Composite wood railing w/a twist

[Dale Lynch]

Hi fellas,add this one to the list of usefull materials.Composite wood railing.My hapkido instructor gave it to me to see if I could do anything with it.It was leftovers from a deck he just built.I went with a 3 sided twist this time.C&C welcome.

 

[Charlie69]

I think the composites kinda cool looking. Be cool to do a twist pen with a "traditional" section and nose cone.

 

[Charlie_W]

Interesting Dale!
Congrats on getting this to completion.
Did you run into any particular problems with this material? Is it slightly flexible due to its composition? Sanding issues?

 

[Dale Lynch]

Thanks fellas.
By traditional you mean like with threads and stuff?First one I did with a kit section and coupler.Once the cap gets over tightened the ribs never line up again.

This stuff is flexable and abrading.I could not turn it with HSS,takes the edge off in one pass.I switched to a carbide tool and it cut like butter.Drilling is easy,gets a little gummy with heat.Slow to sand which I like.

Gonna offer my instructor the pen for the other 69 feet.

 

[Skie_M]

That stuff should handle like stabilized resin cast wood chips, just very very small chips and pointed every which way. I'm surprised that HSS can't handle it very well, I was more concerned about how it would take finishing, since the wood grain would be oriented randomly and would stain unevenly or soak up a finish unevenly.


Did you apply a CA finish?

 

[Dale Lynch]

I was suprized as well.Went at it with a rougher,spindle gouge,oval and flat skews, and a parting tool.It just rounded the edge right over.This is just sanded to klingspor 320 and buffed with antique nortom tripoli compound.

 

[Charlie_W]

Dale, is the red dot for alignment purposes? Is there a matching one on the pen body as well?
I remember seeing a dot on your other twisted pen.

 

[Dale Lynch]

Yes there are dots for alignment.while the dots themselves are't perfect they still identify which side faces which.

 

[ttm7]

very nice