Ok, Pen Gurus

[John Leech]

Let me start off by saying that I swear I'm not making this up. I started making 2 Parker-style twist pens from Rockler today. The first one (cocobolo) turned out just fine. The second one (box elder) had a problem from the get go. I drilled the hole for the brass tube with a brand new drill bit...the same one I'd used on the cocobolo pen, but on the box elder pen the brass tubes bound up halfway through the blank. What gives? How can a brand new drill bit drill a hole that is narrower in the middle? I have a sneaky suspiscion that the wood is to blame. Any thoughts on the matter...especially solutions?

Thanks, John

[Noah Alkinburgh]

John,

I am not a guru, but I would agree, most likely the Box elder shrunk on you. Hopefully you did not use CA glue and were able to get the tube back out. I use a poly glue for mine and had some trobles with this on my last set too. What I did was use a scap block and press the blank down very hard onto the tube. Don't pound down on the tube our you could bend the edges of the tube causing even more problems later. If you just cant get enought force pressing down you could use another scap block on top of the pens and use a mallet (a hammer if you are me ;) ) to GENTLY tap the blank down onto the tube.

Best of luck.


Noah