Turning Pentel Pencils :(

[Trevor Walsh]

Last night I made special drills and mandrels for turning Pentel pencils like Don Ward talks about in a PDF. I'm having major issues though. I've gotten down the drilling, with the 1/4" body diameter, 5/32" tip opening, and 9/32" cap clearance, though I may switch that to 7mm.

The problem I keep having is slippage of the turning mandrels or fracturing of the back end when I turn down to final thickness. I am thinking about buying/making s special mandrel to fit my regular pen turning mandrel just for this purpose. How are you guys getting this to work out so well?

[Ted Calver]

I use a plastic drinking straw split lengthwise to take up the slack on the pen mandrel.

[Trevor Walsh]

I got one to work! instead of trying to mount the blank cut to finished length, I left about a 1/4" on the backside of the wood, glued it to a pin chuck/bushing and turned. Made this one out of Hormingo Negro, I think, if memory serves correctly. My camera died so I'll post a picture in a bit.