Good from a far, but far from good

[cacardon]

So the last pen I posted had a brass ring in it. I thought hey for my first time turning metal it went pretty well. This weekend I decided to get really crazy and go all out 4 count them 4 pieces of aluminum and 2 different types of wood. I went out a got some epoxy to put it all together and went in for the night to let it cure. This afternoon I go out to check things out and drill the blanks and try to make something that resembles a pen. I start drilling and the first half of the blank comes apart on my drill. I should have taken that as a sign (Put more epoxy or let it sit longer or something) But me being the Jarhead that I am I just figure a little CA and it will be good as new. The second half went no better. After some time a few glued fingers I finally get it on the lathe. while turning one of the blanks split, more CA. finally I get it turned to a half way decent shape and start to apply my CA finish. I ran out of my normal accelerator and had to use some of this new stuff I had never seen before. Well it worked, it made the glue heat up like crazy, burned the crap out of my fingers where I had glue I didn't know about. Finally after half a day on one pen I have a finished pen. She looks great from a ways away and you can't see all the imperfections.

 

[ctubbs]

Great save. you should have seen the piles of scrap on my segmenting attempts. Fine looking pen also.
Charles

 

[KnB Polymers]

LOL! Sounds like you had a great time! And now I bet you can't wait to do another! :biggrin:

 

[okiebugg]

Gorilla Glue

cacardon....About the only thing that is reliable for gluing segments is Gorilla glue. The joint fails ocassionally, but is much more reliable IMO than CA or Epoxy. Epoxy works fairly well as long as you don't use the quick setting kind. You have to clamp! I use a picture frame angle clamp so I can clamp both longitudinally and the sides at the same time. If you're interested, I can put up a picture tomorrow that will make it clearer. With this technique, I can do several joinings at the same time

So the last pen I posted had a brass ring in it. I thought hey for my first time turning metal it went pretty well. This weekend I decided to get really crazy and go all out 4 count them 4 pieces of aluminum and 2 different types of wood. I went out a got some epoxy to put it all together and went in for the night to let it cure. This afternoon I go out to check things out and drill the blanks and try to make something that resembles a pen. I start drilling and the first half of the blank comes apart on my drill. I should have taken that as a sign (Put more epoxy or let it sit longer or something) But me being the Jarhead that I am I just figure a little CA and it will be good as new. The second half went no better. After some time a few glued fingers I finally get it on the lathe. while turning one of the blanks split, more CA. finally I get it turned to a half way decent shape and start to apply my CA finish. I ran out of my normal accelerator and had to use some of this new stuff I had never seen before. Well it worked, it made the glue heat up like crazy, burned the crap out of my fingers where I had glue I didn't know about. Finally after half a day on one pen I have a finished pen. She looks great from a ways away and you can't see all the imperfections.

 

[lion6255]

Looks good to me!!!! And just think of all the fun you had and things you learned.