Finally, back to turning..and between centers too!

[allenworsham]

I didn't get to do any turning during March due to doing other projects and spending a lot of time with my wife (a special education teacher) while she was off track all month. Then came taxes, so my lathe collected dust that was not wood based. I had received my order from JohnnyCNC on March 5th with some bushings and new centers along with a large order (for me that is) from Arizona Silhouette that just sat on my workbench mocking me every time I walked through the garage. Yesterday I rolled out the table saw and finished cutting up a bunch of blank material that I had sitting there for the past month, and then got everything in order to start back into pens.

Today I drilled some practice blanks to try out turning between centers.I love it! I did a couple of slim lines to get the swing of things. I had no chatter and everything was actually round! Imagine that. Being that I can only turn one blank at a time, it was much more difficult for me to get the blanks to match in their swell as I am used to doing them side by side. I did a CA finish, which went well. I did one slim line set using the delrin bushings, which worked great. I did another slim line set just between the centers which worked out good as well, though I had to sand/scrap off some excess CA from the centers. I really need to get myself a caliper now as it gets a bit old taking the blank off the centers and then measuring it up to the bushings.

But all in all, I am very happy with turing between centers. I can't wait to get up to speed so I can fill a couple orders from friends at church who I put off this past month.

A special note to you, JohnnyCNC.

Thanks for your order and your professionalism. Your service was top notch. You make great bushings and I will be ordering more very soon.

 

[johnnycnc]

Thank You,Allen.
I'm pleased everything is to your expectations![8D]

 

[Russianwolf]

Originally posted by allenworsham

Being that I can only turn one blank at a time, it was much more difficult for me to get the blanks to match in their swell as I am used to doing them side by side.

I was thinking about this recently too, and I've come up with an idea that I will try next time I'm in the shop (maybe 3 weeks from now). And I'm not sure it will work for anything but a 7mm kit.

Once you have the blanks drilled glued and trimmed, you should be able to press the tranny into the lower tube and slide the upper over it. then using John's bushing in the ends, turn the pen (I have turned 5+inch long single barrel pens using his bushings). The tranny should be more than adequate to keep the blanks aligned and not allow any slop. And if I'm wrong, we're talking a $2 kit.

To prevent pressing the tranny in too far when pressing the nib in, keep the two sections together and press the nib in, this way the pressure is put on the shoulders of the blank and not the tranny. And you don't have to press the tranny in to final depth at first, just far enough to maintain the two blanks alignment.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

First off, Congrats to another convert! It seems so simple when you step back and look at it. As for the calipers, you will love them, however I still pop the blank off the lathe to measure them as I feel I can measure the pen much better like this.

Mike, I see one big flaw in the theroy. You will need to press the nib into the pen after the tranny. That will require you to either chance it or hold the body by the rather thin material betwen the tranny and the OD of the pen. You will probably at the very least damage the finish doing the later.

 

[Russianwolf]

Originally posted by Firefyter-emt


Mike, I see one big flaw in the theroy. You will need to press the nib into the pen after the tranny. That will require you to either chance it or hold the body by the rather thin material betwen the tranny and the OD of the pen. You will probably at the very least damage the finish doing the later.

Nope, I don't think so. If you press the tranny in first and push the upper over it then press the nib in, you are putting pressure on the finial end (you could even press the finial in at the same time if you want ). Since the shoulder of the upper is pressing on the shoulder of the lower, you shouldn't run into any problems since the force is being transfered evenly and fully. It would effectively be like pressing the finial into a single barrel pen.

I did just have a thought that if you are doing a CA finish (or lacquer), after turning and sanding you would want to separate the two barrels by a 16th or so to prevent them from getting "glued" together by the finish. Once it's dry, they are fine though.

If I get a chance I'll try to do one quickly this week while taking pics. The result should be a centerbandless comfort pen. Although I'll likely use a contrasting wood as the centerband. The result should be seemless however.

 

[allenworsham]

Originally posted by Russianwolf

Originally posted by Firefyter-emt


Mike, I see one big flaw in the theroy. You will need to press the nib into the pen after the tranny. That will require you to either chance it or hold the body by the rather thin material betwen the tranny and the OD of the pen. You will probably at the very least damage the finish doing the later.

Nope, I don't think so. If you press the tranny in first and push the upper over it then press the nib in, you are putting pressure on the finial end (you could even press the finial in at the same time if you want ). Since the shoulder of the upper is pressing on the shoulder of the lower, you shouldn't run into any problems since the force is being transfered evenly and fully. It would effectively be like pressing the finial into a single barrel pen.

I did just have a thought that if you are doing a CA finish (or lacquer), after turning and sanding you would want to separate the two barrels by a 16th or so to prevent them from getting "glued" together by the finish. Once it's dry, they are fine though.

If I get a chance I'll try to do one quickly this week while taking pics. The result should be a centerbandless comfort pen. Although I'll likely use a contrasting wood as the centerband. The result should be seemless however.

I thought about what you said and gave it a try. I turned the blanks down a rough shape and then pressed in a tranny part way and slide the two blankss together and put them back between the centers to do final shaping with a skew and then sanding. It all worked out very well. But then comes the CA finish part. First off all, I tried to press the tranny out, but it wasn't budging and I didin't want to break the blanks. So I figured on sliding them apart a bit for the CA and then go from there. Problem was that the CA caused things to stick together (imagine that!). So in the end, I had to toss the blanks and trnny in the trash. It was an extra trnny and the blanks were for practice anyway.

But I have to say that it was promising. What needs to be done would be to take an extra tranny and then sand it down so that it will be able to slide out of the blank before the CA finish is applied. This could also be done by turning down a piece of delrin or similar to act as a splice between the two blanks.

 

[Russianwolf]

what was sticking together exactly? and how much space did you separate them by?

I have one of the plastic cutting boards that I'ma about to cut up to use as lacquer dipping bushings, so I' may just have to make a spacer from that too.

Another option is (if you have one of the big bit sets) to find the bit that barely fits inside the tube and sacrefice it by cutting it to fit between John's bushings. That should act in the same way as the tranny, but not a pressed fit.

 

[allenworsham]

The CA got into the tranny so that it wouldn't turn as well as in between the tube and the tranny (typically the top blank for a slim line) and it couldn't being pulled apart without damaging things. I was using some medium CA and got a globe in between the blanks. I attempted to wipe it out nad then lightly sand it, but no go.

I have been thinking about making some go between bushings for finishing like you are talking about. It makes things easier for two blank pens to be able to do a CA finish on them at one time as opposed to doing them seperatly.






































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