Zach's pen thread

[vacca rabite]

This is the thread for the stuff I make. I'm just starting, so almost everything is an experiment right now...

Here is my first pen, which I made for myself. It has several errors, but I learned a lot with it. Finish is 3 coats of tung oil. It does no shine like CA, but I love the way it feels when I write with it.

Zach

 

[vacca rabite]

Here is the second experiment. I made it for my wife for Valentines day. The blank is off cut scrap from the Porsche shifter knobs I turn. It came out much better then my pen. I can be taught.

Went with 1 coat of tung oil to pop the grain on the mahogany and maple, and then 5 coats of CA.

I'd love to get some feed back!

Zach

 

[Frank Nemke sr]

Good looking pens Zach, I like the 2nd one best

 

[nsfr1206]

CA finish looks good! Fit looks good. I personally don't care for quite that much curve but that's just an opinion and you aren't trying to sell it to me. My 2 cents.

 

[Ambidex]

You've made two pens and that's the best you can do?..Holy crap..those are very,very nice..nice finish on the 2nd..btw..did I say the first two were very nice yet?..keep it up..pics too

 

[bensoelberg]

Fit and finish on the second pen look really good. Your first pen looks like it might have some out-of-round problems. (Not big ones, but since you asked for comments, I looked closely.) I would guess that you turned it on a mandrel with bushings. Most people start out that way. It is possible to get a good fit with concentric barrels that way, but it is much easier to get perfectly round barrels if you turn between centers. I would look into that. I also recommend using bushings as a guide to get you close to the component size, then using calipers to get a perfect fit. Overall, I think it is obvious that you know your way around your lathe, and I think we're going to see some stunners from you in the very near future.

 

[vacca rabite]

Yeah, the first was very much a tutorial, and it shows.

I am still struggling to get my blanks drilled straight with my drill press. I am starting to think that the base of my press is off slightly and needs to be tuned. My next one I may try drilling on the lathe.

I am using a mandrel and bushings. As yet it's the only thing I know for pen turning.

My lathe also may need some tuneup. It's old and I just recently inherited it. It has some vibration that I have not been able to cancel that can impart a wobble to the work.

I am very much still learning. Aside from these pens I have only turned a few shift knobs on the lathe. I'm a total novice at this stuff.
Zach

 

[thewishman]

That sure looks like a very nice first pen!

 

[SDB777]

Like you, I prefer a pen without CA on it for myself....they just 'feel better'. But it's hard to sell 'em without the shiny.


Great pair!!!





Scott

 

[Andrew_K99]

Great pair of pens! I quite like that the fountain pen isn't shiney, it works really well with the wood, I think CA is sometimes over used. The sierra bulges a little more then I personally like on a pen but still a great pen.

AK

 

[NewLondon88]

i love the tung oil finish. It takes weeks to fully cure, but worth it.
Nice work

 

[vacca rabite]

I'm a car guy, so I loved these when I saw them. Just turned the one for me.

I am getting ghosting though. How best to keep that from happening? Just paint the tubes? Or is there a better trick?

Zach

 

[turbowagon]

Hey Zach,

With translucent materials, I have the best luck painting the inside of the drilled blank. I use some black Testor's paint with a q-tip, but others have good results blasting a little spray paint in the hole.

- Joe

 

[vacca rabite]

Okay, the paint worked!
Sadly, I overheated the plastic and melted the purple one. Grrrr.

When my wife saw the green one, she demanded I make one for her, and she wanted red. this was as close as I could get to red from stock on hand. Remember this is the first acrylic I have ever done. It overheated while sanding and sagged just a little to be noticable to me and probably other makers. She did not notice it until I pointed it out, and she said I was being silly.

This one turned out very nice.

the blank was supposed to be more orange, but thats what I get for buying blanks on line...

Zach

 

[mikespenturningz]

Nice pens, I also really like that second pen. Very nice finish...

 

[vacca rabite]

Okay, I have done a few more. Still getting finishing errors, but slowly getting better.

This one beat me up. I got a 5 pack of cocobolo blanks for the one in the middle that had lots of purple and yellow and orange grain. And which also split apart when I was drilling it.

Then the second one split when drilling. Damn!

Then the third one broke apart when I started turning it. So I scewed off the wood and did another blank. Finally, I got this finished. Its for a friend of mine who wanted the cocobolo. It still is not perfect, but it was late and I was DONE with this pen.

 

[vacca rabite]

This one was fun. I love the wood but don't have a clue what it is. Very light, almost spongy. Had to use a light touch turning it as the wood caught very easily. Not crazy about the chrome, but live and learn. I am happy with how it came out. It will be a Christmas present for family this year.

 

[vacca rabite]

These are going to be for sale at a big car show in April, as well as the shifter knobs I make for old Porsches. They are fun to make, easy to make, and look really nice. I made a few for give-aways for car guys that have helped me out in the past. After doing 13 of them, I was done.

 

[vacca rabite]

I am getting better!
This one will be for sale at the Hershey Porsche show in April here in Hershey PA. It is made using remnants of my "917" shifter knobs.

Zach

 

[vacca rabite]

my least favorite of the ones I made this weekend. I think I am not going to make any ore of the "Wall Street II" pens. I like the PSI variant a lot more with the twist mechanism at the top.
Zach

 

[vacca rabite]

Another Wall Street II made as I gear up for Hershey. 3 weeks! EEK!

Zach

 

[vacca rabite]

I cut this blank on the grain instead of across it. Came from the same block, looks totally different!

Zach

 

[Haynie]

So how about a pic of the shifter knob

 

[vacca rabite]

Rosewood:

The screw end knob is finished in Tung Oil (and hand oil as I used it on my car for a year...) and the shiny one is CA.
The tung oil did not provide enough protection for the knob, as the wood expanded at different rates over time, especially when the car got left outside for 2 weeks of hugely vicious thunderstorms.

I am also making them in Claro Walnut and I just got some lacewood to try as well. The old Porsche guys love them.

 

[vacca rabite]

I've not posted anything up in a while.

Now that the heat of summer is over I can bear to go up into my shop...

This is one I am very proud of.

Maple and Walnut, dovetailed. I drilled it off center to see if I could get the dovetail "captured." Either my measurements were good, or I just go lucky.... Either way, I got what I was going for!

A Polaris in purpleheart. I have several of these blanks that I was given, and I did not know what I was going to do with them. For this application, it looks good.

This one was made from some Trex scraps scavenged from the trash pile on my father in laws deck.

An Orange Polaris! I love this blank material. Its super easy to find on a cluttered desk or workbench. My shop pencil is also made from this material.

I got this kit as part of a bundle. Its not my style, but one of my Aunts will like it for Christmas. Nice piece of maple for the body.

Vertex in white flake Corian. Yeah, I am totally dumpster diving house remodels now looking for stuff to turn from. This piece came from my uncle.

The one that got away. I grabbed this piece of maple off the scrap pile for the wormy spalting. I did not know it was also fractured until I had mounted the tube and had it nearly turned down to size. Doh! But I love the wood, so I filled the fracture as best I could with glue and sawdust. Its not something that I would give as a present or try and sell, but I am keeping it. I like its imperfections.

What do you think?
Zach

 

[oneptbuk]

Zach -

That dovetail rocks.... great idea, and I'm ****ed I didn't think of it..... Nice job.

One suggestion; you may want to post the new pens in a separate post, more people will likely see them to comment. I suspect many will not follow the old thread to the end..... just a thought.

 

[Kretzky]

Wow! Zach... there are so many great pens in your thread, superb job on all of them love those shockers! I'll have to try some of those. Keep up the good work :biggrin:
David

 

[joefyffe]

Slow down, You're making me Dizzy! :biggrin: Nice work!