My First Ornamental Pen

[Keith Outten]

This is the first ornamental pen I have made with the Beale Pen Wizard. The pen blank is rosewood, it is filled with clear epoxy mixed with 50% white and 50% burnt sienna color tint. I used a Berea Sierra Titanium Gold and Platinum pen kit. The spiral turn on the pen blank is 25% of the diameter which isn't to radical and I think it is pleasing to the eye.

I made some mistakes but I am pleased with this pen considering it is my first attempt at ornamental pen turning and I was limited in my choice of tint colors.

Honest opinions will be appreciated, good or bad.

Thanks

[Steve Schlumpf]

Keith - that is a very impressive pen! To be honest, I had no idea what the pen wizard was - so had to look it up. Looks like you have lots of options for future pens! Great pen - really nice photo also! Thanks for sharing!

[Norm Zax]

Keith,
Very nice pen and workmanship! Staging is indeed elegant (although I think the pen is better presented turned with tip down). Go make some more!
Norm

[Bernie Weishapl]

Keith that is a beauty. I saw that machine at work at the Symposium.

[Mike Minto]

first piece i've seen come off the beall machine - it's VERY nice! we'll be looking for more. :)

[Keith Outten]

Thanks guys,

I'm searching for a good tint system now, the stuff I used was old and starting to get stiff in the tubes. I enjoy using the pen wizard, it is simple and yet provides a lot of range for making all kinds of designs. I have a Corian pen blank turned and ready to install in the pen wizard, this one if for Jackie.

Norm, you are so right about the picture. It didn't dawn on me when I had the camera in my hand to turn the pen around. The truth is I'm a rotten photographer so I was really glad to get a decent picture and I didn't think about the setup enough.
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[Horst Hohoff]

I saw some "ornamental" pens elsewhere and found them downright ugly.
So I feared the worst when I opened this post.
But what a pleasant surprise!
The ornamental part is unobstrusive and therefor very pleasant to look at.
Excellent work!

[Phil Labowski]

very pretty pen. I think tip up is nice, looks like a rocket about to take off:) Go make more so you can take pic with tip down and we'll compare them.

[Bob Vavricka]

Keith,
I like the pen and the fill--I kept going back to look at the picture because in the picture the fill looks to be about the color of maple. What kind of epoxy and colorants did you use?

[Joe Mioux]

great looking pen keith.

tell the truth what's more fun? making pens or running a forum?;)

joe

[robert hainstock]

Thanks guys,

I'm searching for a good tint system now, the stuff I used was old and starting to get stiff in the tubes. I enjoy using the pen wizard, it is simple and yet provides a lot of range for making all kinds of designs. I have a Corian pen blank turned and ready to install in the pen wizard, this one if for Jackie.

Norm, you are so right about the picture. It didn't dawn on me when I had the camera in my hand to turn the pen around. The truth is I'm a rotten photographer so I was really glad to get a decent picture and I didn't think about the setup enough.
.

Per the tint, Inlace colors will tint any epoxy. And you can make any color from the primary three, red, blue, and green. The beall machine seems much more well made than one of its predesessors, the Sears router crafter as seen often on the auction sites. Beautiful work on the pen. :D
Bob

[Keith Outten]

Keith,
I like the pen and the fill--I kept going back to look at the picture because in the picture the fill looks to be about the color of maple. What kind of epoxy and colorants did you use?

Bob,

The tint is Sheffield Tints-All. It is compatible with latex, alkyds, oil, acrylics,etc. There are 34 colors, I have about twelve of them. I passed on the pastels when I purchased the tubes of color I felt I could use. The tubes were stored in a utility building for the last ten or so years so they are about useless at this point. When I bought them I was experimenting with coloring nitro-lacquer.


great looking pen keith.

tell the truth what's more fun? making pens or running a forum?;)

joe

Joe,

The Creek has become a seven days per week job, the workload is a minimum of 2 to 4 hours per day...every day. There are parts of the job that are certainly enjoyable but the down side is the behind the scenes work that is repetitious and time consuming. The marketing effort is the part I dislike the most, it has to be done to keep the doors open.

The impact on my daily schedule limits my shop time. When I get the opportunity run my ShopBot or make pens I take it because it is rare since the growth spurt we experienced a couple of years ago.


Per the tint, Inlace colors will tint any epoxy. And you can make any color from the primary three, red, blue, and green. The beall machine seems much more well made than one of its predesessors, the Sears router crafter as seen often on the auction sites. Beautiful work on the pen. :D
Bob

Bob,

Thanks for the tip concerning Inlace, I will take a good look. I remember the Sears Router Crafter, it was an interesting machine :)
The Pen Wizard is a well built fixture, JR Beale put a lot of thought into its features. I like the fact that it is a stand alone fixture much different than the original one he made that attached to a lathe.

-------------------

I am ordering ten more pen kits today so there will be more pictures very soon. I need to work out the design details and I need to make my own contour follower, the one that JR Beale designed won't work with the new Dremel Tools. If you get the chance to view the Pen Wizard videos they are definitely interesting.
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[Skip Spaulding]

Fine looking pen, fit and finish look superb.

[Billy Tallant]

Great looking pen...

[Keith Outten]

I have decided that the next pen will be a light colored Corian pen and it will have a double spiral filled with dark blue Corian adhesive. I think it is called a pineapple style effect.

I have the pen blank already turned and ready for the Pen Wizzard, it should be finished this weekend :)
.

[Jeff Nicol]

Keith, I have been eying them up in adds in some of my magazines and they look darn nice! I will try and create one before I buy one, but that could fail or never get off the ground! I think your pen is a beauty and love the simple way you used the system to put the spiral grooves in. I have seen some that get way to involved and take away from the work of the pen. Thanks and can't wait for more! I also have been using just tubes of oil paint to use as tints for epoxy it works very well and does not seem to effect the strength of the epoxy.

Thanks,

Jeff

[Keith Outten]

Thanks for the kind words and the oil paint tip Jeff, that is just the ticket.
The Pen Wizard lists for $295.00 on the Beale Tool site. There are so many parts, gears and shafts I expect it would be difficult to build you own and save any serious money...I thought about it the same as you :)

[Gary Herrmann]

Cool pen, Keith. I forwarded this thread to my wife who started my trip into the vortex by asking me to turn pens for her. We'll see if she wants me to do this.

Such a passive-aggressive way of me kinda asking for a new tool... :rolleyes:

[Clara Koss]

naaaah not your first you've been practiving behind our backs!!!! How gorgeous!!!!i w:dant it!!!!

[Keith Outten]

For those of you who haven't seen the Pen Wizard it might help to see what it produces. Here is a link to a YouTube video that isn't of the jig in action, it is a video slide show of pens produced by the Pen Wizard. This gives you some idea of the range of styles that it is capable of and with a little imagination there is no end to the designs you can make.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M8LkDPpujE

Clara, if you watch the video you can tell I haven't been practicing :)
I really like this pen but I think it is just the tip of the iceberg. Once I can get accustomed to the gearing procedure and start making Corian pens I will no doubt be able to produce some very distinctive pens and pencils. Had I payed more attention to the depth of the spirals I could have had more of the rosewood showing and a thinner epoxy fill which might have been a nicer look. I also purchased a complete set of collets for my Dremel Tool, the smaller size collets allow me to use the bits that dentists use for prepping teeth for filling.

The Pen Wizard uses a modified pen mandrel that is close to the size we use on a regular lathe for turning pens. I have been giving some thought to making some very long blanks with a larger diameter than we use for pens. These could be machined, filled and cut in half to make miniature decorative columns for sign work. First off I can see some very nice desk signs with beautiful decorative bars and inlays.
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