Shopsmith Forums

Has anyone ever tried to square a pen blank using their disk sander in the drill press position? I've been having a problem squaring the pen blanks due to the different size diameters of the tubes. I thought that if I drilled them out in the drill press and then mounted the disk sander the ends should come out square to the hole... right?

I use a pen mill, but I don't see why the disk sander won't work if you hold the blank against the miter gauge.

Tango, although I have seen a video somewhere on the web where blanks were trimmed & squared with a sanding disk, like Paul, I use a pen mill also. Penn State sells one that has shafts for 7mm, 8mm and 10mm blanks. A pen mill has the advantage that it also cleans up any dried glue that may have gotten on the inside of the tube, and I would wonder if using a sanding disk wouldn't possibly cause a burr on one side of the tube that could cause problems with pen assembly.

I use my belt sander but I have also used the disc sander. Make sure that the miter gauge is square to the face of the disc both horizontally and that the table is square vertically to the disc. Don't try to feed the disc into the work but lock the quill with the disc about 1/16 inch from the edge of the table. Put the blank against the face of the miter gauge and move the blank toward the disc. If you are squaring a small part use a scrap piece of wood as a miter gauge extension for extra support.
Bill V

Using a pen mill is the way to go in squaring up pen blanks. If you use a disk sander, you'd want to ensure that you're squaring the ends of the blank to the brass tube and not just to the sides of the blank which may not be parallel to the tubes.

For the 7mm tubes, using the horizontal drilling mode, you could mount a 1/4" bolt to a block of wood clamped to the saw table, ensuring that the bolt is perpendicular/squared to the sanding disk. Slip the blank over the bolt and true up the ends.

Alternatively, you could turn the blanks enough to get them round on the pen mandrel and then square the ends with the disk sander, using the miter gauge and saw table to hold the blank square to the disk. This way you're sure that the tubes and the sides of the blanks are parallel.

After drilling the pen blanks and gluing the tubes I drop the SS horizontal and use the disc sander with a squared guide to sand the ends of the blanks. It takes less than a minute to drop the SS and turn the table, and I find I have comfortable control in this configuration. Besides, the next step is turning.

I see everyone's point of view. I have a pen mill with a 7mm and a 8mm bore, but now I need a bigger one! never ends does it? I have also used the disk sander in the sander position, but thought that if I left the SS in drill press mode and mounted the sanding disk I could level it with the blank still mounted from the drilling operation. Haven't tried it yet... I'll let ya know what I find out.

Hopefully and not