Turning Kallenshaan Woods Inlay

[john snowdon]

I'm about to turn my first inlay kit for a pen I hope to give to my wife for Christmas. I prepared the blank today and drenched the inlay area with CA. As this is my 1st time trying this and it's an expensive blank ($24), I was wondering if anyone has any hints on turning this, i.e. lathe speed, finishing techniques, etc.

I appreciate any help offered!

Best holidays to all!

[John Terefenko]

I'm about to turn my first inlay kit for a pen I hope to give to my wife for Christmas. I prepared the blank today and drenched the inlay area with CA. As this is my 1st time trying this and it's an expensive blank ($24), I was wondering if anyone has any hints on turning this, i.e. lathe speed, finishing techniques, etc.

I appreciate any help offered!

Best holidays to all!



I recently did this one of his.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/JTTHECLOCKMAN/TurnersPen.jpg

My suggestions are to mount the blank and to take some 220 grit paper and sand all the high spots and CA glue off. This gets the blanks truely round with out any catch points. I then took my skew which is very sharp and used this to shape the pen blank. Taking very light cuts. Speed is not a matter. I did not change speed from whatever I use to do other pens. It is somewhere in the high mid range. The one thing you need to do and this should be done with all pen blanks is to measure the kit parts you are using before you rely on those damn bushings.. Then use your calipers to hone in on the exact measurements needed. Those are not cheap kits. I then did a CA finish as I always do. Good luck and post the photos.

[john snowdon]

Thanks for the quick reply, John. I really like the idea about sanding it round again. I decided to try this after seeing the beautiful pictures you posted of your inlays . They turned out great! This is probably a bit beyond my skill level but I thought I'd give it a go. Thanks for the help!

[Jim McFarland]

John covered the turning aspects -- only thing I would add is don't use a barrel trimmer to square the blank to the tubes. Sanding mill is a better alternative if you have one. You can install jacobs chuck & transfer punch in the tailstock with MDF on a faceplate + a small piece of 120g adhesive backed sandpaper on the MDF faceplate to get similar effects as a sanding mill. Photo shows collet chuck in the tailstock but you get the idea.

[Greg Ketell]

I like this!! I actually already have all the parts needed.
Thank you!

[john snowdon]

Excellent! Thanks.

[John Terefenko]

John covered the turning aspects -- only thing I would add is don't use a barrel trimmer to square the blank to the tubes. Sanding mill is a better alternative if you have one. You can install jacobs chuck & transfer punch in the tailstock with MDF on a faceplate + a small piece of 120g adhesive backed sandpaper on the MDF faceplate to get similar effects as a sanding mill. Photo shows collet chuck in the tailstock but you get the idea.



Good point Jim. I missed that one. Yes do not barrel trim the ends you will get a catch and blow it up. I do the same thing with the transfer punches. I found more uses for those things. I went and bought 4 sets at HF when they were on sale.

[Jim Burr]

John covered the turning aspects -- only thing I would add is don't use a barrel trimmer to square the blank to the tubes. Sanding mill is a better alternative if you have one. You can install jacobs chuck & transfer punch in the tailstock with MDF on a faceplate + a small piece of 120g adhesive backed sandpaper on the MDF faceplate to get similar effects as a sanding mill. Photo shows collet chuck in the tailstock but you get the idea.

Jim, if time permits, I'd like to see more pic's of your set up, speeds and such and what materials/equipment you use. Thanks and Merry Christmas!!

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

Here, here on the encouragement to Jim Macfarland to show more of his techniques. I make quite a few pens as a hobby and new or different ways to do it are always welcome!

[Jim McFarland]

Jim, if time permits, I'd like to see more pic's of your set up, speeds and such and what materials/equipment you use. Thanks and Merry Christmas!!

Photo was the 1st I found last night and is an early version of the sanding setup I use. I've made a few improvements since: laminate on the MDF to improve durability and for speed using a dedicated shortened pen mandrel on #2 MT in the tailstock. I use the milling sleeves specific to each pen type to hold the blank square. I turn on a JET 1220 and sand blank ends at 1800 RPM. To be clear, this is a slow process for squaring/cleaning blank ends that I only use on the expensive/fragile inlay blanks. I still use a barrel trimmer in a drill press for most other squaring operations.

My most common use of this setup is cleaning excess CA off blank ends after finishing. I use cone bushings when applying CA (I apply CA at 760 RPM and you can search eliminator at penturnersproducts.com for commercially available versions of the cone bushings) and the sanding setup to clean the excess CA. I could never find a good way to keep CA off regular bushings so this process works best for me.

I also suggest joining IAP (penturners.org) -- you can find dozens of techniques re penturning if you're serious about the hobby. Most every pen making technique I use came from an idea posted on IAP. FYI, an IAP member (not me! and no affiliation) sells dedicated sanding mills in the classifieds section of IAP if you don't want to bother with the MDF on a faceplate route.