A couple of weeks ago My oldest grandson (age 14) came by and he and his friend helped with some casting and turning squarish blanks round for me. From 9 in the morning until 9 at night. For his help I let both him and his friend cast their own blanks and make a pen the next day. I let them both make a standard Sierra and they both had a blast. At one time I had 6 or more kids in the shop watching the process.
Today my grandson came over and asked if he could make another pen because he gave his first one to one of his friends. I let him pick a blank from one of my boxes of extras and he chose one that was gold brown and white.
I let him have one of the stainless Liberty kits that I picked up from Lazerline when they had the Bash discount special.
He has made 2 pens prior to tonight. The Sierra and an 8mm Euro about a year ago. In making the prior pens I had not really forced him to adhere to fit and finish. If he said that was good enough I left it at that.
Tonight we put it all together. I was completely hands off on the making of the pen other than to cut the blank to rough length on the table saw. Until his parents tell me its ok with them Im not putting him at risk.
He center drilled the squarish blank and turned it round. Drilled it squared it, and finished the turning. We used a carbide bit on the last 2 passes leaving it .004 proud. and I started him off with 400g sandpaper. I taught him to sand laterely as well showing him how to hold the blank up to the light to see the sanding marks. He Wet sanded with 400 and 600 grits stepped over to 4000 Micro mesh and went through the grits to 12,000. Used the Turtle wax polishing compound for the final pass. This time the blank glowed in the light. A simple assembly and pressed the parts in using the lathe. He is hooked.
Pictures are of him on my two Atlas lathes. The larger one rounding it off and although I have the auto feed set up he would rather turn it by hand.
Then we transfered to the smaller lathe for the rest of the operations. I couldnt get him to stand still long enough to get a good picture of the pen since he was in a hurry to leave before he was late for dinner. :biggrin: Ah growing boys.......
Enjoy
Today my grandson came over and asked if he could make another pen because he gave his first one to one of his friends. I let him pick a blank from one of my boxes of extras and he chose one that was gold brown and white.
I let him have one of the stainless Liberty kits that I picked up from Lazerline when they had the Bash discount special.
He has made 2 pens prior to tonight. The Sierra and an 8mm Euro about a year ago. In making the prior pens I had not really forced him to adhere to fit and finish. If he said that was good enough I left it at that.
Tonight we put it all together. I was completely hands off on the making of the pen other than to cut the blank to rough length on the table saw. Until his parents tell me its ok with them Im not putting him at risk.
He center drilled the squarish blank and turned it round. Drilled it squared it, and finished the turning. We used a carbide bit on the last 2 passes leaving it .004 proud. and I started him off with 400g sandpaper. I taught him to sand laterely as well showing him how to hold the blank up to the light to see the sanding marks. He Wet sanded with 400 and 600 grits stepped over to 4000 Micro mesh and went through the grits to 12,000. Used the Turtle wax polishing compound for the final pass. This time the blank glowed in the light. A simple assembly and pressed the parts in using the lathe. He is hooked.
Pictures are of him on my two Atlas lathes. The larger one rounding it off and although I have the auto feed set up he would rather turn it by hand.
Then we transfered to the smaller lathe for the rest of the operations. I couldnt get him to stand still long enough to get a good picture of the pen since he was in a hurry to leave before he was late for dinner. :biggrin: Ah growing boys.......
Enjoy
Great times with the kids are memories that both will always remember....
