Squaring question, not sure I have the right tool?

[Knucklefish]

I purchased some pen kis from PSI and noticed that one of the kits has 10mm tubes. While I was smart enough to purchase the correct drill bit for drilling the blank, I over looked getting a 10mm pen mill. I do have a 7mm pen mill. Is there someway I can use it on the 10mm tubes once they are glued up? Do I just need to order a new mill? Any advice appreciated!

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

John, what most do is buy a few 7MM brass tubes, install them on some hardwoods then turn one down to 10MM save the rest as your going to need them for other kits.... Merry Christmas

 

[monophoto]

There are a number of options here:

1. As Roy suggests, you can make a sleeve using a spare 7mm tube and either hardwood or corian. Drill and glue in the tube, and then turn it down to diameter that is a very slightly smaller than the ID of the 10mm tube.

2. You can buy a 10mm shaft to work the with the cutter that came with your 7mm mill. CSUSA sells shafts in various diameters.

3. Depending on the tube you are working with, you may be able to get away with using the shaft you have. That's probably not an option with 10mm tubes, but if you are working with 8mm tubes, using a 7mm shaft may be close enough.

4. You can look into some of the other means of squaring blanks. The most popular is a belt/disc sander.

5. I made a couple of tube sanders that can also be used to square blanks. These are simply small turned handles with a short shaft embedded in one end. I used bolts to make the shafts, sanding them down to match the ID of the tubes that they were intended to work with. Then, I glued a small bit of emery cloth on the end of the handle such that I can insert the shaft into the tube, and twist to sand the end. The intended purpose is to sand completed pen barrels to smooth off the ragged ends left when applying a CA finish, but there's no reason that this could not also be used to square the blank before turning (although squaring the blank using a small bit of abrasive would be much more work than using either a belt/disc sander or a pen mill).


One other comment - I recently bought some 3/8" kits, and because I knew that I was almost certain to screw up something, I bought a length of 3/8" brass tube at the local hardware store. Unfortunately, I found that the tube from the hardware store has slightly thicker walls than the tubes that came with the kits - and the ID of the hardware store tube is slightly less than the ID of the kit tubes. My point is that you may find inconsistency in the ID of tubes with apparently the same OD - so you need to plan on encountering the occasional surprise and having to find a creative solution.

 

[PenMan1]

Here is a simple way. Sneak into the kitchen, when the wife isn't looking, take her plastic cutting board to the shop. Cut off a piece of it about 1/2 x 1/2 x3 inches. Drill a hole in the plastic the size of the inside diameter of a 7 mm brass tube. Then turn the plastic down until it fits snuggly inside the 10 mm tube. Slide the sleeve over you 7mm pen mill shaft. It works great!

Lastly, take the modified cutting board back to the kitchen, tell the wife that if you hadn't "fixed" that defective cutting board that she could hurt herself.....and you just couldn't bear that.....It might work (it did for me).

 

[PenMan1]

Seriously, if you have a belt sander, use the sander and a carpenter's square to mill the blank ends. This works as well as a pen mill (IMHO, much better than a pen mill). Additiionally, it is much easier to square the ends without burning or splintering the ends.