Pen #2 - Jr. Gent Rollerball

[Sappheiros]

Pen #2 - Jr. Gent Rollerball
Kit: Apprentice Jr. Gentlemen's - 24k Gold
Blank: Pen Makers Choice Acrylic Pen Blank Antique Gold
Finish: Just sanded and micro-meshed to a nice sheen

Alright, my second pen! I'll be honest, I wasn't as excited to turn with wood as I was with acrylic. When my order from The Woodturners Catalog came in, I told my dad he could pick a blank and I would turn it into a pen for him. Turning acrylic was a bit more difficult getting started that wood was. There were bits of plastic flying everywhere and it kind of hurt!

Once I got into the swing of things, the acrylic yielded at a nice pace, but not too quickly like wood can do. I remember with turning the wood, I consciously thought about what shape would look nice for the pen and aimed to shape it out well. The acrylic chose a shape it liked and I was done.

Rather than adding a finish, I just sanded with a 7-piece set and micro-mesh polished with a 9-piece set. The sanding grits were 80, 120, 180, 240, 320, 400, 600 and the micro-mesh grits went from 1,500 to 12,000.

After I finished, I tried to pull off the bushing on the end and it was stuck. I tried force, I tried knocking it off, but it just didn't want to come off. There might have been paper towel inside the threading or some dust that I pulled out. When I finally got it all off, there was a line around the mandrel. I'm not exactly sure where it came from, but I sanded it down to prevent the same problem from happening again. Around the ends of the blank pieces, these small indentations appeared and some sort of ring around the pieces. I tried cleaning them up as best I could, but once a pen is assembled, it is not so easy to go back a few steps.

My dad loved the pen. It came out even better than he thought it would. I might have liked to keep it for myself as it came out even better than my first pen, but I promised him the pen made of that blank! I'll just have to make more pens! The trouble is... I pick out pen blanks and kits that I would like for myself rather than what I could part with. I feel like I'm adopting out my children to other families!

 

[1080Wayne]

1. I strongly recommend that you get a good quality face mask , and use it , for both plastic and wood . Those bits that hurt will hurt a lot more if they hit your eyes .

2. Your mention of the blank choosing its own shape , and the small indentations , suggests that the tool was becoming dull .

3. The stuck bushing and the line around the mandrel suggests that some slippage occurred . Did you have to tighten up the mandrel nut at some point while turning ?

 

[Jack Parker]

That's a beautiful pen for just your second time out!! It does look like you had a bit of chatter going on, that might have been the cause of those indentations. You can usually hear when chatter starts. When you hear it, try changing direction or angle of cut, resharpen your tool, change speed, or change tools to get things smoothed back out.

 

[Charlie69]

Bravo! Save these 1st pens, you'll be glad you did.

 

[Sappheiros]

1. I strongly recommend that you get a good quality face mask , and use it , for both plastic and wood . Those bits that hurt will hurt a lot more if they hit your eyes .

2. Your mention of the blank choosing its own shape , and the small indentations , suggests that the tool was becoming dull .

3. The stuck bushing and the line around the mandrel suggests that some slippage occurred . Did you have to tighten up the mandrel nut at some point while turning ?

I was wearing a good pair of safety glasses for it, but I'd stop every now and again since those masks can really heat things up!

I hope the tools aren't dull. I only just got them and this was my first time using them. A sharpener is on my shopping list, though. I didn't mean the blank chose its shape in a bad way. I just meant that I was turning and I already had it at a nice shape without too much detail focus.

As for the bushings, I wasn't using the nut. I've been using a mandrel saver tailstock. I've heard that makes a pretty good setup for turning.

Thanks for the advice, and thanks for the compliments Jack and Charlie!

 

[Skie_M]

There's a thread somewhere round here (think it's in the tips and tricks) where someone recommends getting two 1/4" flat washers and one 1/4" lockwasher and putting them on the end of your mandrel right before the mandrel saver. You tighten down just enough that the lockwasher is flattened and that should be enough pressure to ensure that everything stays spinning smoothly without damaging any of your components.

Depending on where you got the tools, they may not have been very sharp right out of the bag/box ... Harbor Freight's 20 dollar set is definitely never properly sharpened. While the angles and bevels may be just about right, looking at the chisel ends dead-on will reveal flats and skewed bevels. They need a proper sharpening and bevel polishing before you can really put them to use. There's nothing wrong with the metal, just in their sharpening process.


Just noticed (when I looked again), that the lower barrel where it meets the center band is undersized. Next go round, if you find that you're dipping below the bushings, give the bushing a quick coat of wax (with the pen barrel removed so it doesn't get wax on it), and build the barrel back up with repeated applications of CA till it matches or slightly exceeds the bushing diameter, and then sand it back down smooth as usual.

 

[Band Saw Box]

A nice looking pen

 

[Drewboy22]

1. I strongly recommend that you get a good quality face mask , and use it , for both plastic and wood . Those bits that hurt will hurt a lot more if they hit your eyes .

2. Your mention of the blank choosing its own shape , and the small indentations , suggests that the tool was becoming dull .

3. The stuck bushing and the line around the mandrel suggests that some slippage occurred . Did you have to tighten up the mandrel nut at some point while turning ?

I was wearing a good pair of safety glasses for it, but I'd stop every now and again since those masks can really heat things up!

I hope the tools aren't dull. I only just got them and this was my first time using them. A sharpener is on my shopping list, though. I didn't mean the blank chose its shape in a bad way. I just meant that I was turning and I already had it at a nice shape without too much detail focus.

As for the bushings, I wasn't using the nut. I've been using a mandrel saver tailstock. I've heard that makes a pretty good setup for turning.

Thanks for the advice, and thanks for the compliments Jack and Charlie!

Avi, I don't have a good sharpening system either. I have a file that I am using at the moment to keep a good edge but it is something I have to touch up regularly.

Your pens are looking real good BTW. It is amazing how quickly you want to start on the next one. Keep up the good work!

 

[Sabaharr]

I was the one that put the post up about the washer sandwich when using a mandrel saver but someone beat me to it (Skie). Only thing is it should go on the headstock end of the mandrel. Theory is that enough pressure to flatten the split washer is enough to hold your material but not put too much pressure on your components. It would work when using a nut also for the same reason.

Did you paint your tubes or the inside of your blanks? It looks like you might be able to make out the tube through the thinnest material on the blanks since it is not fully opaque. I prefer painting the inside of the blank to prevent this so you don't see gaps in the adhesive if there are any. Others paint the tubes themselves. If you adopt this suggestion try to use a color that will somewhat match the blank material. Its one of the curses of turning acrylic. The thinner it is the easier it is to see through.

The pits you experienced are probably from dull tools as mentioned before above. Only one cure for that.

I think (yes I have more than one opinion, some are even right) that your sanding regiment is a bit aggressive if you plan to do it this way all the time. I know you had pitting so 80 grit may have helped with that but when turning with good sharp tools you should be able to start with 220 at the roughest. I seldom go lower than 400 to start sanding. Once you get comfortable turning these small items you should have a fairly smoothed surface to begin with. Capt Eddie says a surface properly turned with a skew has a 320 grit type finish on it already.

All that aside it is a great looking pen and dad should be proud. My brother inherited the first one I made for my dad and he cherishes it as part of both of us.

 

[TurtleTom]

And I was just about to proclaim Skie as inventor of the washer system, again.

 

[TurtleTom]

I used a cheap set of diamond hand hones to keep my chisels sharp for years till I got my Worksharp. I think I paid $15 for them. I own every size DMT diamond hone but they just don't sharpen turning tools worth a durn.
They're now $17.99 on amazon: EZE-LAP L PAK Set.

 

[Skie_M]

Meh .... finally got my new mandrel in. Gonna use that washer system on it, to see if that helps with wear and tear on the mandrel saver.

It was a TINY bit bent, somehow ... thinking UPS dropped the silly box.

I had to take my time bending it back to straight. There's no saving my first one, though, and the mandrel saver on it is shot anyways ... even though I tried to keep it oiled. I dunno what's up with it, but I'll use it as a spare for bead making, with my mini mandrel.

Seriously considering turning between centers to try it out, but as long as I have a mandrel saver that works ok, I can still chuck a 1/4" rod up in my 3-jaw and sand it down a bit to fit my 7mm kit tubes and I'm good to go.


If I'm working with a really chippy acrylic, getting it close (within 2mm of finish diameter), is good enough. Then I grab my 120 grit abranet and turn up the speed. Abranet works pretty cool, so I wont burn it up or melt the acrylic as I work.

If I'm working with a really nice acrylic, like the gem series silks from PSI or a really nice PR blank like the paua shell abalone, then I generally get it within half a millimeter of finished and grab my 400 grit abranet.

While working with wood, I can manage getting it all the way to finished diameter with a skew or a very sharp 1/2" bowl gouge (my favorite tool). I then start my sanding at 220, just to knock down any high points, or if there aren't any, then I start with 400.

I used a cheap set of diamond hand hones to keep my chisels sharp for years till I got my Worksharp. I think I paid $15 for them. I own every size DMT diamond hone but they just don't sharpen turning tools worth a durn.
They're now $17.99 on amazon: EZE-LAP L PAK Set.

Mmmm ... I think the secret is in raising a TINY curl or burr on the upper side of the chisel. If you use a diamond hone, it actually cuts/grinds that off, whereas a steel hone will raise that burr and give you a micro cutting edge. The advantage for diamond is ... it gives a stronger edge that will last longer, but it won't be quite as sharp, whereas with the steel's edge, it wont last long, but it will be RAZOR sharp while it lasts.

This is why I use a buffing wheel on the backs of my chisel bevels. It raises a micro burr on the cutting edge, and only takes 5 - 10 seconds to re-establish that burr by buffing again.

 

[TurtleTom]

Skie, I'd sure like to watch you do that on the buffing wheel. Leather?
I'm using the Work Sharp these days. The 1000 wheel puts a razor edge on it in like 10 seconds, and it's polished too. It's sharper than I could ever do it by hand unless I stropped it for awhile with the golden strop paste.

 

[Skie_M]

Nah ... I go to Harbor Freight and grab the 4-inch buffing wheel pair ... it's like spiral sewn cotton wheel buffs. They're small and metal will eat them up in a hurry if I really put them to use. I use the same wheels for polishing my coin collection. They're pretty much black, at this point, but they started out white!

I pull them off the included arbors (save them for other projects) and put them together on a 1 1/2" long 8/32 machine screw (fits the screw hole in my 5-inch sander attachment on my belt/disc sander combo).

I just buff the back of the bevel, handle up and chisel held blade down, upside down. Moderate pressure while I rock the rounded chisels back and forth, or with the flat chisels I just move them side to side.

I find that chisels like my skew prefer to have a hand honed edge with my diamond EZ-Lap stone, as the buffing will take the edge off, but the buffed surface is very smooth and helps me guide my cuts accurately.

The gouges and the scrapers all get hit with the buffer only.

The parting tool and the diamond detail tool never left their original slots in the harbor freight pouch. I find them useless and purposeless. I have detail tools I made from old square shanked screwdrivers (about 6 inches long) that I greatly prefer, and I made my own thin cutoff tool using some scrap oak and a demo blade (sawzall blade) that I bought for 4 bucks at Home Depot.

 

[Sappheiros]

I know I've definitely got some more work to do! I did get a sharpener and a set of paint for the blanks, so I'll be good! Just getting better

 

[TurtleTom]

Once you get all those tools you might as well make a violin or two, unless you fiddle that is.

 

[Drewboy22]

Once you get all those tools you might as well make a violin or two, unless you fiddle that is.

He is a pen maker now... He does not have time to fiddle with that stuff anymore :biggrin::biggrin:

 

[TurtleTom]

Ouch.