Has anybody turned a Medical logo inlay pen?

[ramaroodle]

Got this from Rockler for a gift for my wife. No instructions with it. Confused about why there is a blue logo and blank and half of a light colored blank.

Edit - Unless.....the half blank is just a way to hold the little pieces and the blue logo is whats cut out of the blue blank? Looks like the top of the staff is broken off and in the box.

 

[magpens]

That appears to be the Caduceus Inlay Blank from lazerlinez.com

https://lazerlinez.com/collections/pink-ribbon-inlay/products/caduceus-laser-inlay-kit

I guess he (Constant) sells kits to Rockler for resale.

It would seem that you can have a blue medical symbol or a white medical symbol. . But you only have a blue background color. . Perhaps Constant makes his kits to be dual purpose but you would have to order the white background (if that is what you want) from him.

You don't actually have "half of a light colored blank". . You have only the blue colored blank, the white colored inlay pieces, and you should also have some tiny blue colored inlay pieces. . Some of the white inlay pieces still have to be punched out of the large white piece you show. . I can see the two wings of the medical symbol. . There should also be a bunch of tiny blue pieces to go in the holes between the snake curves and the pole - I see those in the Rockler pic on the left but I don't see them in your pic on the right.

I have made one or two of these and they go together OK if you don't lose the tiny little pieces that go between the snake and the pole. . (Your picture on the right does not show these tiny pieces but the Rockler website picture on the left does.)

As for instructions, you can find them on Constant's website. This link might show the instructions:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1147/1020/files/Medicine_Symbol.pdf?17009260227077475785


If you need any further help you can send me a PM.

 

[ramaroodle]

Thanks. Yes, I do have the tiny tiny tiny pieces. It was the last one the store had as all of their inlay kits were reduced from $22.99 to $4.99.

The instructions and the little rubber bands are missing also so I think the box had been opened. The top of the staff is mixed in with the little pieces so I think it broke off but is fixable. I bought 4 different inlay kits and got one for free.

 

[Skie_M]

From what I understand, the little rubber bands help a ton but you CAN replace them with little strips of saran wrap or cling wrap to hold the parts in place ....


The typical method is to get your tube ready and centered inside of the large tube blank but DO NOT GLUE IN PLACE YET. You want to use a thin or extra-thin CA to do the gluing, and you will want to work quickly. Make sure you rough your tube up pretty well, to get full adherence.

Lay out your small parts and set them in place in the blank ... as many for the area as you can that is facing your direction, and put some thin CA over the area to help keep everything in place as you turn your barrel tube to access the next area .... if parts are wanting to fall out, secure them in place with rubber bands or saran wrap until the CA cures. If you are missing any parts, it may be possible to simply swap out that "color" of the design with colored epoxy instead. Once the epoxy is applied, you can cover that area with saran wrap to keep it in place as it cures. Make certain to "flood" the areas closest to the ends of the brass tube to ensure it bonds all the way around .... in the case of a design that is only in one area of the tube or one side, make sure you flood the sides to ensure that the glue goes all the way around to the back as well.


After all the parts are in place and secured, you will want to use a sanding disc and possibly a jig to keep it square in order to square the ends of your blank. Once it's all squared up, you can turn it VERY LIGHTLY .... possibly with a very very sharp skew using extremely light cuts, but the more accepted method is to just sand it to the proper dimensions. (sanding it down is not a cop-out ... sometimes there really just is no better way, especially with delicate tiny pieces).

Finishing .... you'll typically want to finish using CA, in order to properly bond all the tops of the pieces and fill in any last cracks and gaps in the design. Right before you apply the CA is your last chance to fix any issues with color intensity and do any other special effects you had in mind .....

An idea I recently had was to take some pearl-ex mica pearl powder and rub it DRY over the blank, and THEN apply CA over it and see what comes up ....

 

[ramaroodle]

Thanks for all the help guys. It was pretty straight forward after laying it all out and looking at the link from magpens. Not something I'd want to sell as the top of the staff was missing and my attempts to use glue and sawdust as a filler was a miserable failure and a few other flaws but for $4.99 it was a good learning experience and my first inlay pen. Was afraid to touch it even with a sharp skew so I sanded it. Any suggestions on how I could have fixed the missing shaft head would be appreciated.

 

[magpens]

That looks pretty good, actually !!

I have no idea how you could have done the top of the staff.

Maybe you can now add some blue coloring from an appropriate marker pen before you do the finishing.

 

[jttheclockman]

I would have called Constant

 

[its_virgil]

Filled the void with colored two part epoxy.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

I have no idea how you could have done the top of the staff.

 

[its_virgil]

Evidently you were missing one little piece...hence the $4.99 price. Just saying. The pen looks nice just the same. Nice save on the pen and the $$$.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Thanks. Yes, I do have the tiny tiny tiny pieces. It was the last one the store had as all of their inlay kits were reduced from $22.99 to $4.99.

 

[ramaroodle]

Evidently you were missing one little piece...hence the $4.99 price. Just saying. The pen looks nice just the same. Nice save on the pen and the $$$.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Actually, all of the inlay kits in the store were $4.99 as they are phasing them out in-store, at least at my local Rockler. The caduceus was the last one of those they had. I bought 4 at $4.99 and got a 5th one free. I just specifically needed the medical logo for a gift but grabbed a few more since they were so cheap. I knew the piece was missing when I got it, so let's say that was the free one. I may have to buy one from LazerLinze for $19 as I still need it for a gift.

I forget which ones I bought but there was an Afghanistan campaign military one, a fly fishing one and I forget the others.