Slimline between centers.

[Firefyter-emt]

Thought ya'all might like to see what I did tonight. I have converted to turning between centers for pretty much all my pens. However, this did not work with slimlines. Last night I saved a scrap of that crib dam wood that was only big enough for "almost" a slimline. So I added some AB-wood and figured I would give one of those custom slimlines a try.

I am so cheap I took a reject slimline, pulled off the cap and removed the refill. I then gently put the nib into the live center and the dead center into the transmission. I used a little masking tape to hold the pen to the dead center and turned off the wood. This gave me the bottom end of the pen. I then turned off the wood from the cap after popping out the clip.

But, back on topic... when I glued the blank I used some 1/4" rod and with the top tube glued in place the lower part presses in just fine, but if I add a spare tube and try to put it on my mandrel it binds up a bit.

Hmmm... What to do??? Well, with a metal lathe you can open up a lot of ideas! I took some scrap stock and made myself a pair of custom "between center" slimline bushings. I love using my homemade ones over the normal bushings because I drill a 60 degree hold to turn it on the metal lathe, which becomes my hole for the wood lathe as well. These holes are much better than holding the standard bushings.

Here are some photos, pay no mind to the length of the bushings; I did not care if they were the same length as long as the diameter was correct.

I am "kinda" kicking myself in the rear for not making this more like a teachers pen design with the black wood on the pull out part, but live and learn, eh?

I would show a photo one, but I have 2 coats of CA on it and the last coat I left my light over the blank on and it looks like a fly strip right now!!

 

[Paul in OKC]

Nice!

 

[stevers]

Nice job Lee. Your pulling away from me. What am I going to do with you? I still turn the old fashioned way.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

Thanks, the next step is to work on making some caps without finals and the "imbeded" clips.

Steve, for the cost of a $5.00 dead center, you really should give it a shot. You will be amazed how nice it is. I have no slippage while turning unless there's a hard catch, and then it's still a good thing becuase the blank might not blow up. I find it much easier to measure the blank by just pulling it out of the centers in just seconds. Top that off with the ability to apply CA without bushings to chip off the finish and I find it to be a no brainer! []

 

[jtate]

Lee,

Looks good! I'm impressed. I'll be getting a dead center and giving this a try!

On the "embedded clips," I've figured out that it's much easier to do these with kits other than Slimlines. These are most easily done with kits in which the clip has a small hole in the center and is held in place when the finial is screwed into a part that's been pressed into the barrel (like the Euro or Churchill). The way that the clip is held in place in a Slimline (by a finial that's pressed into the top tube) means that there's not very much material left after you cut away enough to get the clip to go through the tiny hole you cut into your pen top.

DAMHIKT. Sigh...

A little thought on this before beginning to turn might have saved me a lot of trouble.

 

[stevers]

Sold, I'll take two![][][]

 

[leehljp]

That is a great idea. Thanks for sharing. I am using the dead center for more and more work and not just finishing.