Not the best weekend for pens

[hazard]

I made some stupid mistakes with the pens this weekend.

On Friday I was making acrylic blanks for 10 father sing pens from csusa. I went with this pen because they are thicker because I thought I could get away without painting the tubes. Well I drilled and glued the tubes. I went to setup the 1st blank on the mandrel and I didn't realize the bushings on the end were the same as the slimline and 7/16. I realized right of way I was going to have problems seeing the tubes. I turned a purple swirl blank down hoping that it was dark enough to not see the tube. I got a 1/16 from the bushing and I could start to see gold. I then decided to see if I could drill the tube out. Turns out I can without little damage to the acrylic. Now I have to drill the rest out. This also meant I placed an order for more tubes and epoxy.

On Sat/Sun I decided to start making some cigar pens from csusa. These are my first cigar pens. I drilled/glued/turned 5 blanks on Saturday. I then finished them on Sunday. I went to put them together and realized that I totally botched the placement of the bushings. I setup all 5 the same way. They will make good displays or something.

I guess lessoned learned. Maybe I should read the directions. Hopefully I don't do it again.

Chris

 

[mikemac]

I feel your pain.

I have a few sets of cigar blanks that just don't seem to mate well with their parts.. the bushings are quite close in size, esp smallest vs 2nd smallest.

Live and learn!

 

[Dave_M]

Glad I wasn't the only one. I was turning a Perfect Fit and I cut the section for the center band on the wrong end of the upper blank.

 

[rherrell]

It's called 'sperance. You just got a good dose of it. Bet you'll never do it again ! 'Sperance!

 

[drayman]

chris, been there, done that, and worn the tee shirt[:I][:0]

 

[ed4copies]

I've said this before, but it bears repeating.

Make ONE pen right, BEFORE you start a batch!!! Then, make batches of 7-10 at a time, so you don't have HUGE waste.

Nobody is perfect and I make MORE mistakes than average (what instructions???) BUT, I only waste my FIRST pen --------- NOW.

'Twasn't always so!!!![:0][:0][:0][:0]

 

[Firefyter-emt]

The two best things you can ever do is start to use calipers for EVERYTHING! But a set of digital calipers and before you start a kit, measure the hardware you want to put on that kit and seperate those parts from anyother hardware. (If you store them in boxes like I do) I jot the measurements on a post-it note and this stays at my lathe just for this pen. (for a batch, you could measure all the hardware and see if they stay the same)

Second thing I did was to print out all the instructions for pen kits that I make from on-line and brought them down to Staples and had the whole thing sprial bound into a book for a couple bucks. I use those post-it tabs to quickly find the kits, but in hindsite, I would of added in those tab inserts before having it bound. You can cut the sprial binding and have more pages added in by bringing the new pages to Staples and rebind it if there is a change or new kit. I have one book for CSUSA and one for Berea kits. I did pring out some of the other "things" like pepper grinders that are in the back of the book.

Oh, and to add a third, bushing to bushing turning with a dead center... What a diffrence! []


Mike, if you want to try to save those cigar kits, turn the wood below the smallest bushing on all 4 ends with a straight profile and then find someone up there who does their own casting and have the blanks cast in clear. Now you can return them to a profile you want and when you are done you will have a resin coating on the pen and not even have apply a finish. The cigar is perfect for this because you have a fair amount of wood left on the kit. I say to turn it under and straght for tow reasons. First, if you leave the profile you may "burn thru" and second is the same reason, but at the hardware ends you want some acrylic left over the wood.

The added bonus over a "never fail" finish is that the wood grain will be magnified. This is good & bad, goob because some wood may be mind-blowing, bad because you better get those sand scratches out! []

 

[leehljp]

Lee: The two best things you can ever do is start to use calipers for EVERYTHING! But a set of digital calipers and before you start a kit, measure the hardware you want to put on that kit and seperate those parts from anyother hardware. (If you store them in boxes like I do) I jot the measurements on a post-it note and this stays at my lathe just for this pen. (for a batch, you could measure all the hardware and see if they stay the same)

Several times, many times on this forum, experienced people have said the same. It took me about a year of occasional pen making to realize the necessity of this. Now, I do not begin to make a pen without my calipers. I keep two digital calipers on hand. Nothing taken for granted. I measure the center band, nib end, clip end and mark them down on notes like you do.

Early on in making pens, I thought this was overkill. It is now second nature, instinct to use calipers.