Pen Mandrels

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

As I have a couple hundred pen blanks laying around :rolleyes: I figured I should get onto this pen thing before the Christmas rush (8 months away!).

I want to buy a pen Mandrel, I'm leaning towards the Lee Valley one, as I want to order some other stuff from them as well.

The 7mm seems to be the size to get, any other things I should know?

Cheers!

[Frank Fusco]

There's tons more things you might want to know. Suggest you join a good pen forum like The Pen Shop

[Lars Thomas]

Stu, David Fried put together a nice post on this . . .http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=34345 (post 7). Lee Valley has some nice kits. I prefer their cigar style pens (rather then the slim-lines.) While you are ordering, consider picking ups some arcylic blanks - they turn out great. Lars

[Adam Howard]

Hi Stu!

You're bound to love pen turning!

Two excellent sources for pen kits are:

www.arizonasilhouette.com (http://www.arizonasilhouette.com)

www.woodturnerscatalog.com (http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com)

Yeah, get some of those acrylics. They're fun and easy, and you don't need to apply a finish. Get the micro-mesh kit and wet-sand them to like 12,000 grit. In the micro-mesh, you can get the 5" discs instead of the little foam backed pads and save a bundle. It's like a two-fer.

Have fun,

Adam.

[Stu Ablett in Tokyo Japan]

Thanks for the info guys.

I'll stick to wood, as I have a few to use up.........

http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/images/jackpot/annex/box_o_pen_blanks.jpg

Yep, that whole bucket is full of pen blanks..... :D

(some of the ones on top are keychain blanks ;))