1st Pen

[dhallnc]

My first attempt at turning a pen was a bust. I drilled the holes on a crappy bench top drill press with no vise and the holes were crooked. Tried turning anyway and the blank busted out at a bushing

Oh well, live & learn. I ordered a chuck today and will attempt ti drill on the lay.
Also; the BOW blank was much different than the pine I've been practicing on.

I want waste anymore good wood till I get the chuck.We shall see.

 

[Rangertrek]

I think you already figured it out. Don't use the good wood until you have had a few successful outcomes. Practice on the scraps until you are comfortable with your methods and technique. I went through several pieces of pine 2x4 when I started.

 

[jbmauser]

do not Practice on Pine. you need to practice on hardwood. This may not make sense but you will learn nothing by working with wood that tears. You don't need to spend a lot of money, you can find scrap hardwood and glue it together to make something you can turn. I did what you are trying to do and it was the wrong plan. I wish someone told me to stop and get something worthy of turning as you can then learn tool control. As to drilling your blanks. even a crappy drill press will drill a hole. Unless the spindle is way out of round (i had a cheap one once that was) it will drill a hole that will take a tube with glue to fill any voids and you can turn it. Do not practice with crappy wood if you want to learn anything. JB

 

[USAFVET98]

You could run over to Home Depot and pick up some poplar or even oak dowel to practice on.. Pine is no good because it is too soft and feels nothing like a hard wood when turning. Basically if you keep using pine you will develop a technique with it that will not give the same results on good wood.

 

[ctubbs]

JB hit the nail on the head. If you do not have any scrap hardwood in your scrap box, find a cabinet shop in your area and visit them. Talk to some of the guys in the shop telling what you want. There is enough scrap wood in their trash pile to keep you in practice wood for life. If that does not work, check your local lumber yard for offcuts where they do custom cuts for customers. Same thing there. Look around, there is tons of scrap wood to be had. The local tree trimers / land scapers have trimmings to get rid of. The supply is there. Go and look for it.
Charles

 

[ldb2000]

Maple is a great wood to learn on . It's dense and turns cleanly . Soft wood and even some hardwoods tend to get stringy and the grain tears instead of cutting . Poplar and Oak are two examples of this . In flat work I love poplar and always have tons of it around because it's cheap and takes a stain well but it is tough to get clean turnings without tear out .
Home Depot has Hard Maple and there is always short pieces of it on the rack and in the cut offs bin . For a couple of dollars you can get dozens of 3/4"X3/4" pen blanks to practice on .

 

[dhallnc]

Thanks for the feedback. That BOW blank being the 1st piece of hardwood I have tried to turn made me realize the need for sharp tools. Got to work on that too.

Darryl

 

[mach9]

You can also go to Lowes/HD and get Cedar blocks from their closet accessories dept. Easy to turn and makes a nice looking pen for not much $$$$$. Good luck.