How do you make "non-wood" type pens

[Skordog]

A while back I saw a pen posted by Darrell Madis where he had glued sea salt and peppercorns onto a pen.

I would love to experiment with some unusual combinations of materials just to see what I end up with. My questions relate to how to attach the materials.

Do I use "thick" CA?
Do I glue directly to the brass tube or turn some wood down thin first and then glue to the wood?
Do you use a form of some sort to hold the material on while it dries?

Thanks for the tips.

Jeff

 

[JimGo]

Jeff,
one option is to glue the stuff in place and then cast the entire pen in resin (see the articles page on this site for info on that...it's something I plan to try soon). That will smooth out all the bumps, while still giving you the look of the glued-on stuff. If you don't mind the feel of the stuff against your fingers, you can also try a LOT of CA. I would imagine that you can get away with just gluing it directly to the tube.

Good luck!

 

[dmadis]

Do I use "thick" CA?
Do I glue directly to the brass tube or turn some wood down thin first and then glue to the wood?
Do you use a form of some sort to hold the material on while it dries?

I used medium CA (that's what I had on hand) and when the material was built up enough soaked the blank with thin CA. Glued directly to the tube--while glueing the tube was held with a dowel. It's hard to keep glue from getting in the tube, if it does it must be cleaned out or the parts won't fit when assembling the pen.

 

[JimGo]

Jeff and dmadis,
Someone suggested plugging the ends of the tubes with a piece of potato. Apparently it seals it off pretty well, and is much easier to clean out than the glue that otherwise gets in there.

 

[Fred in NC]

Wood dowels can be dipped or coated with paraffin to keep from sticking. This also gives a handle while working with it.

 

[rtjw]

George called me the other day and asked a good question. Can you take a regular cigar and make a cigar pen out of it? Anyone with suggestions.

 

[JimGo]

Johnny,
In the very short time I've been turning, I haven't seen that done. What I do remember, though, was that someone had posted a blank that was made of tobacco. If you search the forums, you should be able to find it.

 

[Skordog]

Thanks for the feedback guys. With regard to plugging the ends of the tubes I have been using the dental wax that BB sells. Great stuff!! And much less of a mess than potatoes. However for glueing stuff to the outside of the tube I like the idea of putting wax on the dowel and then using that as a handle. Thanks for suggesting it Fred.

Jim, since I don't have any resin on hand I'll probably just try glueing with CA or expoxy. (I only have thin CA ). [^]

Looks like I need to get to the hobby store real soon to pick up some new supplies.

If I come up with anything interesting I'll post pictures.