New to Pen Turning

[Chuck Fischer]

So I got a video on pen turning at the woodworking show this past weekend in <st1:city><st1 ="">Chicago</st1></st1:city>. I ordered the pen starter kit from penstate, so I'm going to be making some pens for Christmas. Any advice? What was the one thing that you've learned that’s really helped you in your turning? I'm new to turning, but I'm confident I can pick it up ok. Most pen blanks are stabilized right? If I want to use wood from my wood pile or scraps, do I need to stabilize them in any way?

Chuck

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Chuck, I have never made a pen from a stabalized blank and I would say that most are NOT stabalized. With good sharp tools, most any blank can be turned.

The number one thing I have learned is patience! I glue up all my tubes to the blanks with Poly glue. It holds MUCH better than CA and I have VERY few blow outs.

The number two thing I have learned is that you don't need all the fancy tools, but you do need a pen mill.

[Chris Barton]

1) Sharp tools are more important than anything else.
2) Jeff is right, get a pen mill set and be done with it, get a set that has all the possible sizes. Woodcraft has these as well as other distributors.
3) "Rub the bevel" is the most impostant concept in woodturning, take it to heart, understand it and master it, if you do then you have 70% of turning mastered.
4) Urethane glue for pen barrels is 100 times better than CA but, it is 10,000 times slower. Plan to glue up barrels the day before you plan to turn.
5) Friction polish is fast to apply and fast to wear off. Use lacquer or other strong finish if you want the shine to last.
6) Life is too short to turn bad wood. Anything that needs 6oz of CA to hold it together should be firewood.
7) Buy a "woodturners" box special of sand paper from Klingspor. For less than $40 you will have nearly a lifetimes supply of high quality sandpaper.
8) While handmade wooden pens are beautiful and rare, most people will not pay you what they are worth, give them as gifts.
9) You can never have enough gouges and HSS is the only kind of steel to get.
10) Get a good "helment-style" flip down facemask. Your eyes are not replaceable and it always hurts when somthing flys off the lathe at about 1,000 mph and hits you in the face.

[John Hart]

All suggestions so far are good. The only thing I have to add is related to your first few pens. I am very new at this m'self and found that I probably shouldn't have given my first few pens away. In fact, I wish I could get them back!! They were no where near the quality of the pens I turned a few weeks later...plus, they were my first. (I should have kept them as keepsakes) This is, of course, in my most humble opinion. Good luck in your quest for excellence Chuck!!:)

[Harry Pye]

The only thing I would add to all the good advice you have gotten is: Practice! There is no other way to be confident in what you are doing. Make mistakes (and we all have made them!) on junk wood. When you get comfortable with the basics, make a pen.

And you can use a scraper and you can use sandpaper. Don't be upset because your turning buddy starts sanding at 220 grit. Eighty or a hundred grit is OK if it helps you make the finished product better.

But the most important advise is to just have fun.

[Chuck Fischer]

Thanks for all the advice guys... I haven't gotten my starter kit yet, but I did make some small ornaments last year and I can say that I didn't do too badly. I should show you guys some of them... maybe later. Anyway, I had this log sitting in my shop and I figured I might be able to make some pens out of it. So I thought I would cut some blanks. How should I orient the grain when cutting the blanks out? Is there a secret to it? What produces the nicest looking pens?

The starter kit I got has a bunch of blanks coming with it, so I might save this stuff for when I get a little better at it. This came from a tree I helped a buddy cut down in his back yard. This stuff is dense. I think its Mountain Ash... but if not, it’s some kind of ornamental tree. I don't have any pics of the leaves unfortunately. Here is a pic.

http://www.chazmonro.com/photos/pen.jpg

Thanks again guys,
Chuck

[Randy Meijer]

The live center that came with your lathe probably has a point with a 30° included angle and will not work well with your pen mandrel. It would be best if you purchased a live center designed for metal work that has an included angle of 60°. They are available from a number of sources for about $20. Some catalogs have heavy duty live centers that run to $50; but they really aren't necessary for turning pens. I got mine at www.littlemachineshop.com (http://www.littlemachineshop.com) .

[John Hart]

If it were me Chuck....I would cut my blanks at an angle, maybe 25 degrees so that the grain sorta swirled in a long graceful pattern through the length of the pen. Looks like you'd get quite a few out of that piece. Try to cut so that you get full 5" pieces. If it were me. Totally the artist's taste!

[Robert Cepek]

My advice follows two important things I have learned.

1.) Sharp tools
2.) Square up your blanks
2a.) I use a table saw to square my blanks. Works great for me and I
don't have to go out and buy the pen mill kit.

Just my 2 cents

[Chuck Fischer]

Well only got one blank out of that piece so far. The wood wasn't that interesting like you guys said, but I did get some other interesting blanks from the same log.

http://www.chazmonro.com/photos/pen2.jpg

I'll do some practice pens first before I even attempt to do these, I think these will be more meaningful as gifts because I actually cut this tree down.

What do you guys think of these blanks? Not bad for the firewood pile eh?

Chuck

[Harry Pye]

One correction to what Robert said. A table saw is fine for squaring up wood to be used with furniture but may not be the best for pens. The idea of the pen mill is to make the ends of the blank square to the brass tubes. Since you never know how the drill bit may wander the brass tubes may not be exactly square with the ends and parallel to the sides.

When the ends are square to the tubes, the pen with assemble without gaps at the joints.

[Ron Parsons]

Well Eagle talked me into doing a sled for my TS and for square pen stock I will never go back to the BS. Just a much nicer set-up but you are right that in the end the important thing is to be square to the tube. But when you can square up nice when you are cutting the blanks it makes the finish with the cutter easyer.

[Harry Goodwin]

I own a pen mill set and only use it to clean out the glue from the tubes. Any kind of sander set up square with a jig works great. stop when you touch the brass. Harry

[Scott Coffelt]

#1 Mistakes happen
#2 For me #1 is all too frequent
#3 Rough up the brass tubes with sandpaper before gluing
#4 I hated slim pens, and liked Mont Blunc type better
#5 Leave room for sanding when turning
#6 Uses lots of sander paper
#7 Let glue dry over night, I usually got in a hurry with pens

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Great advice Scott! I agree with all of them but number 4 :) I like the slim lines :)

Chuck, looks like you got some decent wood out of the firewood. I made up a pen for a friend from trees in their yard. They thought it was really neato!

[Chuck Fischer]

Thanks for the advice guys, this stuff is like gold. What did we do before the internet?

I'm all ready to turn some pens, but my order I placed with Penstate over a week ago has still not been shipped, I'm wondering if it will ever come. I better check to see if they already charged my credit card. Who do you guys usually order from?

I love the mill.
Chuck