Out of round

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Rick1708

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Jun 4, 2009
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When I was first reading threads about out of round, I thought it was when there was more wood on one side of the tube. However, I've noticed some of my pens have a bend at the middle. Each segment is straight, but when closed it's not straight. It looks like the tube isn't drilled down the middle.

I tried to turn a pen between centers without a mandrel, but the same thing happened. I had to round the blank on a mandrel, but then brought it to size and finished on centers.

I'm using a PSI mini lathe and the centers that came with it. I'm saving up for better centers. Another question: I can find many live centers, but no dead centers. Where can I get a MT2 dead center without spending a fortune?

Any advice on what to work on to improve? Thanks in advance.
 
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fiferb

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When you say bend in the middle, is it the perception of a bend because of the wood grain is not drilled down the center, or is it truly bent as in the hardware is bent?

As far as live and dead centers, try johnnycnc.
 

Rick1708

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No, it's not just appearance; I can put metal straight edge on it. The one I turned on centers is off by very little. The only other thing I could think of was that the ends were not perfectly square.
 

Rick1708

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Hopefully the picture shows the issue. It was a bit hard to get a good shot.

This was the pen that made me try turning between centers. It was one of my earlier attempts. The "bend" isn't as noticeable on my later tries, but it still bugs me.
 

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Rick1708

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I took off the nib and set the pen upright on the threads. There is a noticeable listing to one side. I assume that means I didn't trim the end square? I may try to take it apart and resand (or try the barrel trimmer again). I think that would ding the finish, but since it's an early attempt anyway, I'd like to know if that fixed the problem.

Any tips/advice on barrel trimming?
 

jleiwig

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Have you looked into a sander mill? I know Rherrel was making them. That may help without destroying the finish. I imagine you could make your own.
 

gt64155

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Oct 20, 2008
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Davenport Iowa
I've had similar problems in the past with my Jet Mini lathe. The one thing that really helped me was to leve the lathe. Not end to end, but side to side. I discovered that even the small mini lathe was not sitting flat on the floor. The bed was slightly twisted.
Try setting a small bubble level across the bed right in from of the headstock. Adjust the feet so it's level. Take the tail stock off and lay the bubble level across the bed. Again adjust the feet until it's level. You now have a lathe that is level side to side. At this point, slide the tailstock up and see if the point of the centers match up. They should be even.
Try turning a pen and see if this helps. It made a big difference for me.

Bill
 
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Rick1708

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Jun 4, 2009
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Thanks for the suggestion. I'll take a look this afternoon. One thing I noticed last night was that my head stock doesn't seem to spinning true. When I hold the back of a tool lightly against the piece on the headstock where the the Mandrel goes in (don't know the name) it has a slight ding-ding-ding (very fast). I don't know if this a function of it being out of balance, or something more. I'll be calling PSI if I can't get it back to running smooth. The lathe is only a month old.
 
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