Vince_Hoffmann
Member
And my 6th pen (not counting 2 failures).
I've been turning pens for a whole 4 weeks and today I started a project that turned out to be more difficult that I imagined.
I had just finished two European style rollerball pens with nice inserts and I was feeling a bit frisky so I grabbed a pinecone from the wood pile. I don't know if anyone here has tried to turn a raw pinecone, but after today I would place it in the "If You've Got 6 Hours to Burn, Then Go For It" category.
I first cut a straight edge on the band saw, then cut the rest of the edges on my table saw down to about 2" square. I wasn't too sure this thing was going to turn, but I figured with a bit of super glue I could hold it together well enough to do ok. I burned through one 2oz bottle of thin ca, then ran to my local hobby shop for another 2oz bottle (make that 2). The thin CA soaked into the pinecone fibers quite nicely.
After the blank dried, I trimmed it down to about 1" square then chopped it, drilled and tossed it on the lathe.
The CA only soaked in about 1/4" so when i reached dry wood, I turned to the CA again, soaking it thuroughly and letting it dry. I didn't use accelerator because I wanted the glue to soak into the wood as far as possible.
After about 2 hours using a 3/8" spindle gouge, I got down close to the final shape and changed to a 1/4" thumbnail gouge then skew chisel to finish out the shape (applying CA every few minutes).
I finished with progressively finer sandpaper, 3 coats of oil and Hut polish.
I'm sure I'll do better on the next pinecone I attempt, but I'm qute happy with the way this one turned out!
Link to the pictures:
http://s85.photobucket.com/albums/k68/Skardykat_2006/Pine Cone Pen/
I hope you guys like it, any comments regarding my work are welcome!
I've been turning pens for a whole 4 weeks and today I started a project that turned out to be more difficult that I imagined.
I had just finished two European style rollerball pens with nice inserts and I was feeling a bit frisky so I grabbed a pinecone from the wood pile. I don't know if anyone here has tried to turn a raw pinecone, but after today I would place it in the "If You've Got 6 Hours to Burn, Then Go For It" category.
I first cut a straight edge on the band saw, then cut the rest of the edges on my table saw down to about 2" square. I wasn't too sure this thing was going to turn, but I figured with a bit of super glue I could hold it together well enough to do ok. I burned through one 2oz bottle of thin ca, then ran to my local hobby shop for another 2oz bottle (make that 2). The thin CA soaked into the pinecone fibers quite nicely.
After the blank dried, I trimmed it down to about 1" square then chopped it, drilled and tossed it on the lathe.
The CA only soaked in about 1/4" so when i reached dry wood, I turned to the CA again, soaking it thuroughly and letting it dry. I didn't use accelerator because I wanted the glue to soak into the wood as far as possible.
After about 2 hours using a 3/8" spindle gouge, I got down close to the final shape and changed to a 1/4" thumbnail gouge then skew chisel to finish out the shape (applying CA every few minutes).
I finished with progressively finer sandpaper, 3 coats of oil and Hut polish.
I'm sure I'll do better on the next pinecone I attempt, but I'm qute happy with the way this one turned out!
Link to the pictures:
http://s85.photobucket.com/albums/k68/Skardykat_2006/Pine Cone Pen/
I hope you guys like it, any comments regarding my work are welcome!