Wow, truly an amazing site!
Hey all, I'm Ray a machinist by trade and graphic designer/sign maker for a living…..
I stumbled across this hobby in the form of a "starter kit" at my local Busy Bee tools, figured it would be cool to make some pens on my little Atlas 618…. Bought the kit then subsequently shelved it….
You see with me, I have a little adult attention deficit disorder when it comes to hobbies, my thirst to learn moves me from one hobby to another with each impulse.
Currently working on a full size Blazer project, R/C cars, home theater, shooting, carpentry, Bass Guitar, darts, model cars, computers, making signs/stickers, archery, dirt biking, video games, slot cars, machining, renos, paintball and of course my family…… hey, why not turn some pens!
I haven't touched a wood lathe for nearly 20 years, then Canadian tire had their mini lathe on sale, BOOM! Impulse flash, that night I'm unboxing the lathe and pen starter kit.
As it turns out the Canadian Tire lathe is a huge steaming pile of crapola, and the next couple nights were spent making it useable…. surface grinding, replacing plastic handles with steel, reaming tapers, fixing threads etc.
Once the lathe was useable I tore into that kit like there was no tomorrow, using the supplied wood of unknown origin and the gold plated pieces in the kit I widdled out rather blah pen, but I was hooked, I mean come on, an hour start to finish…. This is got to be my favourite hobby; I can get a pen chewed out from my mind's eye before the AADD kicks in!
The following morning when I showed it to my wife and a couple of friends, they were all like "you made that!?, whoa!"… totally blown away!
Instant gratification, working on a wood lathe, creating a useable item that people love, oh the fun….. then I come across this site and I see all these new ideas…. Damn you guys!
After viewing nearly a million pictures on the site, I wandered over to a local Luthier who is currently building me a acoustic bass guitar, and asked if he had any chunks of ….whatever? He gave me all kinds of bits of wood that were to small to be of any use and destined for the trash, I left with all kinds of wood to make blanks with….. snakewood, lacewood, macassar ebony, African blackwood, purple heart, curly maple, Honduran mahogany and even some pieces of Brazilian rosewood!!
Needless to say with all the learning potential of this current hobby…. I may be at it for a while!
Well, that was long winded, I'll post pics soon, once I scoure the photography forum for info ;-)
…… off to the lathe!
Hey all, I'm Ray a machinist by trade and graphic designer/sign maker for a living…..
I stumbled across this hobby in the form of a "starter kit" at my local Busy Bee tools, figured it would be cool to make some pens on my little Atlas 618…. Bought the kit then subsequently shelved it….
You see with me, I have a little adult attention deficit disorder when it comes to hobbies, my thirst to learn moves me from one hobby to another with each impulse.
Currently working on a full size Blazer project, R/C cars, home theater, shooting, carpentry, Bass Guitar, darts, model cars, computers, making signs/stickers, archery, dirt biking, video games, slot cars, machining, renos, paintball and of course my family…… hey, why not turn some pens!
I haven't touched a wood lathe for nearly 20 years, then Canadian tire had their mini lathe on sale, BOOM! Impulse flash, that night I'm unboxing the lathe and pen starter kit.
As it turns out the Canadian Tire lathe is a huge steaming pile of crapola, and the next couple nights were spent making it useable…. surface grinding, replacing plastic handles with steel, reaming tapers, fixing threads etc.
Once the lathe was useable I tore into that kit like there was no tomorrow, using the supplied wood of unknown origin and the gold plated pieces in the kit I widdled out rather blah pen, but I was hooked, I mean come on, an hour start to finish…. This is got to be my favourite hobby; I can get a pen chewed out from my mind's eye before the AADD kicks in!
The following morning when I showed it to my wife and a couple of friends, they were all like "you made that!?, whoa!"… totally blown away!
Instant gratification, working on a wood lathe, creating a useable item that people love, oh the fun….. then I come across this site and I see all these new ideas…. Damn you guys!
After viewing nearly a million pictures on the site, I wandered over to a local Luthier who is currently building me a acoustic bass guitar, and asked if he had any chunks of ….whatever? He gave me all kinds of bits of wood that were to small to be of any use and destined for the trash, I left with all kinds of wood to make blanks with….. snakewood, lacewood, macassar ebony, African blackwood, purple heart, curly maple, Honduran mahogany and even some pieces of Brazilian rosewood!!
Needless to say with all the learning potential of this current hobby…. I may be at it for a while!
Well, that was long winded, I'll post pics soon, once I scoure the photography forum for info ;-)
…… off to the lathe!
