TBC without bushings

[TattooedTurner]

After making a cigar pen from some of the most beautiful maple burl I've ever seen only to find it was out of round after pressing it together, I've decided to ditch the adjustable mandrel and mandrel saver. I plan on turning a Majestic and Majestic Jr this weekend between centers without bushings. I measure so many times when turning I've come to the conclusion that bushings do nothing for me other than keeping the blank held tight. Anything I need to know before diving in? I'll be using 60 degree centers with the tubes epoxied into the blanks, no more, no less. Would I be better off using the regular bushings the first few times between centers instead of none at all or is tbc w/o bushings a relatively straightforward process?

 

[Mr Vic]

To speed things up a bit I use the mandrel and bushings but stay well proud. I then switch to between centers to turn to size.

 

[jttheclockman]

Use the normal bushings to get you within tolerance and then put the tube between a live and dead center and finish turning. Just be careful not to flare the ends of the tube.

 

[magpens]

Jay,

Your plan to do without bushings right from the beginning is totally workable.
That's how I do my pen turning all the time.

Measure often and take it slowly. . The tailstock does not have to be overtight .

Be careful that your cutting tool doesn't gouge the centers when you near the ends of the blank.

 

[TattooedTurner]

Thanks guys. I'll turn the first one with bushings and leave it proud then tbc. If I'm comfortable with that I'll skip the bushings on the second one. With some patience and a little luck I hope to have two nice pens to show by the end of the weekend.

 

[Charlie_W]

When strictly between centers, do not put too much pressure on the blank/tube. When the blank material is thin, it can crack from the pressure of the centers in the tube....especially acrylics or trustone type blanks.

Your finishing cuts done with a super sharp skew/light cuts is the way to go.

Good luck!

 

[joshua_luther77]

I've been using just a roughing spindle gouge till I get close then I switch to a skew in a scraping fashion to fine tune it and smooth it out. I haven't had a problem yet using the bushings.

Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk

 

[TattooedTurner]

I got them turned and it couldn't have gone better. On the first pen (Maj Jr) I used an adjustable mandrel shortened to hold only one blank at a time with a mandrel saver live center. I used a roughing gouge to get them close then tbc with no bushings using a skew. On the second (fullsize Majestic) I skipped the mandrel altogether and tbc with the regular bushings. I got both barrels real close so skipped the skew since it needed to be sharpened and used a SR carbide for a few finishing cuts with no bushings on the lower barrel. On the cap barrel I used the bushings the whole time. I sanded all barrels between centers with no bushings, and I'll apply CA the same way with the centers waxed. They look great and several measurements with a caliper showed me just what I wanted to see, four perfectly round barrels. I'll do a CA finish in a bit and let it cure overnight then sand & polish tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for the replies.