El Grande from Woodcraft in Sacramento, CA

[Bozz]

I recently purchased a couple of El Grande Pens from Woodcraft in Sacramento, CA.; two of each, the rollerball & fountain pen. I failed to turn a clean, straight body - had a tear out. The 'skin' of the wood over the brass tubes was very thin, < 1/16th inch.
The mandrel, pen kit and bushings all came from Woodcraft.

The second attempt is better [the one on the right]. However, the wood is so thin you could -almost- floss your teeth with it. How well will this hold up? It seems too thin to last! If I make the body thicker, the parts will not fit. Is this typical of this style of kit? What am I doing wrong? Thank you all for your comments and to let you know, I am a new pen turner.

Thanks,
Bozz

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Yea it's pretty dang thin on that kit. This kit looks good with a little bow on the body to match up with the cap, but I do agree it's very thin for a kit this big. A proper glued tube is key on this kit, you just can't afford any voids. (Not to start a glue way, but this is where poly glue is nice as it will foam it's way to a full glue up.) []

That said, I have only made one of these and I did use CA on one and Epoxy on the other. I did this because the 1st one was very tight due to painting the tubes for the acrylic blank so I used CA and the second one I used a spray paint over nail polish and used epoxy. To note, I turned the 1st one 2 days later and I thing the CA allowed the cap blank to let the tube slip. I had to put it back on the lathe with the center band held by a dead center and "nip" some tube down with a skew. I use a tool to counter recess the tubes so it was not sticking up prior. It was just enough to give a poor line at the clip.

 

[Randy_]

Most any B2B kit that you buy is going to have only a thin wood shell. Actually 1/16" is pretty thick. A lot of the kits are closer to a millimeter than a 16th. It is really plenty of wood and you will get the hang of it after doing a few.

If you are having trouble with tearouts, you might check to be sure your tools are sharp and you are taking light cuts.

 

[gerryr]

The El Grande has very thin wood, that's why it's so light, that and the plastic. I suggest getting some cigar kits, the wood is much thicker on cigars. I would also recommend that you buy from someone like Beartooth Woods or AZ Silhouette instead of Woodcraft. Woodcraft normally only has the 24K plating, but you can get much better plating at better prices from either of those two places. Both have great customer service and ship very quickly.