Aluminum

[Tom Stover]

I know its not wood but they were turned on my Delta midi. I have made pens of a lot of different materials and wanted to try something new so I decided on aluminum.I learned several things from this experience including to start with a rod near the finished size :D . I started with a 7/8" rod and needed, probably a 5/8" rod. I also got a lot of practice sharpening my tools. They are about an inch shorter now :eek: .
The top pen is a platinum cigar kit and the bottom is a chrome baron and both are coated with automotive lacquer. Hope you like them.

I hope the pic comes through.

[Tyler Howell]

Well done, Very Nice.

[Lee DeRaud]

Am I missing something obvious or is the really tricky part drilling the hole down the middle?

[Keith Burns]

Those look fantistic but you need to answer some questions. 1. Drilling hole difficult? 2. Did you use some special rod or get it at Home Depot or Lowes. 3. What tool(s) did you use? 4. I assume by your comments it took awhile to turn, about how long ?

Again, those are "COOL".
Thanks

[Tom Stover]

To drill these I used my Talon chuck with the #1 jaws and a jacobs chuck in the tail stock. I got this aluminum rod from a metal supplier because I was told the rods from the borgs was not good for this and because I started with such a large rod it took quite a while. I kept stopping to let everything cool, including my tools. I used a 1/2" spindle gouge and a scraper.

[Don Baer]

Tom,
I've milled my share of Aluminum and here ae a few hints.
1. Try cooling your piece as it is being turned. You can do this by spraying it with a water mist as you are machining it. They even make small mister that hooks up to your compressor for doing this.
2. there are different harness of Aluminum so check with you metal supplier and see if they have a softer grade of Al.
3. What speed did you turn it at. Al should be machined at about 300 surface feet/ minute. On a piece of 5/8 rod that would translate to something over 1834 RPM and for 7/8" use 1310 RPM. So crank up that spindle speed.
4. Don't try to hog it out take your time and remove very small mounts of material at a time. If I were doing it on an NC machine I'd only take out .05" for roughing and about .02" for finishing
5. I wouldn't use hardened steel for this I'd proubably use carbide tipped.

Good luck happy turning

PS Great looking pens.

I recalulated the spindle speed my math error Pi x Dia not dia (My bad).

[Von Bickley]

Great looking pens... ;)

[Keith Burns]

Thanks for the info guys ! I'm going to have to try it. (May be awhile). This is what I like about this forum !

[Tom Stover]

Darn Don, I wish I had talked to you before I started this, but I was told what type of aluminum I needed by the distributor and he told me to drill it and turn it as fast as I could. While I didn't get the aluminum real hot I could feel the heat in my chuck. If I had started with a 5/8" rod I may have taken my time more but I'm impatient and I did hog it out. A mist would have been great since the temp was around 95 here.

[Gary Max]

Heck Tom you could of got the wife to spray you and the lathe down with the garden hose. Great looking pens.

[Ernie Nyvall]

Good job Tom. Those are really nice.

Ernie

[Don Baer]

If your going to do much Al I'd invest in 1 of these.

http://www.grainger.com/images/products/6Y845.JPG



There <$100 and your can get them from either Grainger or MacMaster Carr

[Tom Stover]

Thanks Gary, I bet you could have used a sprinkler last weekend.
Don, I don't tkink I will be doing a lot of them. but it was challanging and different.

[John Hart]

There sure is a lot to be said for trying something different! Those pens are very cool Tom. I'm impressed that you saw it through to the end. Very nice!:)

[Dawn Sunkle]

Great job :)

For those interested in trying it there is a great article at penturners.org about Making Aluminum Pens. Its well written. I have thought about trying it several times.. but so far I haven't jumped on in to give it a try.

Tom you did a great job. Thanks for posing. I just might have to give it a try after all. :)

Dawn