Pen turning 101

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Tue May 31, 2011 11:40 am

I just picked up the same drill chuck. It's a great addition. Now I just need a scroll chuck. For round stock 1/2 inch or less I now use my regular drill chuck and my new tail stock chuck for center drilling. This makes squaring much easier. What an improvement.

farley · Post by **farley** » Tue May 31, 2011 10:15 pm

thanks to this thread, I have made quite a few pens.

here is a pix of some of them.

also make pens for the troops (Freedom Pens) through the local wood turning club.

the biggest problem I have is drilling straight. I am going to try next using my teknatool chuck. Does anyone know if I put the wood in the center and tighten will it hold?

Did some acrylic turning also and a couple of inlay wood ones.

thanks all-

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:36 am

Assuming the teknatool chuck is one of the Nova self centering scroll chucks, you shouldn't have any problems holding on to the blank. They're designed to hold on to bowl blanks. Mount the blank in the chuck, mount the drill chuck on a 2MT in the tail stock align and your drilling should be much straighter. One of these days I'll get a scroll chuck.

farley · Post by **farley** » Sun Jun 05, 2011 2:15 pm

got my 2mt for the tail stock within the week from SS. glad it came so quick.

used it with my teknatool and it was much better on drilling straight. also the speed of each drilling was faster than my other way of drilling. set up is easier than the horizontal way of drilling.

Shop_Smith_Poppi · Post by **Shop_Smith_Poppi** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:33 pm

farley wrote:thanks to this thread, I have made quite a few pens.

here is a pix of some of them.

also make pens for the troops (Freedom Pens) through the local wood turning club.

the biggest problem I have is drilling straight. I am going to try next using my teknatool chuck. Does anyone know if I put the wood in the center and tighten will it hold?

Did some acrylic turning also and a couple of inlay wood ones.

thanks all-

Ok I would like to see pictures of your inlays and a description of how you did them.

farley · Post by **farley** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:13 pm

the picture above bottom row, last two on the right.
also attached it

the first one I just did a cross cut of the blank at an angle and then glued a thin piece of wood in it's place. biggest problem is having the wood the thinkness of the saw cut.

the second was more work.
before drilling the hole I cut length-wise a curved cut.
then I soaked veneer in boiling water for about 30 minutes to make it flexiable.
then I put in on the blank and clamped it.
then when dry I glued the piece right back in and clamped it.
then drilled hole and turned.

mrhart · Post by **mrhart** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 10:06 am

Sir super nice job...patience is your gift

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 11:46 am

I took the inspiration form farley and came up with this.
[ATTACH]13308[/ATTACH]

Similar process but since the curve was not severe soaking was not required.

Scroll sawed a pine blank and clamped and glued 2 strips of walnut veneer for some color. Slimline in satin gold, finish is CA glue (Super glue) sanded to 600 then polished with Maguire's scratchX

Thanks for the inspiration farley.

farley · Post by **farley** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 11:53 am

I like it, I'm going steal the design.

it's simple and a lot less work.

terrydowning · Post by **terrydowning** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 12:00 pm

Thanks, I like it too. Pine is a bear to turn though, super sharp tools are required because of the tear out. If using pine, turn until proud of the bushings and then get to final diameter with 80 or 100 grit sand paper, it takes a bit longer but you'll have a better result. You may also want to stabilize the pine as you go by applying liberal amounts of thin CA and letting dry.

I recommend Maple, ash or poplar for the lighter wood. I used pine for a very specific reason in this pen. I may use pine in the future for prototyping new designs as well because it is cheap.