6 sided pen blank

[John Terefenko]

I am having a brain malfunction and need some help. I am wanting to make a 6 sided pen blank. I want the six sides to be equal all the way around how do I cut this in a 1" square piece of stock. Length is not an issue. I know how to cut flat stock into six sided objects but not a length of stock. Any clues or photos or tips would be helpful. Thanks.

[Dan Hintz]

Well, it's 60 degrees to a side. You have four flat sides to choose from as a starting point. Set your table to 30 degrees and cut both sides of the blank, keeping the designated "bottom" side on the table. Once those are done, flip the blank over so the "top" is on the table and repeat the process for both sides again. You now have a 6-sided blank.

I could give you the math to determine exact measurements, but it seems some people on here shy away from that. So, keep bumping your fence in so the blade comes out the "side" of the blanks halfway between the "top" and "bottom".

[Bruce Pratt]

Dan, John;

Meaning no disrespect, but I don't think that John's approach will give you a regular hexagon. See attached figure. You will get a hexagon, but the sides will not be equal in length. You can, however, relatively easily achieve a regular hexagon with each side 1/2 the length of the square, in this case, 1/2" inch. You will get a hexagon which is about 65% of the total area.

1. Place points B and C 1/4" to the left and right of the center line of the square, respectively.
2. Lay out the rest of the hexagon; each side will be 1/2" in length.
3. With surface DE down on the saw table, make cut AB.
4. Rotate AB to face down on saw table and continue around the hexagon.

There is a somewhat more complicated approach which will get you a hexagon with about 70% of the total area, but it is probably not worth the extra layout effort.
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Bruce Pratt

[Dan Hintz]

Yep, my bad... forgot to take the square root of 2 into account when figuring side length. Sorry, John, didn't mean to lead you astray :(

But if you cut the blank down just a hair to make the cross-section more rectangular, and then do my method, it should all work out for you. Your blank height should be cos(30) * width.... so if you take a 1" square blank and trim the height down to 0.866", my original method will work without any further measuring.

[Marvin Hasenak]

I use 2, 5C collet hex blocks, with collets for both that will fit your mandrel. Use it with a fence on your bandsaw or router table. The router version will have a rather large pucker factor, but it will work. I do mine on the bandsaw.

They look like this http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21xGwZAWpfL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

You can also make your own version using 2 blocks of wood and set screws to hold the mandrel in place on each end.

Or you could make a index wheel with 6 holes and a wood version of a "lathe" to hold the blank on the mandrel, and do the same thing. If I was making many of them I would go with the collet set up. If I wanted to play with variations I would use the wooden version of a "lathe" so that I could make variable index wheels for whatever I want to accomplish.