Straight Slim Line

[StatProf]

Any of y'all have techniques for keeping your cut really straight when you cut a slimline? I have a couple of orders for slimlines and they want them B2B. I have trouble keeping it straight with that small of a diameter.

Kyle

 

[skiprat]

I think I once saw a little ring clamp for your chisel. It had a small thumbscrew to keep it in place. It would ride along the front of the tool rest and you'd set it so that the maximum depth would be 'just ' proud of the bushings.

You could probably make one with an old wood offcut and a screw in it, in a few minutes

 

[thevillageworkshop]

Turn until close to the bushings. Then use a 1/4 piece of plywood with sandpaper the width of the pen blank. Plywood touches the bushings on both ends and keeps the barrel straight.

 

[its_virgil]

Set the tool rest close to the pen. I use a skew and hold it beween my thumb and index finger. I let my index finger ride on the tool rest and act as a guide to keep the tool tip registered at the same place along the length of the pen. I do hope this makes some sort of sense.

I've often wondered why the slimline has become the "beginner pen of choice" (I know you are not a beginner---I'm just thinking outloud here) when turning one as they are designed to be turned...bushing to bushing...is not the easiest penturning task. I suppose at one time the slimline was the baron or statesman or sierra of its day and maybe even the only kit from which to choose. And, it has become the pen with which most of us start this madness because it was the only choice in kits.

Do a good turn daily!
Don

Any of y'all have techniques for keeping your cut really straight when you cut a slimline? I have a couple of orders for slimlines and they want them B2B. I have trouble keeping it straight with that small of a diameter.

Kyle

 

[wb7whi]

Why slimline

I've often wondered why the slimline has become the "beginner pen of choice" (I know you are not a beginner---I'm just thinking outloud here) when turning one as they are designed to be turned...bushing to bushing...is not the easiest penturning task. I suppose at one time the slimline was the baron or statesman or sierra of its day and maybe even the only kit from which to choose. And, it has become the pen with which most of us start this madness because it was the only choice in kits.

=====================

I suspect because it is the cheapest kit. You botch it and you are not out a lot of money.
I have been wondering if something could be done with the background to make the lines of the blank easier to see. Have a card behind the pen blank with horizontal lines but havn't acted on it yet.

 

[maxwell_smart007]

It's the choice of newbies because it's the cheapest...who wants to wreck a 50 dollar kit through ignorance? Instead, we all start with a bazillion 2 dollar kits and make pens that only our mother would be proud of!

Well, actually, I was pretty proud of my first pens, but not after digging them out of a drawer the other day! :biggrin: