Wedding Pen

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wrhastings

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I've been asked by my brother, to turn a "wedding pen" for his wedding in late March. I wasn't sure what exactly waht he wanted, so after looking through some catalogs, he zeroed in on the "Father Sing Desk Pen" in the Craft Supplies USA book. My concern is that the only turning I've done has been pens on mandrels, and have only been doing that since 11/04, and the upper portion of the pen, and the base obviously need some other technique or process. Can anyone give me some idea of what is going to be involved so I can decide if this may be too much to take on in such a short time? Thanks.
 
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wayneis

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It is a little more tricky than some pens but it is not really difficult to do. You will still be using a mandrel but a short one and the other end will be held in place with your live center. The biggest thing to keep in mind is after you get it down to size you will need to be carefull sanding on the end that is held in by the live center untill it is finished and parted off.

Wayne
 

woodscavenger

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I think I know with one you are talking about. I did one like that last night minus the base. Tak a look at my album, it is one of the recent uploads. I'll do that later. The long top I did by drilling just as you would for a regular blank and gluing in the 7mm tube. I put them both on the mandrel, bottom tube first after playing around a little I found the right number of spacers (extra 7mm bushings) to use on the morse taper side of the mandrel. You obviously have to back up the tailstock. The trickiest part for me was finding the center of the end. Also, I was afraid my live center would split the wood if I used too much pressure so I put a zip tie around the end of the peice to give some stability.

The only real problem I had was deflection of the long barrel. My wood was an unknown type from a dowel I picked up at a fabric store and it seemed a little soft. You might not get the same deflection with harder woods. I did have to use my other had to apply some counter pressure so I could get a good cut, otherwise I got a bit of chatter. I cut most of the details but did not complete the final tapering separation cut until I had sanded and finished the pen. Then I slowed the lathe down and slowly parted the end away with a sharp skew. I backed of the tailstock and with slow speed I sanded the tip while pracing it with my other had...kind of like being my own tailstock. Then a little hand finishing and I was done.

The pen holder can be simple or wild. Depending on the couples taste you could do a wide variety of things from a rough wood section with bark or burl lightly sanded and finished in rough form to a turned corian or exotic wood base. From the question I gather you have not turned many other items than pens.

If you do not have a chuck you can glue a waste block to the peice you want to turn, screw that to the face plate that I assume came with your lathe and turn whatever style you want. Take light cut because you will be cutting endgrain on two sides of the turning. Put your skew away and don't touch it unless you are going to do some detail lines....unless you like nasty catches. You can use you gouge or scraper but I prefer my sorby fingernail gouge.


Have fun and good luck.
 

Fred in NC

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I agree with Shane (woodscavenger).

For these long pens I drill a 2-1/8" hole in one end of the wood and glue in the tube. Square the end of the tubed blank of course.

Then I mount on a short homemade mandrel. Mine is a piece of 1/4" bolt without the threads. These are actually less than 1/4" in diameter. The ones I get here are approximately .246 dia. This is the same as a mandrel. I mount the short mandrel in a 1/4" collet. If you have no collet you can mount the shaft in a drill chuck or scroll chuck. Make sure it runs true.

I put a couple bushings on the mandrel, leaving about 2" to go in the tube. Then I mount the blank on the shaft, and use the live center on the other end. I have a live center set with several points, so I use a CUP CENTER for this type of barrel. You can always reinforce the wood at this end with some CA to avoid splitting.
 

ctEaglesc

Passed Away Jul 4, 2008
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It might be a good time to look into an adjustable mandrel.
WC has them and I'm sure other companies do also.
I believe the whole this was about $30.00 from WC.
They come in handy
 
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