New to Pen Turning in McKinney, TX

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euscsey58

Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
1
Location
Texas
Just joined and excited about getting started in the art of penturning. I have seen many examples of beautiful pens and it triggered a desire to try to produce quality pens as well.
If you have any first timer advice please share.
If you know of a great place to buy the start up equipment at a great price I would love to hear about that as well.

Thanks and I can't wait to get started and meet new turners...
 
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mbroberg

mbroberg

IAP Activities Manager, Emeritus
Joined
Mar 9, 2009
Messages
5,965
Location
Columbus, OH
Welcome from Columbus, OH. I've been to McKinney. Nice place. Has, or at least had, a great little bar named Hanks.
 
J

jennera

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2017
Messages
236
Location
Texas
Welcome from Murphy, TX!

We love to visit Wood World Texas in Garland. We have picked up some nice shorts there of walnut, sinker cypress, pear, and canary wood and they have a larger selection of pen kits than Rockler or Woodcraft.



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Kenny Durrant

Kenny Durrant

Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2012
Messages
2,510
Location
Sachse Tx. 75048
Wow a lot of people just a few minutes apart. I'm in Sachse. I'm going to assume you don't have any tools or "Equipment" at all. You are being smart asking others advice that way you don't spend a lot of money only to want something different once you figure out what you want to do. The North Texas Group used to try to get together at Wood World to socialize and swap stories but that hasn't happened in a while. If it's just a handful of people maybe someone can pick a Whataburger or something some Saturday morning and we can talk there. Welcome to the IAP. It's a fun and very addicting hobby so be careful!
 
leehljp

leehljp

Member Liaison
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
9,331
Location
Tunica, Mississippi,
Another Welcome from Mississippi. I get over to McKinney about 3 times a year. My daughter and 5 grandkids live up in Anna.

Some helps: IN the blue boxes at the top of the "home" screen is a box on the middle row labeled "Library". Click on it and go to the second line to "Pen Turning 101.

Here is a helpful read from 8 years ago:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f14/if-i-had-known-earlier-46654/
 
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Dehn0045

Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2017
Messages
1,533
Location
US
Welcome! Check out the thread that Hank posted, it's a goodie. Search the forum and library lots. Also, YouTube videos are good for some basics, but few of the videos demonstrate techniques that many IAP-ers advocate (TBC, drilling on lathe, etc). For me, Mandrels and Bushings were a big waste of money, should've just went straight to TBC. I started out with drilling on the lathe, would recommend it to anyone. Skip the barrel trimmer and get a collet chuck for squaring on the lathe. Lastly, stabilize burls and crosscut blanks - I erroneously thought that CA alone would prevent cracking, a few cracked pens later I'm now learning to stabilize all of the burl in my collection. No doubt there will be many different opinions on all of these and more, just try some stuff out and enjoy the ride!
 
M

MTViper

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Messages
734
Location
Clyde, Texas
Welcome from Clyde, TX out west of you. I'd recommend you check out WoodworldTX in Dallas, it's behind TI just north of 635. They can get you started right.
 
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Burb

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
150
Location
Republic, MO
Welcome from SW Missouri. I work with a guy who lives in McKinney and works in our Allen office. Our company flies into the McKinney airport several times per week.

BTW, you're luck for living in McKinney. You have Hutchins BBQ. It's AWESOME!!!


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T

thawkins87

Member
Joined
May 15, 2017
Messages
77
Location
McKinney, TX
Burb said:
Welcome from SW Missouri. I work with a guy who lives in McKinney and works in our Allen office. Our company flies into the McKinney airport several times per week.

BTW, you're luck for living in McKinney. You have Hutchins BBQ. It's AWESOME!!!


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Click to expand...

They just finished up a pretty major expansion at Hutchins too! Used to be very difficult to get a table at lunch time, now it's more than twice the size!

Boy just thinking about those brisket stuffed jalapeno poppers is making my mouth water... Looks like I may be going out to lunch today!
 
B

Burb

Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
150
Location
Republic, MO
thawkins87 said:
They just finished up a pretty major expansion at Hutchins too! Used to be very difficult to get a table at lunch time, now it's more than twice the size!



Boy just thinking about those brisket stuffed jalapeno poppers is making my mouth water... Looks like I may be going out to lunch today!
Click to expand...


I travel a fair amount for work, and I usually lean towards BBQ & brick oven pizza joints. The BBQ at Hutchins is some of the best I've ever had. Much better than what I've had in the SE part of the country. And living in SW Missouri, I'm not a fan of most KC BBQ places either except for 1. But there is a local place to me that was started by a BBQ Champion with many trophies that is one of the best I've had as well. It's called Hog-Tide, as he's an ex-UofA Razorback football player. Very good place to go and they are almost always busy.




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B

bud_008

Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2017
Messages
59
Location
Bunch, Oklahoma
Welcome from Stilwell, Oklahoma!!! I drive through Mckinney fairly often or at least near there on my way to visit family down in Tyler. I'd gladly make a stop to swap a pen, blanks, or stories and meet a fellow turner.
 
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