Squaring the blanks....the part I least like.

[Warren White]

I am looking for some help on the part of making a pen that I have not enjoyed since the very first one. OK, I have only made about 10 pens, so my experience is quite limited. But it still is my least favorite part of the process.

I purchased a pen mill at a well known supplier (not named because it isn't important). I cut the blank just a little longer than the brass tube, perhaps 1/32", and mount the pen mill on my lathe's #2 Morse taper. With the lathe off, put the blank on the mill. Turn the lathe on.

Screech, screech, whine. Check. More to do. Screech, screech, whine. Check. More to do. Repeat until the cows come home. Finally it is done.

Today, I even waited to do the screeching until I had turned the blank down to nearly the size of the bushing. It still screeched.

But isn't there a better way? I have a limited number of tools, including a Delta 5" disk sander which seems a bit too imprecise. I saw a great video in the Library section which included a jig to ensure a flat end, but it was done on a larger sander. I am not sure I could make something like that work on my little bitty sander, but I am certainly open to other options.

Thank you! I know there are folks out there who can come to my aid.

 

[its_virgil]

What size is your pen mill shaft and what kit are you making? Meanwhile:

You have a disk sander! You are in business!! They work great but you must have a jig for squaring the ends of blanks. We have a great library here. Look what I found! http://content.penturners.org/library/tools_and_jigs/blanksquaring.pdf
I actually made one of these years ago and it works great. Other jigs are available. Follow the article and you will like the end product.

Other methods are available and you will probably hear about them.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

 

[Bean_Counter]

Do you have a face plate for your lather? Also do
You have a Jacobs chuck? What I do is take your faceplate and turn a scrap piece of wood down flat. Once this is flat I buy adhesive 80 grit sandpaper and cut them in small squares. Take one of the squares and stick it in the middle of the piece of wood that is attached to your face plate. Insert your Jacobs chuck into the tail stock end of your lathe. I then tighten down a transfer punch that I bought from harbor freight. Now take your blank and put it on the transfer punch and sand down the wood to the brass. Repeat for other side. This gives you a nice square end.

Before I square the ends I turn the blank round and down to a little above the finished diameter and then square the ends using this jig. This does 2 things, 1) you aren't sanding wood that doesn't needed to be sanded and 2) it'll save you sandpaper in the long run.

I hope this helps and you can also search for pen blank squaring on the YouTube and there are jigs like this. I believe Ed Brown with exotics has a video of the similar setup but could be wrong. A good friend here on IAP showed me this method and I have since ditched using pen mills over a year ago.

 

[wyone]

hmmm I dont have any issues using the pen mill. I trim to within no more than 1/8 inch longer than the tube. The only issue I ever have is if I am messy and I get CA or epoxy into the tube. Then it does not cooperate very well, but that was just a matter of learning to be neater for me.

 

[joefrog]

What size is your pen mill shaft and what kit are you making? Meanwhile:

You have a disk sander! You are in business!! They work great but you must have a jig for squaring the ends of blanks. We have a great library here. Look what I found! http://content.penturners.org/library/tools_and_jigs/blanksquaring.pdf
I actually made one of these years ago and it works great. Other jigs are available. Follow the article and you will like the end product.

Other methods are available and you will probably hear about them.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

That's a great article, but it only works if your disk sander is worth a crap, which mine is not. Table itself wiggles and wobbles.

Also -- if you're short on time those jigs are now ready-made at PennState. Just saw it in the catalog last night.

 

[kovalcik]

You may need to sharpen it. Even if new, they don't always come with the best edge. Resharpen often to get the best results.

I had a problem with one pen mill I bought because the cutters had no bevel. They were flat to the blank. It cut awful. I ground it with my dremel with a slight bevel and it works great.

 

[randyrls]

But isn't there a better way? I have a limited number of tools, including a Delta 5" disk sander which seems a bit too imprecise.

Warren; Even a 5" sander is useable. A sanding jig can be something as simple as a 7mm mandrel in a block of wood with a guide to keep it square to the sander. Use a square to verify that the jig is square both horizontal and vertical. Remember you are only working a piece with a 1' cross section.

 

[jaygeedubya]

I now use a solution I found on this site a ways back - bought the transfer punch kit from HF across the river, do my rough sanding to size on my disc sander (also crap, but fast....), use the proper size punch for the blank, mount in my drill chuck in the tailstock and square it up using a sander disk I made on a small faceplate.

The other problem this fixed was my pen mill would often chew the wood close to the tube, and I'd discover it after turning to size - argh!

jamie

 

[Warren White]

What size is your pen mill shaft and what kit are you making? Meanwhile:

You have a disk sander! You are in business!! They work great but you must have a jig for squaring the ends of blanks. We have a great library here. Look what I found! http://content.penturners.org/library/tools_and_jigs/blanksquaring.pdf

Don

Don, that is the article I meant, but I said it was a video. Yes, it looks great, but my poor little disk sander's table is too small. It looked very ingenious, though.

Thanks for the suggestion!
Warren

 

[Warren White]

Do you have a face plate for your lather? Also do
You have a Jacobs chuck? What I do is take your faceplate and turn a scrap piece of wood down flat. Once this is flat I buy adhesive 80 grit sandpaper and cut them in small squares. Take one of the squares and stick it in the middle of the piece of wood that is attached to your face plate. Insert your Jacobs chuck into the tail stock end of your lathe. I then tighten down a transfer punch that I bought from harbor freight. Now take your blank and put it on the transfer punch and sand down the wood to the brass. Repeat for other side. This gives you a nice square end.

Before I square the ends I turn the blank round and down to a little above the finished diameter and then square the ends using this jig. This does 2 things, 1) you aren't sanding wood that doesn't needed to be sanded and 2) it'll save you sandpaper in the long run.

"BC"
Thank you! That looks like an excellent idea. I do have both of the items you suggest (faceplate and Jacobs chuck). I may see if I can find a piece of metal to attach to the faceplate, because I am sure I can't sand a piece of wood down as flat as I need. In the meantime, can't I use a piece of, say, a piece of cabinet-grade plywood and just assume it is flat?

I have ordered a disassembly tool set from Penn State, which I am sure will have the diameter tool for the jacobs chuck.

I also tried your second suggestion of turning the ends down before squaring. Just seemed like a good idea.

Thanks again, BC.
Warren

 

[Warren White]

I now use a solution I found on this site a ways back - bought the transfer punch kit from HF across the river, do my rough sanding to size on my disc sander (also crap, but fast....), use the proper size punch for the blank, mount in my drill chuck in the tailstock and square it up using a sander disk I made on a small faceplate.

The other problem this fixed was my pen mill would often chew the wood close to the tube, and I'd discover it after turning to size - argh!

jamie

Jamie,
You and the Bean Counter had the same suggestion. I will give it a try, as it seems to take advantage of the lathe's capabilities and should do everything I want.

Thank you!
Warren

 

[terry q]

Your mill needs to be SHARP! A new mill is not Sharp. I use those little paddle diamond sharpeners. Specifically the red one. First step is to carefully polish the 4 faces of the mill. Keep it flat! Next I polish the angled edge lightly using small circular motion. I do this every 35-50 blanks depending on how hard the wood is. Composite and stabilized blanks I do this more frequently.

 

[kingkeyman]

When I found this tool, it made me a happy man.
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f172/custom-made-penturning-tools-accessories-92501/

Buy this tool, a set of harbor freight transfer punches, a 1/2" drill chuck for your tailstock, and mount a piece of wood to the cheapest faceplate you can find to make a 5 or 6 inch sanding disk, you will never have an issue trimming pen barrels again.

 

[Bean_Counter]

Do you have a face plate for your lather? Also do
You have a Jacobs chuck? What I do is take your faceplate and turn a scrap piece of wood down flat. Once this is flat I buy adhesive 80 grit sandpaper and cut them in small squares. Take one of the squares and stick it in the middle of the piece of wood that is attached to your face plate. Insert your Jacobs chuck into the tail stock end of your lathe. I then tighten down a transfer punch that I bought from harbor freight. Now take your blank and put it on the transfer punch and sand down the wood to the brass. Repeat for other side. This gives you a nice square end.

Before I square the ends I turn the blank round and down to a little above the finished diameter and then square the ends using this jig. This does 2 things, 1) you aren't sanding wood that doesn't needed to be sanded and 2) it'll save you sandpaper in the long run.

"BC"
Thank you! That looks like an excellent idea. I do have both of the items you suggest (faceplate and Jacobs chuck). I may see if I can find a piece of metal to attach to the faceplate, because I am sure I can't sand a piece of wood down as flat as I need. In the meantime, can't I use a piece of, say, a piece of cabinet-grade plywood and just assume it is flat?

I have ordered a disassembly tool set from Penn State, which I am sure will have the diameter tool for the jacobs chuck.

I also tried your second suggestion of turning the ends down before squaring. Just seemed like a good idea.

Thanks again, BC.
Warren

Hey Warren I'm sure a piece of cabinet grade ply would work but I think I'd go for a piece of mdf since it's usually dead flat and not prone to humidity changes which cause warpage. However on mine I have a piece of scrap cherry but it's stable bc I pretty much live in the desert

 

[Bowhnter]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong...haven't seen anyone say to use a cordless drill. I put the blank in my vice and just use a the drill with pen mill attached, quick and easy.

 

[greggas]

Do you have a face plate for your lather? Also do
You have a Jacobs chuck? What I do is take your faceplate and turn a scrap piece of wood down flat. Once this is flat I buy adhesive 80 grit sandpaper and cut them in small squares. Take one of the squares and stick it in the middle of the piece of wood that is attached to your face plate. Insert your Jacobs chuck into the tail stock end of your lathe. I then tighten down a transfer punch that I bought from harbor freight. Now take your blank and put it on the transfer punch and sand down the wood to the brass. Repeat for other side. This gives you a nice square end.

Before I square the ends I turn the blank round and down to a little above the finished diameter and then square the ends using this jig. This does 2 things, 1) you aren't sanding wood that doesn't needed to be sanded and 2) it'll save you sandpaper in the long run.

I hope this helps and you can also search for pen blank squaring on the YouTube and there are jigs like this. I believe Ed Brown with exotics has a video of the similar setup but could be wrong. A good friend here on IAP showed me this method and I have since ditched using pen mills over a year ago.

Michael uses the same mat hod as I do. After trying many different ways I found this to be the best. Takes a few more steps but once you have a system down it goes quite fast and virtually eliminates issues like broken ends, taking too much of the tube off, etc.

 

[Sawdust1825]

I use the same technique as Bowhnter. Pen mills are NOT created equal. The best thing I ever did was invest in the Whiteside carbide set. Very sharp and stays that way. Also the end the mill mounts to is a little smaller than the others so when squaring a 7 mm blank it's less prone to having an issue with the tube not getting cleanly cut. I am always looking at ways to improve my processes as well. Getting a blank chuck for drilling was the single best thing I have done. Sharing knowledge and ideas is one of the great things about this site.

 

[ssajn]

Here's a list of "How to" videos including one way to square up a blank.
Exotic Blanks :: How To Videos

 

[Warren White]

My faceplates faceplate...

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I tried making a faceplate out of MDF, but even when finished, it seemed too 'mushy' for my liking. Additionally, I wondered if I could successfully stick the sandpaper to its surface over and then remove it and over again. Might just be the scrap MDF I had.

So, last night I found a piece of maple scrap and made the faceplate. I secured it with 1/4 28 bolts, lock washers and nuts that are counter sunk into the plate so I don't rip my knuckles or other body parts off while it is turning.

I don't have a blank to trim right now, but as soon as I do, I will let you know how it works. But for now, it was fun to make and turn to a round shape, and then sand. Boy, this stuff is fun!

Thanks again for the suggestions. (Also in the picture is my little drum sander. Too small for me to figure out a jig for it.)

Warren

 

[sbwertz]

You can still use the pen mill for cleaning up the edge after the blank is turned. My mill is mounted in a pin vise handle and used by hand to gently clean up the end of the blank of any CA finish that was stuck to the bushing. I then use a little sanding mill to finish polishing the ends. You can make a sanding mill by removing the head of the pen mill and reversing it on the shaft. Then take a little adhesive backed sandpaper and cut a circle with a hole in the middle and stick it to the flat back of the mill. Spin it by hand to polish the finished ends of your blank for a perfect fit.
The sandpaper can stay on the back of the mill, then you can just use the mill to clean off the CA, flip the head and sand the ends. You can take a scrap of 7mm brass tube and mount it in a scrap of hardwood and turn it down to make inserts for larger tubes. Write on the insert what pen kit it is for. Then your mill will work on any kit.


http://www.amazon.com/General-Tools...TF8&qid=1410109687&sr=1-12&keywords=pin+chuck

 

[Bean_Counter]

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I tried making a faceplate out of MDF, but even when finished, it seemed too 'mushy' for my liking. Additionally, I wondered if I could successfully stick the sandpaper to its surface over and then remove it and over again. Might just be the scrap MDF I had.

So, last night I found a piece of maple scrap and made the faceplate. I secured it with 1/4 28 bolts, lock washers and nuts that are counter sunk into the plate so I don't rip my knuckles or other body parts off while it is turning.

I don't have a blank to trim right now, but as soon as I do, I will let you know how it works. But for now, it was fun to make and turn to a round shape, and then sand. Boy, this stuff is fun!

Thanks again for the suggestions. (Also in the picture is my little drum sander. Too small for me to figure out a jig for it.)

Warren

Looks great warren. The sand paper adhesive will begin to stick to the faceplate so after several pieces I use DNA and remove the adhesive residue. Enjoy :biggrin::biggrin:

 

[butchf18a]

Power drill with appropriate sized mill chucked. Secure blank in vise after gluing tubes. Quick, easy, accurate every time. Cleans out excess glue as well. I can complete blanks for dozen or more pens in under 5 minutes.

I read with interest post after post on numerous subjects where people insist, for whatever reason, to take a simple process and complicate it unnecessarily.

 

[butchf18a]

DITTO

Maybe I'm doing it wrong...haven't seen anyone say to use a cordless drill. I put the blank in my vice and just use a the drill with pen mill attached, quick and easy.

Hadn't seen Bowhunter post prior to my initial response. Keep it simple.

 

[Dan Masshardt]

I use different methods but when I use a mill, it's either in the drill press or more often in a hand held drill

 

[Warren White]

Report...

Thank you for all of the responses on what may be only my vexing problem. Others obviously have their chosen method which works well for them, which is excellent. I thought it only fair to post the results of my first use of the method I have chosen.

I bought some pressure sensitive adhesive backed sanding discs (10") at Harbor Freight. I can get a LOT of 1 1/2" squares out of each of them. They came in 60, 80 and 100 grit. I chose the 100 grit because the laminated blank I am turning has already shown a propensity to chip.

I mounted the appropriate size transfer punch in my Jacobs Chuck (the OD of which was just under the ID of the brass tubing) on the tailstock and my sanding fixture on the faceplate attached to the headstock. The pointy end of the transfer punch was toward the sanding fixture, and I actually allowed the tip to go slightly into the sanding fixture. Prior to moving the transfer punch into the sanding fixture, the blank was slipped over the transfer punch and could smoothly move laterally, moving the blank on and off the sandpaper.

The lathe was then turned on to a low speed.

One piece of sandpaper was sufficient to square off both ends of both pieces of the pen blank which I had partially turned to final diameter, thus minimizing the need of sanding. It was completely painless and did exactly what I wanted with an absolute minimum of angst on my part. I could easily move the sandpaper to a new spot and start over with another blank.

Thanks again for all of the discussion. I learned a lot from each of you.

Warren