Never give up

[dalemcginnis]

Started to turn a cigar pen from some leftover Orange Osage and did this:

Not one to give up easily and too cheap to toss a blank, rummaged through my pile and found a leftover acrylic that the other half had blown out while drilling for a slimline. Redrilled for a cigar and finished with this:

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[ahoiberg]

looks nice dale... good combo of wood and acrylic, those really complement each other.

 

[rcarman]

Gotta love "friendly disasters". Beautiful pen.

 

[TBone]

Good save, they go well together

 

[fiferb]

Nice save, how did you get the blank off the bent mandrel? Hack Saw?[}][]

 

[Tuba707]

Yeah, what exactly did you do to make the mandrel corkscrew like that? lol

 

[gerryr]

I've never seen a mandrel that looked like that. BTW, you should get a 60 degree live center. It will work much better than the one you're using.

 

[dalemcginnis]

Originally posted by Tuba707
<br />Yeah, what exactly did you do to make the mandrel corkscrew like that? lol

Actually despite appearances there is only one bend in the mandrel, at the MT. Just removed the nut and the blanks slid right off.
As for what I did, easy. At least it seemed easy at the time, I've been trying to avoid repeating the process. [] Basically you take the name gouge literally. [] First you chip off a large chunk off the blank down to the tube, then deciding to strip off the rest of the blank as quickly as possible, you jam the gouge into the chipped edge. Presto, you now have a mandrel with a 45 degree bend in it[]
I was having a bad day, that was the third blank I had blow out on me. Good reminder that the lathe is NOT the place to take out your frustrations[]

The 60 degree live center is on my wish list, along with a good grinder, a PH vise, a Barracuda chuck, better tools, etc, etc, etc. []

 

[Penmonkey]

Just a suggestion if you turn at about 2900 rpm's it keeps accidents like that one minimal. Good save.[]

 

[neon007]

Very nice!!! Way to stick with it. Some of my best work comes as a result of a mistake.