Firat Post here & First Pens

[Mark Stutz]

No, you guys are not hallucinating! Although I usually hang out in Neander Land, I usually look thru all the forums, especially to see new projects. Never dissappointed here!

Believe it or not, I do own a spinny thing, and have even been known to do a bowl or two. This weekend I decided to try some pen kits I got some time ago when Woodcraft had a bag sale. Spent lots of time here and elsewhere reading about how to do this.

Everything went well to start. Got the blanks drilled without blowing out the side! Got the mandrel on with the bushings correct. Not too much pressure, so the mandrel doesn't bow. (See, I did do my homework!:D ) I even used my skew to do most of the work!

Sanded to 2500 grit (brown paper bag), then 3 coats of CA/BLO finish, polished again to 2500 and then buffed.

Then came the hard part:( ! Assembly! The directions were terrible. More parts than they had in the drawing! I finally got it figured out, and promptly left one out of the first. It will still work and most won't tell the difference. The second one,,,well...I reversed the tubes:mad: :eek: :o . It looks great...it just won't work.

Great lessons learned! At least they were on sale.;)

Several questions, though. 1. How fast do you turn pens...as fast as you dare? 2. How do you square the ends, and trim to exact length?

Thanks for letting me share.

[Jim Dunn]

Well Mark I don't see no plane marks on those. But I do see alot of plane shavings. Gotta take off points cause you still got that galoot about ya:)
Where's the pictures of the lathe those were done on??

[Corey Hallagan]

Way to go Mark those are great looking cigars and I did the same darn thing on my first cigar switching the blanks around. I usually rough turn on the second gear( don't know the rpm and kick it up to the about 2000 to do most of the pen. I trim my blanks close on the table saw and then finish them up with a pen mill on the drill press. Nice job!

corey

[David Klug]

Mark I usually cut them down on the RAS and then after drilling and glueing the inserts I sand them down on the SS disk sander. Works good.

DK

[Steve Clardy]

Good to see you posting Mark. Been a while--------------------:)

[Randy Meijer]

.....Several questions, though. 1. How fast do you turn pens...as fast as you dare? 2. How do you square the ends, and trim to exact length?

You will most likely get as many different answers as the number of people whom you ask. I've seen a lot of answers to this question and they range from 1500-3000 RPMs. Only thing I know to tell you is try different speeds and see what suites your style best. Some folks say they adjust the speed a little depending upon the type of wood. So far, i haven't gotten good enough to be able make that fine a distinction. I do all of my pens at 2630. That is one step below the max speed on my Jet mini. The available speeds are: 500, 840, 1240, 1800, 2630, and 3975. If you can believe it, I chose that speed because the lathe sounded most comfortable at that speed.(and recommended by a friend) Now that I have a reasonable amount of pen experience, I have been meaning to go back and try out some of the other speeds to see how they work......but haven't found the time yet.

There are any number of ways to final trim the blanks and square the faces. Without a doubt, the two best and most accurate methods are the pen mill and the disk sander with a squaring jig,....just using the mitre gage that comes with the saw won't do. It you are interested, I can look up a link to a plan for a jig hat is posted on one of the pen crafting forums. You can also purchase such a jig from PSI; but i am not sure it is as good as one that you build for yourself. Personally, I use a pen mill. You can get a 3/4" mill with a 7 mm pilot. If you do other than 7 mm pens, you can either purchase additional pilots or sleeves of the apropriate size or you can turn your own sleeves. Some folks have trouble with pen mills. Either they are not properly sharpened and won't cut when new or they get dull and folks don't know how to resharpen them properly. They are not cheap enough to be throw-away items for most folks so you have to learn how to sharpen them, Randy

[Mark Stutz]

Thanks, guys.

Jim...I had to put the shavings in the picture to let the guys over in Neanderland know I haven't completely gone crazy!:eek: ;) :D I'll see if I can dig up a pic or two of the spinner.

Corey...It's nice to know I'm in good company. Don't think I'll ever make that mistake again!

David...a disc sander was suggested in the instructions, but I don't have one.

Steve...Thanks. I've been to the Creek very little this summer, and even less shop time. Too many things on my plate!:(

Randy...Thanks. I actually have a pen mill, but couldn't see that it did anything other than scrape off the excess CA on the end of the blank. The one I have has a threaded end on it, but what does it thread on to? I thought of chucking it into a hand drill but that made me nervous (that little voice that says don't do this!) but, Corey, I never thought of the drill press. Any other hints on using one? Thanks.

Mark

[Corey Hallagan]

Mark, I think most of the cigar pens are 10mm tubes so you will need a pen mill that that has a 10mm rod to clean out the tube as you say and then the mill at the top needs to be 3/4 inch to mill the ends ot the blanks correctly. Mark just chuck it up, slip the pen blank on it and turn the drill press on and ream it up and down to remove the glue and then gently push the blank up into the mill cutter to square the ends to the tube. This lets the finished turn blanks be square to the pen parts. I hope this helps Mark. I just trim them up on the table saw ( if they are not warped ) and then trime them to about 1/16 away from the tube ends. Then use the trimmer to mill it down to where it just kisses the tubes on the end for a nice fit!

Corey

[Jim Dunn]

Jim...I had to put the shavings in the picture to let the guys over in Neanderland know I haven't completely gone crazy!:eek: ;) :D I'll see if I can dig up a pic or two of the spinner.

I can assure you that a small amount of plane shavings aren't going to save you from the ribbing you'll take over on the dark side. Besides as soon as the lathe has a hold of ya, your done. Only thing that will redeem you in their eyes is a tredle lathe:eek::p

[Tyler Howell]

Resist the dark side, it's spin crack........Oh yah I'm on this side:o .
Well done Mark.

TJH

[jeremy levine]

What does " Sanded to 2500 grit (brown paper bag)" this mean ( the bag part )

[Jim Becker]

Welcome to the abyss, Mark...FORMER Neander... ;)

[Mark Stutz]

Jeremy,
In my research of various forums, I found several references to using brown paper bag material as a final, "buffing" step. It apparently is about equivalent to 2500 grit sandpaper, if you could get sandpaper grit that small. If I remember correctly, it is about equal to 12,000 micromesh, but I don't have any micromesh.

Mark

[jeremy levine]

Jeremy,
In my research of various forums, I found several references to using brown paper bag material as a final, "buffing" step. It apparently is about equivalent to 2500 grit sandpaper, if you could get sandpaper grit that small. If I remember correctly, it is about equal to 12,000 micromesh, but I don't have any micromesh.

Mark

Thanks - I must once again review the grit tables.

[Mark Cothren]

Nice pens, Mark!

We met at Terry Hatfield's last fall. I'm the short, skinny red-headed guy...:o well, 1 out of 3 of those, anyway...:D

[Ernie Nyvall]

Welcome Mark and nice looking pens. Randy mentioned what I do to square them up... the pen mill and the disk sander.