lopsided pens

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scroller99

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Joined
Dec 8, 2005
Messages
168
Location
Hopewell Junction, new york, USA.
O.K, I really am at wits end. My pens aren't touching the bushings on one side but are fine the rest of the way. I've checked my mandrel for straighness, checked my tapers on the mandrel and the lathe, I have no play on the lathe that i can find. But still I am having problems? I have a cholla blank that I have to get out by the tenth and I really am at the end of my rope. Any thoughts? Oh yeah it's a Delta midi and it has turned atleast 1000 pens in it's 20 years in my shop. thanks Howard
 
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flyitfast

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Sep 3, 2009
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1,690
Location
San Antonio, TX 78247
Do you use a pen mill to square the ends, or a belt/disk sander, or what?
As Rangertrek said, if the pen is not square to the brass tube, it will give the indications you mentioned.
gordon
 

Bree

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Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Messages
1,736
Location
Buffalo, NY
Not square... get a good pen mill with a properly sized barrel sleeve or adapter. Your problem will disappear.
:cool::cool::cool:
 

okiebugg

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Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
264
Location
Jenks, Oklahoma
not out of round

O.K, I really am at wits end. My pens aren't touching the bushings on one side but are fine the rest of the way. I've checked my mandrel for straighness, checked my tapers on the mandrel and the lathe, I have no play on the lathe that i can find. But still I am having problems? I have a cholla blank that I have to get out by the tenth and I really am at the end of my rope. Any thoughts? Oh yeah it's a Delta midi and it has turned atleast 1000 pens in it's 20 years in my shop. thanks Howard

In the past, if my lathe is lined up correctly and my mandrel doesn't have a curl in it, I have been putting too much uumph on the brass knurled nut that holds it together. This I have found by experimentation will throw the whole thing out of whack and even flare the ends of the brass tubes. Try backing off the pressure on the mandrel nut once you have turned the blank to round. I also hit the ends of the blanks with the pen mill mounted in the drill press just to make sure that pressure hasn't changed things FWIW
 

ragz

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Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
241
Location
Bartlett, TN
you could also have a gunk buildup in your headstock that is causing your mandrel to not seat properly
 

Tage

Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
279
Location
NJ
I could swear I saw something in the Library about out of round pens, but I'll be darned if I can find it now. I had the problem of the end near the tailstock being out of round. I worked on aligning the lathe and that seemed to solve the problem.
 

kovalcik

Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2011
Messages
891
Location
Barrington, NH
I usually use an endmill but I have lost a setscrew and this time I squared the blanks on the sander. I'll have to find a new set screw and try it again, thanks Howard

When you used the sander did you reference off the blank or the tube to get it square with the sander? You have to make sure the tube is square to the sand paper, not the blank.

Here is a library article that shows one way to do it.


http://content.penturners.org/librar...discsander.pdf
 
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