underdog
Member
Well I went happily out to my shop this afternoon, intent on turning a pen or two and definitely some ornaments....
Well I never really got much of a finish on this and didn't do a darn thing else (unless you count unloading my table saw).
This pen whupped my.... uumm-hhmm...
I learned several things doing this pen...
1) Don't use a soft wood like Alder unless you're going to encase it in plastic... It dents and tears out too easily.
2) If the wood is figured and soft, the drill and barrel trimmer are going to tear out the end grain, so something (what?) has to be done to solve this problem.
3) If you have tearout, then CA glue and coffee make great end bands to disguise the fact that you suck at pen turning....
4) If the instructions specifically say to push the transmission 1/4 past the indentation, but to check the depth before pushing it in in all the way, then check the depth incrementally before pushing it to the mark.
5) If you push the transmission too far then the plastic threads on the refill aren't strong enough to push it back out... no matter how good an idea it was...
6) If you're going to use CA and coffee as end bands then you'll have to use CA as a finish.
7) If you have tearout and need to fill the gaps, then thin CA isn't the way to go. It takes forever to build up a decent coat.
8) Use medium or thick CA for finish coat. A thin coat sands away quite quickly. Most of the gaps are finally filled, but I see bare wood now that I'm back in the house. I sure do like lacquer...
9) If a pen is kicking your **** this bad, it's time to do something else. It took me 6 hours to get this thing this far.
Bleah. I'm going to turn ornaments tomorrow...
Well I never really got much of a finish on this and didn't do a darn thing else (unless you count unloading my table saw).
This pen whupped my.... uumm-hhmm...
I learned several things doing this pen...
1) Don't use a soft wood like Alder unless you're going to encase it in plastic... It dents and tears out too easily.
2) If the wood is figured and soft, the drill and barrel trimmer are going to tear out the end grain, so something (what?) has to be done to solve this problem.
3) If you have tearout, then CA glue and coffee make great end bands to disguise the fact that you suck at pen turning....
4) If the instructions specifically say to push the transmission 1/4 past the indentation, but to check the depth before pushing it in in all the way, then check the depth incrementally before pushing it to the mark.
5) If you push the transmission too far then the plastic threads on the refill aren't strong enough to push it back out... no matter how good an idea it was...
6) If you're going to use CA and coffee as end bands then you'll have to use CA as a finish.
7) If you have tearout and need to fill the gaps, then thin CA isn't the way to go. It takes forever to build up a decent coat.
8) Use medium or thick CA for finish coat. A thin coat sands away quite quickly. Most of the gaps are finally filled, but I see bare wood now that I'm back in the house. I sure do like lacquer...
9) If a pen is kicking your **** this bad, it's time to do something else. It took me 6 hours to get this thing this far.
Bleah. I'm going to turn ornaments tomorrow...
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