Newbie Pen Maker

[William Mitchell]

Hi Guys,

I've been lurking here for a couple days and it seems safe enough to post a question, so here goes.

I've been turning metal and delrin for a while on my small Prazi 5x12 metal lathe but now I want to try pen making, and maybe later Pepper/Salt Mills and other utilitarian items. I'm poverty struck at the moment and can afford very little, so a new lathe is out of the question and lots of tools are too. I did get a cheap set of hi carbon steel turning tools to experiment with and I can make a tool rest for turning pens but I'm bewildered by the array of pen tools and kits available.

I would like to be able to turn pencils, ball point and fountain pens. I can see I will need a mandrel, bushings and drills but i could easily spend so much on tools I would have nothing left to spend on pen blanks and kits.

How can I get the most bang for the buck? I don't have metric drills and I'm not sure they're long enough anyway. I have an MT2 headstock taper and a 3 jaw scroll chuck. What type of mandrel would be best? How many sets of bushings?

I would rather turn larger ball point pens to complement fountain pens. Are all pencil kits slimline? I know I've asked a lot of questions but any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[Jim McFarland]

1st, welcome to SMC, William!

Not to run you off, but you should also consider joining the IAP penturners forum to get pen turning information from the experts there. Nothing at all against SMC, but pen turning is IAP's focus. I'm a newbie pen turner, too and I've picked up a lot of information there.

I use this reasonably inexpensive adjustable pen mandrel from Wood'n'Whimsies and I'm happy with it. "Best" would probably be mandrel in a Beall collet chuck or turning between centers without a mandrel but those options get pricier. Mandrel is PKM-FLC about 1/4 down the page.
http://www.woodnwhimsies.com/turn.html

You will also need a 60 degree point for your live center to match with the mandrel. The standard factory points don't seat well.

This "A-size" mandrel is used for most pen kits but a few require the larger "B" mandrel.

Unfortunately, you need to buy bushings and drill bits specific to the kit and seems like all of them are just a bit different.

I recommend starting with Sierra twist or button click pens in a chrome finish. This is a simple single 1/2 blank pen which looks really nice IMO and chrome is a reasonably durable plating in the lower cost kits. Bear Tooth Woods, Arizona Silhouettes and Lee Valley are all excellent sources for kits, bits and bushings. Wood'n'Whimsies has a few kits, too but not as many as the others. I also recommend you buy extra tubes when you buy the kits -- accidents/cracked blanks will happen!

Finishing wood pens is a topic maybe more involved than actually turning them. Myland's or similar friction polishes are easy to apply and look great but are not particularly durable if you intend to sell the pens. In that case, you need to read about CA/Superglue finishing. IAP is another good source for that. Finishing acrylic pens is easy with a plastic polish like Novus. You will usually need to paint the brass tubes with acrylics, else the brass will show through but actual finishing is easy.

I'm sure others will answer your other questions and, again, welcome to SMC!

[Jim McFarland]

Forgot at least one other major item...you'll need an accurate method for drilling the blanks for tubes. Drill press will work if you have one. If not, you can get an inexpensive #2 MT Jacob's chuck at Harbor Freight for drilling on the lathe. I'm no fan of Harbor Freight tools, but I have this one and works just fine for the purpose. Lathe drilling assumes you'll have enough space to fit chuck mounted blank, drill bit and installed Jacob's chuck on your lathe (12" between centers will be used fast!).

[Steve Mawson]

Many vendors have sales on different pen kits from time to time. Sometimes if you by a certain number of kits then a drill bit or bushing can be either free or at reduced cost. Find what kind of kit you like and look for a sale or quantity that will be less than buying a lot of single kits.

[Dan Forman]

The "Perfect Fit" kit from Berea will make either pen or pencil, and is a relatively wider pen than many, so you could use same tooling for pens or pencils. It's also one of the more attractive kits out there.

The El Grande and Churchill fountain pen kits are nice wide fountain pens also from Berea, and both take the same drill bit, and I think the same bushings. Both are also available as roller ball kits too. Probably the best thing to do is get set up for those, make a few, sell a few, and use the proceeds to branch out into different kits and more tools. Arizona Silhouette is my favorite place to get the Berea kits. I like these pens because they are not as heavy as some of the others which use more metal in them.

Arizona (http://www.arizonasilhouette.com/)

I agree that Penturners.org (IAP) is a great resource for info, especially when it comes to fountain pens. Lou Metcalf (IAP member) sells really nice but inexpensive fountain pen nibs to replace the ones that come with the kits, which aren't always the best. Since you already have a metal lathe, check out the threads there about turning between centers. You can turn your own bushings similar to those made by JohnnyCNC. That will save you the price of a mandrel, and give you better results to boot.

For really detailed info on fountain pens, check out The Fountain Pen Network forum. Most of the talk is about factory made modern and and vintage pens, but there is a ton of info on FP's in general, and they have a turner's forum too.

Dan

[Thom Sturgill]

William, as a metal turner, I would assume that you have micrometers?

You should be able to turn your own bushings. A mandrel is just a rod to hold the bushings. It can be held in a chuck or morse taper on the headstock end and a live center on the tailstock end. The bushings are stepped to fit inside the pen/pencil tube on one end and to give a smooth fit to the outside diameter of the hardware on the other. That is to give you a reference to turn the blank to.

You then need to be able to provide some pressure to hold everything together while you turn - thread one end of the rod and put a nut on the tail stock end to press against the bushing.

Drill bits you WILL need as the blank needs to be drilled to fit the tube snugly before it is glued in.

[William Mitchell]

Thanks for some good response. I went to the IAP forum and it will take a while to sort through what's there.

I can make bushings fairly easily and also I suppose I could turn between centers. Don't the bushings help define the diameter you're turning to, as well as hold the blank? I could make bushings that will fit the tailstock and be held by the chuck without any mandrel at all.

I would rather make as many of the tools I need as I can.

[Dan Forman]

The idea of turning between centers is to get rid of the mandrel, which can introduce inaccuracy to the work. Yes, the bushings act as a guide to shaping, as well as a means to hold the blank.

If you make your own bushings, they should be able to get them to fit the tubes more precisely than factory bushings, and you can drill them with a center drill (see next paragraph for details) , so that they mate accurately with the dead and live center. You don't have to drill them all the way through, as there is no mandrel to push through them.

I would recommend a dead center rather than a chuck to drive the piece, it will be more accurate, and relatively inexpensive. You will want to pick up a center drill bit (I use a #4, which has a 1/8" x 1/8" point, then widens out to 5/16") , which will allow you to drill 60 degree cones in your blanks for rounding, and your bushings. These will seat the dead and live centers accurately for turning. Center drills are also very handy for starting holes, as they are very short and stiff, so won't flex or wander like a longer drill might. They are also very cheap! Here is what they look like:

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2988&category=

While we're at it, here is a dead center http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=1890&category=

and a selection of live centers: http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_search.php?critFast=live+center&B1=Product+Search

I take the blank off the bushings when I get close to final size, and do the last little bit of shaping without bushings, using a micrometer to check the size, then sand and finish bushingless as well. This saves damaging the bushings (from JohnnyCNC) with the skew or sandpaper, and prevents metal fragments from being sanded into and discoloring light colored blanks. If you go this route, be gentle with tightening the tail stock, as the centers could create a flange in the tube if too much pressure is used. It takes very little pressure to get the dead center to turn the piece, and this has never been a problem for me, just something to watch out for.

There is a lot of info on this technique over at IAP.

Dan

[Mark P. Brown]

Pm me your address and I will send a few blanks to get you started.
Mark