larryc
Member
I saw Ben Soelberg's (bensoelberg) post on Dyed Woods and was intrigued by the pen box that he showed there. I sent a PM to him and he was nice enough to share how he made it.
I have been looking for something like that.
Would you be willing to share the steps you go thru in making this box?
It looks like it would be simple to make but several questions come to mind.
1. Proper alignment of the magnets would be critical to prevent misalignment of the two sections.
I was pretty worried about that, so I cut the top and bottom pieces, and decided about where I wanted the holes to be and marked that location on one side. Then I clipped a paperclip so that I had a straight section about a quarter inch long. I measured the diameter of the paperclip with my calipers and drilled a hole with the closest sized bit to about 1/8". Then I just stuck the paperclip into the drilled hole, put the two sides together and pushed. When I pulled them apart, I had a mark that I used as the center point for my magnet sized drill bit.
2. Alignment and depth drilling the center hole.
Alignment same as above. For the depth, I just put the top and bottom together, laid the pen on top and positioned it the way that I envisioned it, then measured how far down I would have to drill from the cut line in each direction. I think I drilled it on my drill press with a spade bit.
Thanks Ben
I have been looking for something like that.
Would you be willing to share the steps you go thru in making this box?
It looks like it would be simple to make but several questions come to mind.
1. Proper alignment of the magnets would be critical to prevent misalignment of the two sections.
I was pretty worried about that, so I cut the top and bottom pieces, and decided about where I wanted the holes to be and marked that location on one side. Then I clipped a paperclip so that I had a straight section about a quarter inch long. I measured the diameter of the paperclip with my calipers and drilled a hole with the closest sized bit to about 1/8". Then I just stuck the paperclip into the drilled hole, put the two sides together and pushed. When I pulled them apart, I had a mark that I used as the center point for my magnet sized drill bit.
2. Alignment and depth drilling the center hole.
Alignment same as above. For the depth, I just put the top and bottom together, laid the pen on top and positioned it the way that I envisioned it, then measured how far down I would have to drill from the cut line in each direction. I think I drilled it on my drill press with a spade bit.
Thanks Ben
