VirgilGuitars
Member
Hello All!
First night here - been turning pens for a 3 years now.. It was one of the things I first got into back in 2010 - the same year I decided to start building guitars - now I build guitars for a living! The funny thing is, back in 2009, I had only done a couple of simple woodworking projects. A guy named Gary at our local wood store talked me into buying a small lathe. I was hooked immediately! I am a stubborn type of guy and try to depend on myself for figuring out things, so I actually have figured most of this out on my own thus far, but have seen some great ideas on the internet as well.
A couple weeks ago my brother talked me into making him 3 sets of pens and I decided to ask some friends of mine if they wanted some pens for a "great price" and before you knew it, I had committed to 16 pens! I have not made any pens in a while, since my full time gig is guitar building now, but I have to say it was AWESOME starting the lathe back up yesterday. I use the CA glue finish on my pens but also like the wax method too, but I was applying CA glue and remembered a tip I once read about spraying the bushings with Pam cooking spray before applying CA glue and seemed to be hit-or-miss... tonight, I came up with an AWESOME new trick - not sure if anyone has ever done this before, but some of the bushings were still stuck to the pen after taking of the mandrell and I used a lighter and heated up the bushing (just for a few seconds!) then tapped on the bushing with the lighter and PING! it came right off -I did it 4 times tonight and it was like magic every time! sometimes, it would pull a "little sheet" off the end, but I cleaned the ends with a new razor - spectacular! I thought is was so cool, I joined this forum just to share it with y'all!
I'll be back!
Virgil Guitars - Custom one-offs boutique guitars, incredible inlay, killer tone.
First night here - been turning pens for a 3 years now.. It was one of the things I first got into back in 2010 - the same year I decided to start building guitars - now I build guitars for a living! The funny thing is, back in 2009, I had only done a couple of simple woodworking projects. A guy named Gary at our local wood store talked me into buying a small lathe. I was hooked immediately! I am a stubborn type of guy and try to depend on myself for figuring out things, so I actually have figured most of this out on my own thus far, but have seen some great ideas on the internet as well.
A couple weeks ago my brother talked me into making him 3 sets of pens and I decided to ask some friends of mine if they wanted some pens for a "great price" and before you knew it, I had committed to 16 pens! I have not made any pens in a while, since my full time gig is guitar building now, but I have to say it was AWESOME starting the lathe back up yesterday. I use the CA glue finish on my pens but also like the wax method too, but I was applying CA glue and remembered a tip I once read about spraying the bushings with Pam cooking spray before applying CA glue and seemed to be hit-or-miss... tonight, I came up with an AWESOME new trick - not sure if anyone has ever done this before, but some of the bushings were still stuck to the pen after taking of the mandrell and I used a lighter and heated up the bushing (just for a few seconds!) then tapped on the bushing with the lighter and PING! it came right off -I did it 4 times tonight and it was like magic every time! sometimes, it would pull a "little sheet" off the end, but I cleaned the ends with a new razor - spectacular! I thought is was so cool, I joined this forum just to share it with y'all!
I'll be back!
Virgil Guitars - Custom one-offs boutique guitars, incredible inlay, killer tone.
