Wally Dickerman
05-29-2009, 10:24 PM
In another thread I posted some pics of some wood Bic pens that I had made. I've had a request to pass on some info on how they were turned. It's been nearly 20 years since I turned any pens and my memory isn't what it used to be, but I'll give it a try.
I always used hard, dense woods such as cocobolo, tulipwood, rosewoods, etc. I cut 3/4 in. square blanks, 9 inches long. The Bic filler can be trimmed to a little over 4 inches long, so the hole in the blank should be drilled for that. Seems to me that I used a 6 in. long 1/8th in drill. The business end of the filler is a little larger than that and wants to be drilled for a friction fit. I'm not sure but I think that it was 5/32nd inch. I drilled it on the lathe. First, I put the blank between centers and turned one end round for an inch or so. I mounted it in a small jaw chuck and drilled the hole from the tailstock.
The small drill almost always wants to wander off center a bit. It's important that the hole be centered because I turned my pens quite thin. A 6 in. drill, smaller than the 1/8 hole, is mounted in a chuck on the headstock. The blank is slipped onto the small drill, then the tailstock is brought up with a cone point mounted to find the off-line center.
I turned my pens between centers so I made a couple of shallow cuts with my bandsaw to aid in centering the small 4-point drive center. The cone-shaped live center at the tailstock is mounted into the drilled opening.
The rest of the project is just a matter of turning and shaping the pen to suit yourself.
I hope that this is a little bit clearer than mud.
Photos of some pens are in the earlier post on pens.
Wally
I always used hard, dense woods such as cocobolo, tulipwood, rosewoods, etc. I cut 3/4 in. square blanks, 9 inches long. The Bic filler can be trimmed to a little over 4 inches long, so the hole in the blank should be drilled for that. Seems to me that I used a 6 in. long 1/8th in drill. The business end of the filler is a little larger than that and wants to be drilled for a friction fit. I'm not sure but I think that it was 5/32nd inch. I drilled it on the lathe. First, I put the blank between centers and turned one end round for an inch or so. I mounted it in a small jaw chuck and drilled the hole from the tailstock.
The small drill almost always wants to wander off center a bit. It's important that the hole be centered because I turned my pens quite thin. A 6 in. drill, smaller than the 1/8 hole, is mounted in a chuck on the headstock. The blank is slipped onto the small drill, then the tailstock is brought up with a cone point mounted to find the off-line center.
I turned my pens between centers so I made a couple of shallow cuts with my bandsaw to aid in centering the small 4-point drive center. The cone-shaped live center at the tailstock is mounted into the drilled opening.
The rest of the project is just a matter of turning and shaping the pen to suit yourself.
I hope that this is a little bit clearer than mud.
Photos of some pens are in the earlier post on pens.
Wally