Spats139
Member
My progress in pen turning has been slow, but steady, thanks to all the great information on this site. It helped me through the early stages to make my first few pens, and eventually convinced me to move on to turning between centers (not sure where my mandrels are anymore). The latest step up was to a collet chuck and drilling on the lathe; only done a few but it sure works nice! This also brought me to the stage where I was ready to try something that I had been anxious to tackle - a very unique bottle stopper blank included by 'Mike of the North' in the generous collection of goodies he sent me as part of the 2010 Super Bowl Pool!
First the blank: Mike cast the blank in red and white, with a Canadian Loonie (the dollar coin - not one of our politicians) set in a clear top layer. He even included the bottle stopper!
Now the problem was that the stopper mandrel I already had was a different size, so the blank ended up sitting on the shelf until I read a few threads about collet chucks and cutting a bolt down to make my own mandrel. It took most of the year, but I eventually picked up the necessary parts: a Beall Collet Chuck (Packard Woodworks) and a set of collets (800watt on ebay). There was a bit of a learning curve while I tried different tools (finally settled on just using the skew), but finally it all came together. Thanks again Mike!
And thank you to everyone else who shares their time, ideas, photos and knowledge; to give people, like myself, the opportunity to keep moving forward.
First the blank: Mike cast the blank in red and white, with a Canadian Loonie (the dollar coin - not one of our politicians) set in a clear top layer. He even included the bottle stopper!
Now the problem was that the stopper mandrel I already had was a different size, so the blank ended up sitting on the shelf until I read a few threads about collet chucks and cutting a bolt down to make my own mandrel. It took most of the year, but I eventually picked up the necessary parts: a Beall Collet Chuck (Packard Woodworks) and a set of collets (800watt on ebay). There was a bit of a learning curve while I tried different tools (finally settled on just using the skew), but finally it all came together. Thanks again Mike!
And thank you to everyone else who shares their time, ideas, photos and knowledge; to give people, like myself, the opportunity to keep moving forward.
