Turning a Pen

Any more goading and I am going to have to drop $500 on a video camera instead of a bandsaw or a performax sander….lol I’ll watch the video when I get home tonight. I’m sure it will be up to your normal high quality standard.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

the visual is a nice addition to the written tutorial. Now I can watch the video and take the notes into the shop with me.. well, that’s if I was going to actually make a pen that is.

Well done Tom and Wayne.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Hear hear! I actually dusted off the pen kits because of Wayne, and although I have turned a hundred or so pens, learned something from this CSS offering. Go Lumberjocks! Hurrah Wayne and Tom.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

Thanks for this… having made some of these recently I was easily able to follow along, and picked up a couple of great tips!

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Great video Tom. I really like your spindle master. I’ll have to look into getting one of them.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Thanks guys. Once you get the hang of the spindlemaster, it’s a VERY slick tool. I was telling Douglas about really hating the thing when I first got it. I gave it all of about 3 minutes to formulate that opinion. Then I took a closer look at it, watched a video or two of the tool in action and then spent another 4 minutes with it. It’s now the go-to tool for finishing cuts between centres. It has the finesse of the skew and the ease of a 1/2” bowl gouge. It’s really a nice tool to turn with. The sorby site recommends just honing the top of the tool. I’ve had better luck grinding the bevel.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

That’s great Tom! I’m inspired to go out and start pen turning! Great gift ideas.

Anybody have recommendations on a relatively inexpensive lathe? I’ve used them in the past but never owned. I’m in the Toronto area (East side) so have access to a fair number of makes and models. Let me know what you’d recommend.

I’m also going to figure out a workshop configuration that lets me have a monitor, keyboard and mouse on/near my work bench. You guys are full of great inspiration and would be great to be able to surf in the shop.

Scott

-- Scott, Pickering/Ajax, ON

there’s a big woodworking machinery show coming to Toronto in October…. maybe you’d see a lot of options there.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Scott, it depends on what you want to turn. I have a Jet mini lathe and an 1940s delta. The jet is great for small projects.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Scott, depending on your proximity to your main computer, I put a keyboard monitor and mouse in my shop using a CAT5 KVM extender. So I run my display off the secondary display on my graphics card, then run a secondary keyboard and mouse in the shop. The whole mess is connected with just CAT5 cable. Saves alot of headaches as the only thing worth any money is the monitor. I used this one: LINKAGE=

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Another great video presentation, Mot! Thanks.

-- Jesus is Lord!

Tom, have we seen pictures of your monitor/keyboard setup?

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Debbie, nope. I’m going to blog the process and the setup once I get placement finalized. Stay tuned.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Well done Mot. Amazing how fast and simple that was. Other than waiting for the glue to dry, everything else was in real time wasn’t it? If you had your blanks glued up ahead of time, you could probably do 3-4 an hour that way.

LJTV is coming right along. You only have to create another 23.75 hours of videos to fill up the day. Going into a looping rerun, that could would cover the first 3-4 days of the month. About another 5-6 days of worth of video and away we go.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

LOL…get crackin with the video camera Bill! I’ll need help. Yes, all the turning and assembly was in real time. Had I used gap filling CA with accelerator, the entire thing would have been real time. So blank to pen in under an hour.

Cheers!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

I use gap filling CA and can do 2-3 an hour if I am cranking. Also you can set up production line style processes if you want. Cut and drill 10 blanks, glue, turn and finish, then assemmble as a group.

-- We must guard our enthusiasm as we would our life - James Krenov

Sounds like we have some pen factories here!!!! Way to go Mot and Wayne.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Almost sounds like work, Wayne! Mind you, the first pen that came off the assembly line at K and T Woodworking was greeted with some enthusiasm by my wife. “What great gifts! Can you make some boxes?” She’s related to half the eastern sea board so I may need to take Wayne’s direction of assembly line production into action. I may have to stop toodling around watching the tiny whisps come off the spindlemaster though. That can take a long time with all the finicky stuff that is purely self indulgent. LOL

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

oh such enthusiasm!!!! SWEET

I’m going to go check out the family tree to see if I’m related!! :D

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Tom

I just started making these myself and having a blast doing it. These are easy to make and are great gifts. The video is well done and easy to follow along. The guy who showed me had a few different techniques but its always nice to see how other people do each step. I like how you chucked up the blanks to trim the barrels.
NICE WORK !

-- Bob A in NJ

tom – thanks for the video – nice camera work. I have turned a few pens (not many) never seen the “drill out” you did after the epoxy step or that little press at the end.

I am wanting to get a lathe to do these little projects, but one thing at a time…. nice lathe too (as I remember from your video shop tour).

Mike

-- Mike - Columbus, Ohio

Thanks, Bob and Mike…I’m glad you liked the vid. Mike, the lathe is pretty sweet. It’s the highest end floor tool in the shop.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

139 days later…i finally watched…I CAN DO THIS…going to watch your other videos…but this looks really fun…I have not used my lathe yet…but this looks great…great job on the video…

-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...

Great video!

great video. I’ve never seen pen turning before, but I’ve heard about it. Thanks. I learned a lot!

-- Rich, Seattle, WA