workinforwood
Member
So easy it's ridiculous. A fellow driver at my work really wanted a pen from one of my Stars and Stripes blanks. I painted the tubes yesterday, sparkle blue and red. I like to let spray paint cure 24 hrs. I drilled on the lathe, if your lathe is set up correctly then the monster of a bit for the cap is no problem, BUT before drilling such a hole I like to drill a smaller hole like maybe 10 mm all the way through first. That makes a major difference. Glued my tubes in with 60 min epoxy, then baked for 5 min at 150 degrees and let sit an hour. You don't want to bake plastic very hot or long, trust me!! Best option is let glue set overnight but I didn't have the time. My blanks are very round, so if you drill them true, you trim them in a collet a hair over length and after glue dries you just re chuck them and part the ends flush/square. After spun, wet sanded and plastic polish.
This blank fits anything from a cigar size and larger but of course bigger always looks better.
This blank fits anything from a cigar size and larger but of course bigger always looks better.