Mandrels

[Bernie Weishapl]

I have a quick question. In my reading of pen making so far Pen Turners Workbook they talk about 7 MM pens and kits. I watched 2 pen turning DVD's but nothing was said in the book or the DVD's about this. There are a couple of pens that I have on my list to order but haven't ordered because I am not sure about it. They take a 8 MM bit and 10 MM bit which I would buy. These kits have the bushings needed included to turn the pen in the kit. So what do you do about the mandrel and mounting the pen? Also if you buy kits from say Arizona Silhouettes, Crafts USA, PSI, Woodcraft, etc. will they fit my Woodcraft 7 MM mandrel? Thanks.

[Raymond Overman]

Most bushing kits fit 7MM mandrels for the pen kits you buy from AZ Sil, CS, Berea, or PSI. I haven't run into a kit requiring an 8MM mandrel.

[John Hart]

Yeah...I agree with Raymond....most of them are trying to standardize the bushings so that one mandrel fits all. However, my current set of bushings for my Flat Top Americans require the larger mandrel and I use it a lot. So, just pay attention to the tooling list of what is required for the particular kit you are buying. (there should always be a list) You have an "A" mandrel.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Gotcha. I will go ahead and order the pen kits I wanted. I want to try a couple of those I think KC was talking about. Thanks for the help.