help on turning pens

[tody Brock]

I turned my first pen last night and it came out pretty well. My question is, while buffing with EEE I ran my rag across the bushings and it left a silver deposit on my blanks. I know the easiest way to avoid this problem is to not hit the bushings but other than that is there anyway to correct this. Is there any way to treat the bushings so as not to get this metallic runoff on the blanks.

[Rick Gifford]

Coating the bushing isnt a good idea as it may alter the diameter of them and you need that right for the pen to end the right size for the hardware.

Hitting the bushings like that has happened to everyone. For me I am just careful to avoid them, or use a light feel when getting close.

[Tom Henry]

Try to work from the center of the blank and out to the bushing. Then move to a clean part of the rag or paper towel and repeat, or just stay on the blank and move back and forth then when you are about to do the ends push out to the bushing.

[Horst Hohoff]

I made some wooden bushings for polishing. And I made them smaller in
diameter than the pen, so it's even possible to work on the endgrain.
For polishing it isn't really necessary that the blank runs perfectly true.

[John Terefenko]

I use delron bushings I made which are similar to the last poster and the wooden ones. They are smaller than the normal ones because I also use them to apply my CA finish which is alot better than a friction polish such as EEE. Being a plastic nothing stick to them and they do not wear off.

[Brian Brown]

I use a CA finish, and had a problem gluing the bushings to the pen blank. To fix it, before I apply finish, I remove the bushings, and replace them with the small diameter spacers that came with my mandrel. If necessary, you could cover the spacer with masking tape.