Trouble with acrylic pen

[Travis Teichmann]

Hello to my fellow turners! I hope you have a great Easter weekend planned. I have a couple of questions since I'm a newbie to turning wood. BTW, this slope is extremely slippery and fun.:D

1. When turning acrylic pens (Woodcraft Slimline is all I tried so far) I have had some problems with the brass tube showing thru in numerous spots on a couple of the pens. Am I doing something wrong or is it just a function of the color not penetrating all the way to the center of the cast blanks (store bought)? I know these spots are not thinner than the rest of the blank because we turned these on my friends metal lathe.

2. Would it be unreasonable/unsafe to use a 3 or 4 jaw 4" metal lathe chuck in the mini Steel City Lathe (just purchased and started playing with it)? I have found a few chucks on auction sites for reasonable fees, more so than a new scroll chuck and they seem to be a little more versatile. I also plan to purchase a jacobs drill chuck w/MT2.

[Jon Lanier]

3"-4" Jaws should work fine on a mini lathe.

If the brass tube is showing through, then you need to paint your tubes a similar color or white before putting them into them your blank.

[Bernie Weishapl]

What Jon said. Sand your tubes and paint lightly with white.

[Greg Ketell]

Paint the tube, paint the inside of the blank after drilling it, tint the epoxy glue. Anything less and the you might get splotching. Fingernail polish works great. Some folks use spray paint sprayed into a cup and then cotton swabbed into/onto place.

GK

[Ben Gastfriend]

I agree with them- paint the tubes.

If you are doing alot, or don't like the hassle, there are pre-painted ones availiable, for quite some dough. :(

[Wayne Kuhn]

Permanent marking pens work in a pinch, however the ca glue will dissolve it. I will do several coats with a marker (the color of the blank) and have had success.
Here is a video showing a dye being used that is available at Woodcraft.
Good Luck,
Wayne K
Columbia, MD

http://content.penturners.org/video/epr_bucks_1.wmv

[Rich Souchek]

Travis,
Woodturners (we) usually use scrolling 4 jaw chucks because they self-center objects they grip. This is especially important if the object is removed from the chuck, then returned.
Most of the cheap 3 or 4 jaw chucks were designed and used in metal turning, were a lot of effort is spent centering material. Yes, they will work, but no they are not easy nor fast.
If you want to find out more about chucks, try some searches here, they are weel covered.
Rich S.

[Travis Teichmann]

Thanks for the tips on painting the tubes, I hadn't thought of that. It almost seems too simple, I normally make it harder than it should be. I'll also take time to do more research on chucks before I go plop down some money. What a great forum! Thanks again.

[Jon Lanier]

Thanks for the tips on painting the tubes, I hadn't thought of that. It almost seems too simple, I normally make it harder than it should be. I'll also take time to do more research on chucks before I go plop down some money. What a great forum! Thanks again.

Travis,

Go to Walmart and purchase thier $1 spray paints...several colors and keep them on hand. Make a little dowel jig to set the tubes on so when you spray your tubes they are not falling down and rolling away.

[Travis Teichmann]

That's a great idea Jon! Set up a small board with some dowels, slip the brass tubes over them and paint them to match. See...I knew you more experienced turner's would have a simple solution. Thanks again. I'll be in the shop now.:)