Mini Review Woodchuck Pen Pro, I'm impressed!

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ohiococonut

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May 8, 2011
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Got my pen pro from Ken the other day and attached the handle with epoxy and waited until today to use it. I must say I'm impressed! I gave it what I thought would be the hardest test, at least for me. I have some very spalted maple burl that's like sawdust even after I soaked it in Minwax wood hardener. I've turned it before but always chose a large pen kit simply because I had to use quite a bit of sandpaper to get it down to the size I wanted. Even using a skew it was hard to do without it chipping out or blowing apart. I picked out a blank and decided to turn it for an Executive which is fairly thin at the bushings. I prepared the blank and proceeded to turn it down and went all the way to the bushings :eek: Needless to say I was amazed. The finish was smooth as silk and required a lite touch with some 600grit before going to BLO/CA. FINALLY, I can turn some of my favorite wood without the fear of it blowing apart. My hats of to Ken for delivering such a wonderful tool. Not to mention the custom 10" handle I got with it :biggrin:
 
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I love my Woodchuck.......Thanks Ken.

I have been teaching my son to turn and he keeps stealing mine. :mad::mad:
Looks like it will need to get my son one.

I dont bother sanding after the "Woodchuck work" just go straigt to the CA on my woods. The acrylics Ill start at 600....

"HEY YOU DANG WOODCHUCKS.......QUITE CHUCKING MY WOOD"
 
I agree!

ohiococonut said:
Got my pen pro from Ken the other day and attached the handle with epoxy and waited until today to use it. I must say I'm impressed! I gave it what I thought would be the hardest test, at least for me. I have some very spalted maple burl that's like sawdust even after I soaked it in Minwax wood hardener. I've turned it before but always chose a large pen kit simply because I had to use quite a bit of sandpaper to get it down to the size I wanted. Even using a skew it was hard to do without it chipping out or blowing apart. I picked out a blank and decided to turn it for an Executive which is fairly thin at the bushings. I prepared the blank and proceeded to turn it down and went all the way to the bushings :eek: Needless to say I was amazed. The finish was smooth as silk and required a lite touch with some 600grit before going to BLO/CA. FINALLY, I can turn some of my favorite wood without the fear of it blowing apart. My hats of to Ken for delivering such a wonderful tool. Not to mention the custom 10" handle I got with it :biggrin:
Click to expand...

I got mad and sold all my turning tools, sorbys, lathe, everything. Then I got un-mad and am buying everything new (expensive little fit I had). I have a new Delta 4-460 and a lot of other stuff...but only one tool - The Woodchuck Pen Pro! Works so far, because I do only pens. I will certainly buy gouges and stuff later, but I don't even have a way to sharpen them now. No problem with my Woodchuck Pen Pro. I even turned an aluminum pen, and it is beautiful. It ended up using one of the four carbide sides on the carbide insert, but I think that it fair. It was worn and chipped after turning the two cigar blanks, but I just rotated the insert 90 degrees and got back to work!
 
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I'm sure it will work quite well with stone/inlay. I do have some experience with carbide tools since I worked 33yrs in heavy industrial maintenance. At one time I supervised everyone in the department including the machinist whom I have worked closely with. I just never gave any thought to using something like this on wood :confused:

I used it again tonight and it's everything I had hoped it would be! I'd like to see a unitool this size so I can use the round carbide tips as well.
 
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