Making more of the pen

[tipusnr]

The latest pen in my photo album is not the most artistic I've ever done but it did open new ground for me. While I have been turning my center bands for awhile now last night I tried turning the plug for the top.

The hardest part was getting the stock to run true in my Talon Chuck so I could turn the plug off the end of the stock. I bought some slimline kits last winter that the clip assembly was a three piece set (collar that hides inside the brass pen tube, clip with thin washer top, and male plug to go inside the collar sandwiching the clip). One of the drawbacks to this was that you still had a hole in the top of the pen when you were through.

The plug I turned needed to have a very thin tenon (around 1/8") to go inside the pen and then a turned top for looks. The original plug as it left the lathe was more of a mushroom shape than you see in the picture but got flattened out as I attempting the sanding and polishing part. I'm not used to working that small and it took quite some time. Still the result was satisfying. Mine's a friction fit but was perfectly willing to glue it if necessary.

Try it yourself. It just adds one more way for the pen to be out of the ordinary.


The centerband is tapered so that I could have different diameters on the top and bottom. There are also two grooved bands in both the upper and lower blanks to break up the lines and give detail. With this type of corian you don't notice them until your fingers hit them and make you take a second look.

I'm thinking of filling the grooves with contrasting material in the future for more visual effect.

Sorry, I didn't do much to pretty up the picture as time is short right now. Also found that it overfilled my screen when clicked but clicking the "maximize" button on the window solved that for me.

Let me know what you think?

 

[Bev Polmanteer]

I need more detain on how you make that tiny "bump" for the top of the pen. Seems like a VERY tiny piece and I'm lost as to how to hold it on the lathe. Not blond, just dumb!!!

 

[mike_l]

Really nice pen! I like the matching top and center band. It is a very small addition that makes a good pen into a great pen.

Where did you get that slimline kit?

Mike L.

 

[tipusnr]

To tell you the truth I don't know where the slimline kit came from. I've purchased several of them from different sources and put all the parts in a sectioned lidded box from which I grab parts as I create the pens. So the pieces could be from different kits altogether.

As to how how I turned the pen top "bump" I slid a square blank of corian into the center of my talon chuck and then brought up the live center on my tail stock until it was placing light pressure on the end of the stock. Trial and error, turning the lathe on a off until the piece ran true was the method I used. Then the talon chuck was tightened the piece was turned from the end of the blank.

Using parting tool I slowly removed material to form the tenon until it was down to about 1/4" diameter. The I formed the top end using a skew and the parting tool until the part holding the top to the blank was about a 1/4" in diameter. Then I removed the tail stock from the blank and turned the tenon to it's final size using the insert as a test guide. After that I finished turning the top until it dropped off. Then I hand sanded and polished with HUT Plasctic polish and buffed if on a cloth wheel on my high-speed grinder.

It was small, detailed, and slightly scary work but the results are worth it.