jking
Member
Thanks to those who answered some of my questions I had while making this pen. It turned out pretty good. This is a modified slimline similar to the Russ' "Fatline" pen.
I learned several thing while making this pen. First, I think I like a narrow centerband better than the one I made. I had a 1/4" parting tool, so, I made the centerband the width of the tool. Second, it is very easy to get the tubes misaligned when turning. I was sure I'd kept them aligned so the grain matched. When I started finishing, I discovered that was not the case. I'd already applied a sealer coat of CA and a couple of coats of medium, so I didn't want to sand all the way back down to wood to smooth it out. Instead, I ended up putting a bushing in between the blanks when sanding out the finish. I ended up rounding over slightly the edges where the blanks match up. This makes the joint between the two blanks more noticeable than I'd hoped for.
I also learned with this type of modified pen to put a bushing in between when applying the sealer coat. I didn't do that & had a minor panic when I realized the sealer coat glued the two halves together. I pulled it off the mandrel & snapped them apart at the joint, but, there are some dull spots in the finish where you can tell where I picked it up. The CA wasn't tacky, but, it wasn't fully dry.
I sanded up to 3600 MM before applying the finish. The finish was one coat of thin CA as a sealer, & then 3-4 coats of medium CA applied with a plastic baggie. Finish was sanded smooth from 400 grit up through 12000 MM. The pictures don't really show the shine very well. The blackwood appears lighter in the pictures.
Comments are welcome. Thanks for looking.
I learned several thing while making this pen. First, I think I like a narrow centerband better than the one I made. I had a 1/4" parting tool, so, I made the centerband the width of the tool. Second, it is very easy to get the tubes misaligned when turning. I was sure I'd kept them aligned so the grain matched. When I started finishing, I discovered that was not the case. I'd already applied a sealer coat of CA and a couple of coats of medium, so I didn't want to sand all the way back down to wood to smooth it out. Instead, I ended up putting a bushing in between the blanks when sanding out the finish. I ended up rounding over slightly the edges where the blanks match up. This makes the joint between the two blanks more noticeable than I'd hoped for.
I also learned with this type of modified pen to put a bushing in between when applying the sealer coat. I didn't do that & had a minor panic when I realized the sealer coat glued the two halves together. I pulled it off the mandrel & snapped them apart at the joint, but, there are some dull spots in the finish where you can tell where I picked it up. The CA wasn't tacky, but, it wasn't fully dry.
I sanded up to 3600 MM before applying the finish. The finish was one coat of thin CA as a sealer, & then 3-4 coats of medium CA applied with a plastic baggie. Finish was sanded smooth from 400 grit up through 12000 MM. The pictures don't really show the shine very well. The blackwood appears lighter in the pictures.
Comments are welcome. Thanks for looking.
