First, you'll have to do a sort to get cobs that will work. You will want the cobs that have a white soft center that is about the size of the tube. If the center is too big, you will turn through the good stuff, and not have a pen at all. I bore out the center by holding the cob in a pair of pliers, and let the drill follow the soft core. A vise may hold it off center and then you will turn through the kernel pockets too. I use medium CA to glue in the tube. After the tube is in and before trimming, I soak the ends with thin CA. The ends carry the danger of blowout. Be careful here, the cobs are like sponges and thin CA will travel all the way through. Gloves are a must. Then I trim and use a skew to turn. When I get to the last 1/16", I take the blanks off the mandrel, slide them over a wood dowel, and do a final soak with thin CA. I don't use accelerator on that coat since I want it to soak all the way to the tube. Then it's back to the mandrel and final turning. It may take some filling with medium CA to fill some odd kernel pockets that did not turn smoothly. Good Luck!!!!
