Executive Inlay Pen - New process

[mrrichieboy]

I've admired the Eagle blanks for quite some time. Had attempted to do them by hand last fall, holding the blank against the band saw blade, but they were too inconsistent. After thinking aboout it for some time, I finally built a jig earlier this month which seems to do the trick. The pen is and Executive Chrome, body is Blythe Desert Ironwood. Inlays are Ebony and Padauk. Finished to 12,000mm and 12 coats of CA, buffed out with PlastX.---Rich

 

[boxerman]

Wow very nice pen.

 

[The_Foo]

Nice! I love the contrasting colors. That's a coincidence, I bought a band saw this weekend and was just downstairs making my first Celtic knot on it thinking that I need to make some kind of jig for it. How did you cut the inlay material? The band saw is a lot thinner than the table saw blade I use, which is how I usually make my Celtic knots and was wondering if this would make it more difficult to cut.

 

[76winger]

Very Nice!!!

 

[jeff1w30]

nice!

So lets see the jig!

 

[mrrichieboy]

So lets see the jig!

OK, so here's the jig...It is attached via the miter slot bar (bought that at Woodcraft). It has about 2" of travel horizontially across the band saw table and locks down with the two hand screws you see. It has about 4" of Vertical movement and the same hand screw sets the rotation which is a complete 360. The last hand screw holds the pen blank in place. Will probably redo the holder by cutting and welding instead of bending. Will give it a truer surface and will do a couple of others to handle bottle stopper blocks and long pens such as 1-piece cigars. Also built a stop lock for the miter slot to control the depth. Base is 1/2" plywood...the rest is Hard Maple and Chechen. Holder is mild steel bought at Home Depot.---Rich

 

[mrrichieboy]

Nice! I love the contrasting colors. That's a coincidence, I bought a band saw this weekend and was just downstairs making my first Celtic knot on it thinking that I need to make some kind of jig for it. How did you cut the inlay material? The band saw is a lot thinner than the table saw blade I use, which is how I usually make my Celtic knots and was wondering if this would make it more difficult to cut.

I use my table saw for cutting the inlays. I replace my 10" with a thin kerf 7 1/4" blade. Have a zero clearance insert for the blade. I can cut them safely with pushers to about 1/32". I then take them to my sander and use a push block to sand them to the proper thickness...doesn't take much with the 9" sander. I used to do them on the bandsaw, but thickness wasn't consistent.---Rich

 

[rkenly]

how do you keep the blade from hitting the holder, or is it a must the angle has to be the minimum to keep from hitting it? how did you measure the angle, or was it just by eye (how to duplicate)?

>>>Rod<<<

 

[mrrichieboy]

how do you keep the blade from hitting the holder, or is it a must the angle has to be the minimum to keep from hitting it? how did you measure the angle, or was it just by eye (how to duplicate)?

>>>Rod<<<

Rod: I square up the blank on the table saw so that it is perfectly square. I then do all the layout lines on the blank in pencil prior to mounting it in the jig. For most of the one piece pens, the angle keeps it from hitting the holder. For long 1 piece pens such as a one piece cigar, you will have a problem as the angle gets shallower and closer to the holder. I tried one and the other thing is that the longer the pen the worse the final result is. The turn outs at the ends get huge, vs a 25 to 35 degree angle on a Sierra. Trial and error at the start (creating expensive firewood!) and then you figure it out.---Rich