Collaboration pen

[Greg Ketell]

This is a pen made for a "Collaboration Contest" on another site. It is California Olive wood with Manzanita segments.

The wood was provided by a friend, he and I came up with the design, I made the blank. The blank was then given to another friend who drilled, turned and finished the pen. The kit came from another fellow. It ended up winning first place. Yay!!

http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=111573&stc=1&d=1235787617

http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=111574&stc=1&d=1235787617

Sometime next week I will be figuring out eBay and posting this one up for auction, the proceeds of which will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to help fund their studies.

Thanks for looking!
GK

[Bernie Weishapl]

Great looking pen. Really turned out nice with the wood contrast. Well done.

[Jon Lanier]

Really nice. Now where is the tutorial?

[Jack Giovo]

Very high quality work from design to finish.

Jack

[Steve Schlumpf]

Greg - Great looking pen! Interesting design! Congrats on your first place win! Hope you are able to sell your pen for big bucks! Best of luck raising a large donation!

[Tamara Brown]

Good looking pen, one of the best segmented pens I've ever seen.

[Dean Thomas]

I feel as though I'm at a fireworks show. All I want to say is, "Ooooooooh...Aaaaaaah".

Really nice pen. Concept, design, execution, details, and the finish is so deep that it looks like you'd get your hand wet if you touch it!

Nice.

[Paul Douglass]

All I gotta say is that is some mighty fine collabotating that went on. Mighty fine indeed!

[John Grabowski]

Now your just showing off :D AWESOME PEN!!

John G

[Steve Mawson]

Now that is REALLY nice, great picture as well. I am waiting for the tutorial also.

[Ken Nelsen]

Excellent job Greg. Great fit and finish, super design and excellent photography. Congrats.
Ken

[Tom Henry]

Now that is way over the top!

[Greg Ketell]

Now your just showing off

Well sure, John. Isn't that what we do here? Show off when something goes well; Ask for help when something doesn't go the way we want it; lend support and camaraderie to our friends here on the list? :D

We got lucky and this one went very well for us. Hopefully the auction (when I figure out how to do it) will go even better for JDRF.

GK

[Greg Ketell]

I finally figured out how to use ebay and I've started the auction. You can find all the details here:
http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=113720

If you know anyone interested in a great pen or interested in supporting the search for a cure for Type-1 Diabetes would you please let them know about the auction?

Thanks
GK

[Billy Tallant]

That is one fantastic looking pen...

[Greg Ketell]

Woohooo, what a great deal. The winner of the auction paid $305 for the pen. Then this classy guy paid for the pen within hours of the auction ending and sent me an email with directions on what to do with the pen.

His directions? Sell it again with the proceeds of the second sale joining his monies going to JDRF!! WHAT A COOL GUY!!

During the sale a friend of mine contacted me and wanted to buy the pen. But he didn't ever use ebay so just offered $325 for the pen. Since there was no way for me to proxy bid for him so he didn't get the pen. But now he has mailed the check to JDRF and the pen will be sent out as soon as I have confirmation of receipt of the check.

In the end JDRF has made $635 from this pen!!!

[Greg Ketell]

Really nice. Now where is the tutorial?

Well here is an abbreviated tutorial for you, Jon.

A#1 cheat: make sure your segments are the same thickness as your saw kerf. This makes everything easier. I use a thin-kerf blade on my table saw.

1st select a couple of nice looking, contrasty woods. You will need one blank of the one type of wood and two blanks of the other type of wood.
http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=120623&stc=1&d=1244941216

Once you have your two kinds of woods take one of the two darker and rip it into strips. I use a vacuum rip fence (http://www.davidreedsmith.com/Articles/VacuumRipFence/VacuumRipFence.htm) on my table saw sled. Take the other blank and drill it to fit your lower tube. Once it is drilled you then need to cross cut it into segments the same thickness of your strips. This turns out to be more challenging (for me) than it sounds.
http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=120622&stc=1&d=1244941149

Ok, for this part I don't have any pictures but what you do is take your primary blank and make sure it is VERY square. Now rip it in half length wise. Take one of your strips and glue it between the two pieces. Once the glue dries turn the blank 90 degrees and repeat the slice and glue up.

Do a little math and cut your new blank for your upper tube but cut it shorter leaving enough room for a strip on each end. Glue it up. Mount it in your chuck and drill it.
http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=120620&stc=1&d=1244941139

More lack of pictures.
Decide how many segments you want. With the thickness of my strips/saw kerf I thought 6 segments looked good. Now take your lower tube and and stack the segments with lots of epoxy between them and on the tube. Make sure the primary segments are rotated 45 degrees each time. I like doing 45 left and 45 right for each so the grain patterns still align. You can use your vertical segments as alignment markers.
http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=120621&stc=1&d=1244941139

Now round your blanks on your belt sander then mount them on the lathe and turn to final and finish your pen like normal and photograph.
http://sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=111574&stc=1&d=1235787617