Quite pleased with it and it certainly can be done :-)! Next I need to make the top. May not go further with this as the wood does leave a bit to be desired. I thought this might work out as it was "hardwood" but it would appear that there is hardwood and then there is hardwood that is good for making pens out of.

Hardest part was drilling the blank, primarily because the micro-mill doesn't have much depth of throw. Ended up cranking the column up to the limit and down to get through the blank. It wasn't perfectly centered, but that doesn't seem to be a major issue in the end.

Too Cool :-)! Not sure why I need wood chisels now... Perhaps more fun doing it manually, we'll see.

(04/21/07): Finished up the cap and added pix at bottom. May do more work on it, we'll see.

(04/22/07): OK, this one is done, final pix at the bottom. Learned a lot and had fun. Glued the shattered wood from the cap back together and got it finished. Far from perfect but now I know I like doing it and can get some real wood to practice on, the stuff I used here was crap. New chisels should also make a big difference, with these it was like doing brain surgery with a steam shovel :-).

Click on any thumbnail for a larger pix.