support and advice welcome

[aurrida]

hello everyone,

in brief, i'm a brit living in germany in need of an outlet for my creative side and some means of making a little extra cash. and, you've guessed it i'm on the verge of turning a pen.

ordered a lathe from willyvanhoutte.be which arrived promptly at a very reasonable price but as yet it hasn't been tested, so i'll hold off any judgments for a little while longer.

checked out german suppliers for kits etc. and have found two supplying csusa kits and accessories. but, with complete ignorance have chosen to order direct from csusa. at the moment i'm up by 40% but i don't know how much importing is going to cost. goods arrive tomorrow so i'll let you know. incidentally order will have taken three days and that has included the weekend, amazing.

so whats coming. gentlemen, gentlemen jr, retro and and statesman jr kits. celluloid, acrylic, stabilized and alternative ivory. still need to get a few other things particularly just to practice on, oh and sierra kits, other than that i'll probably be ready to start this week.

help,

1. any advice on the kits mentioned.
2. any advice on the blanks mentioned, turning and finishing.

looking forward to meeting you all!

 

[Rudy Vey]

Darren, these are great kits!! Hope you have ordered Rhodium and TiGold plated ones, they will last very well. Have you ever turned anything??
If not, I would start with some cheap wood to get the hang of it. I have turned a lot of acrylics, and they are coming out fine if you have sharp tools and a light touch. Never have turned alternative Ivory, but have done hundreds of stabilized woods, and these turn also very nice and finish well. For finishing, after the turning is done (I use a 3/8 spindle gouge and 3/4 skew), I normally use Abranet sanding mesh up to 400 and then all the grits of MicroMesh. Have fun, there are not too many pen turners in Germany, so you should have a great market.
Btw, where in Germany do you live?? I am from there, from Frankfurt/M originally.

 

[UKpenmaker]

Welcome along to the group Darren.
Those are nice kits that you have got coming in, all good upper end kits.
As far as your blanks go with your celluloid and acrylic, when you drill them drill them slowly and don't let them get to hot or the may shatter.
Turn them with very sharp tool sand a light touch.
To finish them off well i would wet sand using micro-mesh, which goes down to 12000 (very fine indeed0 then just give them a quick going over with an car fine scratch remover, i use T-Cut, don't know if you can get it in Germany.?
Look foward to seeing some of your work

Hope customs doesn't get you fot to much, i think you will still be in pocket eben if you do have to pay.

 

[aurrida]

hallo, rudy viele gruesse aus nuernberg.

the good news is i have ordered rhodium and extra insert tubes to practice on. the not so good news is i really haven't turned anything except a bowl quite a few years ago.

have ordered micro mesh, there were 2 types the normal gray and some coloured ones for use with plastics. wasn't sure if they were the same or really different? will pick up a bottle of HUT Ultra-Gloss Plastic Polish.

am i right in my understanding that all the blanks mentioned will need no further finishing?

and, any advice on keeping those tools sharp. have seen eze-lap diamond file. which grade would i need.

ps can i pick your brains later on about setting up a web site. liked the design layout of yours?

 

[Rudy Vey]

Forget the friction polish, you don't need no special finishes on acrylics and on stabilized wood. The plastic polishes to a very glossy sheen when you use the MM (btw the grey ones are the ones I use only)and end with a fine automotive polish (or get some Novus fine scratch remover - thats what I use). If you do wood, the best and easiest finish seems to be CA - do a search here and you find a lot of information.
I forgot yo mention that a lot of acrylics, celluloids etc are a bit translucent and might show the brass tubes and glue lines through the finished turning. To avoid this frustrating thing, I paint the inside of the drilled blank as well as the tubes with model paint. Normally in the main color of the blank.
Wife and I went yesterday to a concert by some of your country men and women: The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and the Band of the Coldstream Guards. Was excellent!

 

[aurrida]

well all has arrived safely. thanks for the welcome and advice. hopefully get my first pen done this weekend

 

[rherrell]

Welcome Darren! Sounds like you've made excellent choices on all your supplies. Have fun with your new lathe!!

 

[Ligget]

Welcome Darren, good kits you ordered, there is so much to learn when starting to turn pens.[xx(]

Better to ask plenty of questions on here if you need help!

 

[Rmartin]

Welcome, sounds like you've taken to this addiction nicely.

 

[aurrida]

thanks for the welcome everyone.

can anyone advice how to turn square acrylic and stabilized blanks down to to the point where i guess a skew would be better. understand the need to go very gently and i saw the video where the man used a round nose scrapper initially. a little concerned when i make contact with the scrapper on a square edge then goodbye blank. is speed an issue?

hopefully start turning the weekend. cant wait.

 

[maxwell_smart007]

Gruss Got

Don't worry too much about your blank shattering when you just make contact with it. You need to use a really light touch, though...I use a fairly high speed for acrylics too, but barely touch the gouge to the blank...

Make sure you glue the tubes into the blank really well, using thick CA or something similar...the only blowouts I had on the lathe were due to a poor glue-in job!

Auf Wiedersehen!
Andrew

 

[IPD_Mrs]

Guter Tag

Can't help much with suppliers on your side of the pond but if there are items here in the states that you are wanting and the supplier does not ship overseas, some of us Yanks are more than willing to help.

Where are you in Germany? I spent a couple of years in Ulm. Of course that was back when it was West Germany.

Mike

 

[aurrida]

how bizarre mike lived in ulm last year now in nuremberg.

thanks for the offer to ship stuff out for me. at the moment seems to be going ok with csusa. working out considerably cheaper even when you add shipping and taxes.the exchange rate seems to be working in my favour. i've been really impressed with the quality of the kits that have arrived.

are there other kits i should know about that compare with the gentleman statesman series?

 

[IPD_Mrs]

Darren do they still have the open market in front of the Münster in December? The smell of fresh sauerkraut. [^] It has been 20+ years. My daughter was born in Ulm at what was then chrsitcrinken house? Not sure of the spelling or if it is still the same place.

Would love to go back some day.

Mike

 

[aurrida]

mike they still have the market at christmas. don't recognise the name of that place though. i enjoyed my time in ulm, it wasn't particularly spectacular but it was nice and i worked for many people in ulm and they were all very good to me.

well if you come over drop by for coffee and cake, it still happens every day at 3pm.

 

[IPD_Mrs]

Hey if you have a Mrs. then you need to head to Wurzburg. Women always like the Christmas towns. If your not married, heck your in Nuremburg![}]

Mike

 

[PR_Princess]

Welcome Darren!!!

A Brit living in Germany. WOW a two-fer! When I was knee hi to a flea I spent quite some time in the Black Forest area. I hope that it is still as beautiful there now as I remember it.

I know Ed4copies also spent some time in Germany, although I am not exactly sure what areas. Welcome aboard Darren - from both of us!! [8D]

 

[R2]

Welcome Darren. Nothing like diving straight in!![]

 

[aurrida]

well thanks for the continuing welcomes.

i guess the black forrest hasn't changed much, i live on the edge of a big forrest on the edge of nuremberg, quite a novelty for me coming from england. unfortunately no see, well not in the south. shouldn't complain have a few big hills near bye, called the alps or something similar.

in at the deep end, yes, as ever. hope to have a few pens up for sale by the end of february. ye, you can all stop laughing. i like to do a good job so i will see if i'm can meet my own expections. unfortunately being held up by not having the bushings for the jr series. on order

was given a good tip, and as usual obvious when you think about it but unfortunately i didn't, turn wooden blanks to use as bushes when using a barrel trimmer on too large a brass tube. guess its not perfect but will do to start.