Son's Artist's Pencil

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Triple Crown

Triple Crown

Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2012
Messages
122
Location
Alexandria, Virginia
My son and I finished the Artist's Pencil. Had some problems that we worked through for a nice result. Always learning!
Pencil 2.jpgPencil 1.jpg


February 12, 2012
Was hoping to do a new project with my younger son – he's been wanting to do the Artist's Pencil. Haven't done this one before. (Actually, all we've done so far are a lot of ball point pens – mostly cigars.) We got started though and persevered through a tough obstacle. The blank he chose way back specifically for his fat pencil is an acrylic called Confetti that we got at Woodcraft. The tube is 15/32" and quite a bit longer than the cigars. Even though we backed the bit out very often to clear the shavings, right after it pushed through, it got too hot and the shavings melted and bonded to the bit half way out! We worked slow and steady pulling it off. He held onto the chuck on the drill press so it wouldn't rotate and I pulled with a lot of might while wiggling the blank back and forth. He did not want to give up and cut it off or break it and start with another one. It took maybe close to an hour. I thought it would crack toward the end, but it held up. I told him that we might not get to do anything more tonight except paint the inside of the hole so the brass tube doesn't show. He didn't think that would be necessary so I cut a sliver of the remaining portion of the blank about the thickness that the plastic will be and showed it to him under light. Sure enough, it shines pretty bright through it. (Thanks all! Learned about reverse painting here.) Since I didn't have any Testors type of white paint, we sprayed the inside of the blank and also the brass tube with some white Krylon primer I had. Brrrrr it was cold out there. That's where we are up to on this new project. I'll post a picture of it when we finish it.
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Well, over the next couple of days, we added some more paint on the tube and in the blank to make sure it wouldn't show any brass. I also read on here about coloring the glue and wanted to try this since I've seen glue before through some acrylic blanks (although I had not learned of reverse painting the blanks then). Since we didn't' know what to use to color it or if adding paint to glue might compromise the strength of the glue, we experimented before gluing the tube in the blank. We added two drops of white acrylic paint to 5 minute epoxy and spread it over an extra brass tube to see how it would look and feel. Here's a picture. Being satisfied, with the strength and opaqueness, we made some more epoxy-paint-mix and glued up the tube. My son wanted to do all of the steps so he worked at squaring the blank for a bit with the pen mill, but I ended up finalizing the job (pretty tough step for smaller hands) and it made me tense anyway.
Epoxy-n-Paint.jpg

Got it on the lathe yesterday evening and he turned it down to shape. He gets nervous around the ends of the blank because he's afraid he'll blow it up. (It's happened before.) I ended up turning it down to the bushings and then he finalized the shape, sanded it, and micromeshed it. He also buffed it. We had to drill a hole in a piece of wood for the push button pencil lead extender to go in while he pressed the other half of the pencil together.
Turning.jpgSanding.jpgBuffing.jpgPressing the Pencil.jpg

Anyway, got it all put together and he is very proud of it. He brought it to school today and showed his friends. This was our first Artist's Pencil and we had a great time making it together! As usual, learned new things along the way. Thanks for reading!
 
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Haynie said:
Sweet. I keep trying to get my guys into the shop. Consider yourself lucky.
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Gotta to get the phone away from them first...then they will be bored and want something to do!




Great write-up, and that'll be a keeper for the treasure box someday(you know, when he moves on the the girls thing).





Scott
 
That is AWESOME!! I haven't made a pen yet for my 7 yr old daughter and this is the just inspiration I need...will be making a trip to the local Woodcraft/Rockler so she can pick out her blank.

Thanks for sharing!

Tom
 
Thanks all! The reverse painting, tube painting, and glue coloring worked well on this one! There are a few areas where you would have seen bright brass and glue, but it is very well disguised with the matching white underneath.

I do consider myself very lucky. Thanks! My older son used to like working with me in the shop more, but he's now more into his own particular interests, so it was really nice working with my younger son. I think part of it was he knew this one was his! He also loves the new pressure pot and compressor so he is more amenable to helping me now. (We didn't use them on this project, but he helped with the Valentine's Day pen.) Kids love it when it's new.

Tom, I think letting your daughter pick her own blank will be great! My son knew that it was his right from the beginning.

Thanks again! Greg
 
Very Nice! Something very satisfying about working with the little guy. I even got my 8 year old grandson a cheap set of pen tools, and his very own slim kits we work on when he's here. Except now my daughter accuses me of running a sweat shop and threatens to turn me in for violating child labor laws:biggrin:....
 
Fit and finish look good. I've wondered if that blank looks too clownish but it goes quite well on that larger kit. Good eye. I have always found with penmaking the journey is just as good as the destination.
 
What a great story! Thanks for telling me about it. Guess your son decided to start near the top in his pen adventures! Russ
 
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