Texatdurango
Member
I've been turning pens for a few years now and seem to have a grasp on how things need to be done but am starting to hear a lot of tips that frankly don't make any sense to me and yet everyone seems to be offereing the same advice over and over so either I am just dense and don't get it or there have been some new breakthroughs in the pen turning world that I am not aware of.
Here are a couple examples of things I have read in some recent threads that puzzle me.
1. "Be sure to sand your brass tubes before gluing". WHY? To me this is just a wasted step and doesn't add any benefit. I did this when I started out because everyone else said to do it but after a while realized that it added nothing so I quit doing it and to this day I don't sand tubes and my pens go together just fine and customers aren't calling and complaining so I figure things are OK. So, can anyone share some real world experiences where you can offer some benefit from sanding tubes rather than just saying "I recommend sanding tubes"
2. "Sand your square blanks round before putting them on the lathe". This one has me puzzled as well. One of the basic features of a lathe is that it turns square things round, and does it well. Why on earth this "shortcut" got started is beyond me and I don't get it. I hear all sorts of advice using things from stationary belt sanders to special jigs to hold hand held belt sanders to jigs which allow you to mount a blank in a drill press for sanding.
What ever happened to mounting a blank between centers then turning it round? It's called "spindle turning" and even has tools designed and named for the task. Have we become a community of pen makers who because of our rush to start cranking pens out, have never bothered to learn basic lathe turning skills so we come up with all these "shortcuts"?
I can't help but wonder if we aren't seeing the advent of the blind leading the blind and if it continues, down the road we'll be advising new pen makers to forego the lathe purchase all together and just get a good drill press, a belt sander and of course.... the right brand of CA!
Just some things that crossed my mind this morning and I just had to mention them! :biggrin:
Here are a couple examples of things I have read in some recent threads that puzzle me.
1. "Be sure to sand your brass tubes before gluing". WHY? To me this is just a wasted step and doesn't add any benefit. I did this when I started out because everyone else said to do it but after a while realized that it added nothing so I quit doing it and to this day I don't sand tubes and my pens go together just fine and customers aren't calling and complaining so I figure things are OK. So, can anyone share some real world experiences where you can offer some benefit from sanding tubes rather than just saying "I recommend sanding tubes"
2. "Sand your square blanks round before putting them on the lathe". This one has me puzzled as well. One of the basic features of a lathe is that it turns square things round, and does it well. Why on earth this "shortcut" got started is beyond me and I don't get it. I hear all sorts of advice using things from stationary belt sanders to special jigs to hold hand held belt sanders to jigs which allow you to mount a blank in a drill press for sanding.
What ever happened to mounting a blank between centers then turning it round? It's called "spindle turning" and even has tools designed and named for the task. Have we become a community of pen makers who because of our rush to start cranking pens out, have never bothered to learn basic lathe turning skills so we come up with all these "shortcuts"?
I can't help but wonder if we aren't seeing the advent of the blind leading the blind and if it continues, down the road we'll be advising new pen makers to forego the lathe purchase all together and just get a good drill press, a belt sander and of course.... the right brand of CA!
Just some things that crossed my mind this morning and I just had to mention them! :biggrin: