Bushing question

[JAB1]

Does anyone know if a "universal" bushing is made?....a single unit that slips over the mandrel which allows for various sizes....kind of a " step up size"...from small to large....sure would be nice and would eliminate the purchase of all those bushings......????????

 

[ed4copies]

Unlikely.

10 mm and 25/64 are so close to the same that it would be difficult to create a "step". But, if you try to use the smaller for both you will get oblong centers on your pens that should have had the larger diameter.

This is only ONE problem. Without going into how MANY and what about NEW diameters.

 

[ed4copies]

BTW, you CAN turn your own bushings from delrin, corian, acrylic, etc.

 

[JAB1]

How do you turn your own bushings?

 

[ed4copies]

Take a piece of corian, drill a 7mm hole, insert 7mm tube, glue, face, put on mandrel and turn to appropriate diameter(s). Measure by attempting to put the brass tube you plan on accomodating over the corian. When it just fits, you have the proper Inside Diameter, then make the outside diameter match your fitting and part off this, your FIRST bushing. Then, make the other 3 for most kits.

Takes a little while to make them, but they ARE right. Unlike the ones we purchase which have about a 20% failure rate, if I am typical. Now you will turn ROUND pens!!

 

[leehljp]

You could make two somewhat elongated cones out of steel, brass or aluminum. I am sure the aluminum will wear too fast though.

A good idea but it will also allow for some minutely off center turnings if one is not careful.

Another approach:
Hut @ http://www.hutproducts.com sells a multi bushing setup here:
http://www.hutproducts.com/prodinfo.asp?number=0372
N0 guarantees on the size matches for what you want though as they are not listed.

 

[ronhampton]

hut has a set that they say will work.but i don't see how they would work. they do have steps on them.hope this helps, ron.

 

[Randy_]

Here is a link to the HUT multi-step bushings.

http://www.hutproducts.com/prodinfo.asp?number=0372

It is probably better to refer to them as semi-universal as they will fit a lot of kits; but certainly not all of them. And remember that you will also need to buy a caliper of some sort to measure the blank diameters as you could have several kits with the same tubes; but totally different hardware sizes.

Ed is correct in saying you "can" make your own bushings; but whether you "want to" or not is another matter. When you consider that a set of bushings is about 5 bucks (some a little more and some a little less) and you consider what your time is worth, I suspect most folks will conclude it makes more sense to buy them than to make them. If you have an emergency of some sort and need bushings in a hurry, it certainly is good to know how to make them; but when you spread the cost of a set of bushings over 5-10 kits (or more), that cost doesn't amount to very much.

One thing that is worth making is sleeves for your barrel trimmer so it will fit all of the variety of tubes that pen kits come with. The technique is the same as Ed describes for bushings.....sott of like making long bushings!!