First pen

[chiselor]

Hi new member here, signed in as new member earlier. Well I just finished my first pen, a rosewood slimline....not too bad, I didn't turn the tubes quite far enough so there is a very slight ridge on the tubes, really small, but I know about it! Also one side seems slight thicker than the other on one tube, can't figure that out, these are factory tubes and turned on the lathe you would assume they would be even and round? As I said new to this stuff lol. This was fun however and I really like the looks of the polaris pens, have to get the necessities to do some of those! thanks for listening Dave

 

[dubdrvrkev]

Its all down hill from here Dave. Sounds like you have suffered a common problem, out-of-round or oval. Most common causes are a) the shaft of the madrel is bent, b) the brass nut was to overtightened causing 'a', c) the tailstock was putting too much pressure against the madrel causing 'a', or any combination of the three.
You may want to insert you mandrel without the tailstock and turn the spindle by hand and see if the end of the mandrel wobbles as it turns. If it doesn't you in good shape and can try loosening the the other items on the next pen. For the tailstock I bring it up to about 1/4" away and just give it a spin and that usually just snugs it up. The brass nut just needs to be tight enough to stop the wood from spinning as you make cuts. Sometimes it tightens up as you go (specially if you hit a tool on it as its spinning DAMHIKT) so you may want to check it as you turn.
Good luck and keep 'em coming.

 

[Dario]

I am not sure but sounds like you have an alignment (headstock vs tailstock) problem.

Therea are a few things to check and Russ' have some of them on his site http://www.woodturnerruss.com/Pen10.html

I too am having that problem currently but none of those fixes worked since it seems that I have a burr inside my MT2 driver. I ordered an MT2 reamer and hopefully that will fix my problem.

Good luck!!!

 

[mrcook4570]

Welcome Dave! Several factors can contribute to the pen being out of round. Overtightening the nut and or tail stock can cause the mandrel to flex. Not using a 60 degree live center can allow some wobble as well. Also, check headstock and tailstock alignment.

 

[gerryr]

Welcom to the group. I've sometimes had that problem and have eliminated it by stopping the lathe when the blanks are almost down to size, loosening the nut on the mandrel and rotating the blanks 90 degrees. If your headstock and tailstock line up, try that on the next one. I think a lot of people do that as SOP.

 

[JimGo]

The advice above is great for fixing the underlying problem, if you can. In some cases, it's just a fundamental issue with the way the lathe is built, and you're stuck. Gerry gave you the right approach for helping overcome the limitations of your lathe. The only thing I would add is to stop and rotate the blank by 90 degrees three or four times; that should take out most of the eccentricity.

 

[ilikewood]

Hey guys, don't forget the most common form of out round....not trimming your blanks square to the tube. If your not square here, even a little tightening of the brass nut will cause the mandrel to bend and make it "oval" or "out of round".

Get yourself a good trimmer, or build a jig like the one on the home page.

 

[chiselor]

thanks everyone! I think you are right, I think being the first time, I overtightened both the tail stock and the brass nut............will try it again![]

 

[wayneis]

In my opinion the most common cause of out of roundness with new turners is not having your tools sharp enough. When you are using tools that are not sharp you have to use more presure thus you end up with all of the problems stated above. I would suggest that you either make or purchase a good sharpening system. Using tools that aren't sharp enough will just lead to more frustration in the end.

Wayne