First Segmented Pens

[Gilrock]

I just joined IAP a week ago and I've only been turning pens a couple months. After browsing all the wonderful posts here I decided to try a couple segmented pens. The first pen was a Cambridge and has 3 different acrylic colors seperated by a butchered diet coke can....not really the colors I wanted but the best I could pick out at Woodcraft since I was anxious to start one. I wish I had darkened the tube/blank since the brass is showing thru one of the colors.

The second pen was a Cigar and I used a piece of Elk Antler I had lying around along with what I believe is Ebony wood. There was supposed to be antler on the bottom half but it cracked while drilling. And then I was in a hurry so I tried to quickly cut/drill/glue the wood on the lower tube and it got stuck partway in. So I had to square off the wood on the lathe and created the segmented section on the bottom half. And I had pieces coming apart from the aluminum on the top half while drilling so the seams don't look as perfect as I would like.

Overall I'm happy with how they turned out for my first attempts at segmenting. And I'm loving all the pens I'm seeing from everyone here.



Thanks for looking,
Gil

 

[Displaced Canadian]

You're off to a good start. Segmenting is a lot of fun. Don't think of as a blank as a solid object, a blank has as many sides as you want it to have.

 

[boxerman]

Dang those are sure nice. I really like the first one. You look like pro.

 

[bobjackson]

Looks great. Good job.

 

[Dalecamino]

Welcome Gil. You made yourself a couple of nice looking pens there. When drilling segs with aluminum you can wrap the blank with painters tape, and drill slow. Keeps the glue from getting too hot and weakening. But, it worked out for you in the end this time. Just a suggestion.

 

[rizaydog]

Those are a couple of keepers. Very nice.

 

[Toni]

Great LOoking pens!!

 

[Finatic]

The red/white and blue has quite a WOW factor. Nice work.

 

[Rojo22]

Nice job with the segmenting!

 

[Gilrock]

Thanks for all the nice comments. The acrylic pen almost didn't make it on the kit. I really wanted the center section to be solid black but that was the closest color I could find at Woodcraft...who doesn't seem to think we want any solid colors. I had one spot where the piece must not have been centered well enough when I glued it together and after turning there was a deep flat spot. I ended up using epoxy to fill the gap and re-finishing it and it turned out well enough it wasn't even easy to find the spot that was filled.

The whole project started because I saw a few pens posted that had aluminum accents and I started wondering how the heck do that get the aluminum in there. So I did a forum search for "segmented aluminum" and read some posts. Somewhere along the way I stumbled on this website http://www.creativependesign.com so you'll notice my segments are somewhat close to the pen seen on the banner there. I was trying to create a similar one for practice. I love the colors he has on that pen.

Thanks,
Gil

 

[hewunch]

The ones on that website are cut on an angle

 

[wiset1]

Fantastic choice in colors to match together. Awesome

 

[Gilrock]

The ones on that website are cut on an angle

Yep...so are mine. It's on the cap...my photo doesn't show it well.