Another pen mill question

[nightowl]

I have been noticing for a long while now that when I use the pen mill to square my blanks that it leaves the brass barrel protruding. It just takes the material off around it. I have put up with it because I have just finished squaring on a disk sander. I am just curious as to why this is happening? It appears to cut the blank material well just not the tube. Any suggestions would be helpful

 

[OOPS]

The purpose of squaring the blank is not just to square it but to remove the material just down to the tube, but no further. If you have some brass tube protruding, then you trimmed your blank too much. This forces you to remove the excess brass tube that is sticking out. Some kits have extra length to them, so cutting down some of the tube isn't critical, but in other kits, reducing the size of the brass tube, EVEN BARELY, will ruin the tube. Why? Because some of the pen kits have very little tolerance, and making them a bit smaller means the refill will never retract, for instance.

If you haven't already lost a pen kit to this, consider yourself lucky. When you start trimming, go more slowly to remove just a bit at a time, so that you can stop just when you see the shine of the brass tube.

 

[chrisk]

I have been noticing for a long while now that when I use the pen mill to square my blanks that it leaves the brass barrel protruding. It just takes the material off around it. I have put up with it because I have just finished squaring on a disk sander. I am just curious as to why this is happening? It appears to cut the blank material well just not the tube. Any suggestions would be helpful

Is this happening with all the kits or with specific ones, like Slimlines, Euros..., that is with 7mm kits? If this happens only with 7mm kits, then the issue should be with the inside diameter of the cutters' mill.

 

[cwolfs69]

pen mills will trim tubes

I have been noticing for a long while now that when I use the pen mill to square my blanks that it leaves the brass barrel protruding. It just takes the material off around it. I have put up with it because I have just finished squaring on a disk sander. I am just curious as to why this is happening? It appears to cut the blank material well just not the tube. Any suggestions would be helpful

Is this happening with all the kits or with specific ones, like Slimlines, Euros..., that is with 7mm kits? If this happens only with 7mm kits, then the issue should be with the inside diameter of the cutters' mill.

i fully concur. in fact if cutting properly you should be able to trim the tube to length as well as the blank. it is designed that way. the only 1 i have ever had a problem with is the 7mm trimmer. i picked up the one from woodcraft and have not had any problems since. the shank on this one is a little smaller which allows the cutting edge to be in a little further allowing it to trim the tube better. i very often, most of the time, use tubes cut from 10" long tubing and then trim to length to get a much better end profile. never had a problem trimming the tube with pen mills.

 

[Wingdoctor]

I agree that turrning the tube shorter isn't recommended; but if you do need to shorten it is easy to remove the brass with a couple of careful swipes with a mill bastard file. This is a metal cutting file and the metal is removed easily but the wood is more difficult to remove with this file.