triming the ends

[Peter 357]

turning my first pen. Just glued the tubes in. Tomorrow i trim and turn. My question is how do i know I trip enough. I trip to flus witht he tubes. but How do I know i hit the tubes? Please any advice would help

Peter

 

[loglugger]

I have a light behind the drill press and can see when i get to the brass.
Bob

 

[Travlr7]

When the brass gets shiny, you're there. Go lightly and check. You'll get the hang of it quickly.

Bruce[]

 

[Mac In Oak Ridge]

What Bob and Bruce said above. You just want to kiss the end of the tube with the trimmer. If you have good light behind where you are working you'll see the brass suddenly show up and be shiny. Stop, go no further.

The first few pens you may have to cut and look, cut and look till you get the hang of it. Just go slow on the first few and it will start to come natural to you after then.

 

[WoodChucker]

Peter, also be careful if your using a trimmer, if you push just a little to hard it will grab the wood and remove a lot more wood then you wanted, I learned that the hard way. []

Also, welcome to the forum!

R.T.

 

[Guest]

If you are doing kits that are not slimlinesi.e. the ones that take a Paker refill(for the most part) and the top and bottom halves screw together.
DO NOT remove any brass if you can help it.
The result will be a refill that may not retract all the way into the pen barrel.
Slimlines are more forgiving,you can compensate.
I started with American Classics and learned the "other" way(not soft)