Cherry burl fountain pen

[Rob Price]

Kit: Titanium gold Jr Gentleman's II fountain pen
Cherry burl from a buddy's back yard
CA finish
Gift for the MIL for watching the kiddos while the wife and I went scuba diving.

I'm having some concentricity issues, using the "professional" mandrel from woodcraft, I can't quite seem to get it completely true, but I'm guessing it's as good as I'm going to get without stepping up to precision mandrels/bushings. I pretty much make pens as gifts, I'm not selling them, so I'm not going to sweat it.

The big black area near the coupler on the right was a blowout, filled with ebony dust. Couldn't scrap the whole blank, I don't have any more. I don't think anyone will notice if I don't point out since there are black veins through the burl. Several had to be filled with ebony- they went down to the barrel.

Thanks for looking.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-unSerB1AiBc/UJvQoqcMACI/AAAAAAAAB0s/q-eXCogmcOM/s800/IMG_3283.JPG

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-bHntpK00Dew/UJvQpLCMdFI/AAAAAAAAB00/wIe17KLYo_U/s800/IMG_3287.JPG

[Jim Burr]

That a cool chunk of cherry Rob! Any mandrel you use is going to give you an out of round barrel...just the nature of the beast. Look into BTC (Between The Center) turning, some good tutorials on other forums. The machining tollerance is so tight, mine pop when I pull the bushings out.

[Rodney Walker]

Very pretty and a nice fix on the voids. I had to look to spot them even after you told us.
Rodney

[James Combs]

Rob you may have had some issues with making it but it is still a sweet looker. On the concentricity issue have you tried TBC(turning between centers). No special TBC bushings needed especially for higher end pens like that one. If you have a collet chuck just chuck the original bushings up in the appropriate size chuck(chuck on the part that goes inside the brass tube), using a 60* center drill cut a little bevel on the inside of the exposed outer end of the bushings, just enough so they seat real good on your dead and live centers. Install your dead center, install the bushings in the blank, load the blank with bushings to your headstock, bring up the tail-stock and snug it up, don't over tighten. Your concentricity problem is now a non issue. Also you could still use the bushings in the traditional manner if desired. Another advantage is that a catch will typically cause the blank to slip and stop instead of exploding, chipping or other disastrous things. :-). Give it a try and good luck on your next one.

[Rob Price]

Thanks for the input. I'll give it a try.

[Joe Kieve]

Beautiful! I love cherry burl. Agreed...try turning between centers. Will definitely solve concentricity issues.
Keep up the good work.

Joe

[Russell Eaton]

That is a good looking pen. I turn between centers and don't buy bushings. Just use a caliper and the pen components to turn to the correct size. Once again nice pen.

[Rob Price]

Russel, do you just turn cones to fit inside the barrel? What about finishing, does the finish run down over the edge of the blank? I guess you could always clean it up with the skew. I guess it's kinda how I do my pepper mills, I have an oversized cone I chuck up that is ~60 degree that I use to drive the bottom of the mill, and use my 60 degree live center in the top and turn the mill from there. Makes sense it would work on a smaller scale. I'm not sure my current drive center would fit inside a bushing without the spurs making contact. I'll make my own drive cone I guess....

[Scott Lux]

Spectacular!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful pen and burl.