Not my day for doing pens

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Band Saw Box

Band Saw Box

Passed Away Dec 8, 2021
In Memoriam
Joined
Sep 21, 2013
Messages
3,670
Location
Hampton, VA 23666
I went through my blanks and found a nice piece of Lati and cut the drilled it for a Euro pen. I sanded the tubes and glued them in so I was all set, no I wasn't and it was to late to correct my mistake. I glued in two short tubes rather the one long and one short.:mad: The long tube was still on my work area I'm not sure were the other short tube came from. Oh well I have extra tubes. I next took a maple blank, Cut, drilled and made sure I had one long and one short tube. I was all set. I glued up one tube but got side tracked and had to come back to glue in the second tube. A funny thing happened when I tried to glue in the long tube it went passed the end of the tube:frown::frown:. The had glued the short tube in the long blank:mad:. Oh well these things happen.......but why do they happen to me. I've closed up the shop for today maybe I try again tomorrow.
 
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I'm slowly filling a box with those...I'm sure I'll find a use for them (any ideas). I've also got a handful that I grabbed the wrong ca glue and the tube is stuck half in, half out of the blank.
 
Wow if I had a dollar for every pen I messed up...... I was making a cigar pen with some beatiful mesquite burl that had some sap wood got excited and drilled the big hole in the blank so when I went to glue in the tubes they did not fit. I now have a box that I have setting in plain site the reminds me to double check my work. Keeps me humble also.
 
Yesterday I was turning a pen out of cross cut zebra wood and busted a blank 3 different times. The third time was beyond repair. Next I decided I was going to turn a pen out of some bacote that I had glued up for about 5 days sitting and waiting. I put barrel trimmer to it and it split right in half and fell off of the tube..LOL.
I found a piece of yellow oak to turn next and it busted in the lathe when I hit a knot in it that was rotten. Finally, I found ol faithful. A piece of big leaf maple. It turned out beautiful and I left the shop with one pen out of 4 attempts. Worst day ive ever had....so I feel your pain.
 
My bucket is 6" deep and 14" wide (an old cheese curls tub from Sam's Club)... filled with "lessons." And I've only been turning for 2 1/2 years!

Keep smiling, tomorrow will be better.

Be well.
 
Wheelman said:
I'm slowly filling a box with those...I'm sure I'll find a use for them (any ideas). I've also got a handful that I grabbed the wrong ca glue and the tube is stuck half in, half out of the blank.
Click to expand...

So far I've reclaimed about a half dozen of my 7mm goof ups by making trimming sleeves for kits with larger tubes.
 
Nope...never happened to anyone before!!! Jr gent blanks never get drilled with the same bit....oh no! You earned that T-shirt.
 
Band Saw Box said:
A funny thing happened when I tried to glue in the long tube it went passed the end of the tube:frown::frown:. The had glued the short tube in the long blank:mad:. Oh well these things happen.......but why do they happen to me. I've closed up the shop for today maybe I try again tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Do not despair! Trim the long blank down to the short tube. Nothing more for that.

Next, use a parting tool to square the face of the blank on the end where the tube protrudes from the short blank. Find a piece of accent that suits you, drill a hole, face the end, and glue it on.

You planned it. . . you just didn't know it. :biggrin:
 
I have had a similar issue. No one told me I could not put a piece of tub in the remaining space in the tube. So glued it up and shoved it in. It turned good. Not sure we're it is now. Some kind soul is using it or it broke and they never told me.
Can I show the box with all the other broken pens. Yeah more than I care to talk about.
I stopped using a pen windmill barrel trimmer thing. Went to a small disc sander. The box of broken pens is filling up slower now. I square them up really well in the lathe with a small sanding disc in the head stock and a punch mounted in the tail stock.
 
Thanks for the replies. Tom T I am feeling a bit better not 100% but I'm getti g some turning done. I may try and fix the blanks or just let them go. Michelle sending pm.
 
Well I did a job on a Gym Set I made for the grand kids years ago, they've pretty well out grown it and my wife has adopted it for other things. Well I had to fix the ladder and do a couple of other things including removing part of a cross member. well nothing went as planned. I got it done, but I worked longer and harder to do it than I ever expoected to. Problem is when I built it I did not build it to be taken apart or fall apart and I did my job so well that it was a real job of work to do what I wanted today.
 
Smitty37 said:
Well I did a job on a Gym Set I made for the grand kids years ago, they've pretty well out grown it and my wife has adopted it for other things. Well I had to fix the ladder and do a couple of other things including removing part of a cross member. well nothing went as planned. I got it done, but I worked longer and harder to do it than I ever expoected to. Problem is when I built it I did not build it to be taken apart or fall apart and I did my job so well that it was a real job of work to do what I wanted today.
Click to expand...

Yea... I built a 12' x 12' deck a few years ago that could support a semi on it... Slightly overbuilt,... but the housing dept liked it!
 
Band Saw Box said:
I went through my blanks and found a nice piece of Lati and cut the drilled it for a Euro pen. I sanded the tubes and glued them in so I was all set, no I wasn't and it was to late to correct my mistake. I glued in two short tubes rather the one long and one short.:mad: The long tube was still on my work area I'm not sure were the other short tube came from. Oh well I have extra tubes. I next took a maple blank, Cut, drilled and made sure I had one long and one short tube. I was all set. I glued up one tube but got side tracked and had to come back to glue in the second tube. A funny thing happened when I tried to glue in the long tube it went passed the end of the tube:frown::frown:. The had glued the short tube in the long blank:mad:. Oh well these things happen.......but why do they happen to me. I've closed up the shop for today maybe I try again tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Dan , a 7mm Euro can be made with two short tubes . Just don`t press in the transmission as far as normal . It should be about the same amount as for a slimline .
 
1080Wayne said:
Band Saw Box said:
I went through my blanks and found a nice piece of Lati and cut the drilled it for a Euro pen. I sanded the tubes and glued them in so I was all set, no I wasn't and it was to late to correct my mistake. I glued in two short tubes rather the one long and one short.:mad: The long tube was still on my work area I'm not sure were the other short tube came from. Oh well I have extra tubes. I next took a maple blank, Cut, drilled and made sure I had one long and one short tube. I was all set. I glued up one tube but got side tracked and had to come back to glue in the second tube. A funny thing happened when I tried to glue in the long tube it went passed the end of the tube:frown::frown:. The had glued the short tube in the long blank:mad:. Oh well these things happen.......but why do they happen to me. I've closed up the shop for today maybe I try again tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Dan , a 7mm Euro can be made with two short tubes . Just don`t press in the transmission as far as normal . It should be about the same amount as for a slimline .
Click to expand...
Yep, been there and done that. The overall length of the finished pen will be a tad shorter than usual.
 
:frown: Well it a new day I glued up a paduck blank yesterday and started turning it this morning and I learned something......it not always good to have a dust collector running.....I heard the sound of a bigger then normal chip hit the impeller :confused:. I stopped the lathe and found about half of the blank down to the tune was gone. I took off the collection back and found what was left of the blank it could not be saved. I'm not going to let this pen kit win I will now try a piece of walnut next and maybe use the other half of the paduck blank with it.
 
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Been there done that...

How about even worse.

Painted my blank with a couple of coats of black paint, hung on wire to dry near my workbench. When it came time to epoxy tube in blank, epoxy is mixed and ready, where's blank? In haste a new blank was roughened up and inserted.

Blank was hiding right in plain sight between my eye and the Dremel tool,
(dark) within an arms reach.

I just mixed up more epoxy and installed it in a second blank.

Charlie:rolleyes:
 
Yup I have done things like this too. Some days you just have to walk away and know you can start fresh tomorrow. Usually when you walk away you get an idea about how to make your mistake work. I can already think about how you could overcome what you did. Take a piece of contrasting wood and glue up the two longer tubes and make twins out of them.
 
Yep, I was doing threaded slimlines awhile ago - different length tubes, lower tube both ends theaded, upper tube one end threaded.carefully cut the blanks with one a little longer than the other and marked them as T (top) or B (bottom) and I still managed to get some of the tubes in the wrong blank.
 
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