Pen Wizard - Owners discussion

[Nick]

Well............ There is one PW heading all the way out west to Lakewood, WA. Ordered it today. I spoke with JR and I must say, What a nice person to deal with and his superior customer service. Other companies should follow his lead.
Merry Christmas to all
Don Nicholas
Lakewood, WA

 

[rej19]

I think Santa has plans to stop by and pick one up for delivery to Indy. Assuming that I remain good at least for another week.

 

[Nick]

Ron, When Santa gets there, let me know since I am west of you, let him know to hurry out west and that the chimmney has been cleaned as well as cookies and milk will be set out. Enjoy your new "toy" and have a Merry Christmas!!

I think Santa has plans to stop by and pick one up for delivery to Indy. Assuming that I remain good at least for another week.

 

[ed4copies]

Let's be clear:
In homes that have no children for Santa to visit,
Can the milk and cookies

BRING OUT THE BRANDY- It's a COLD night out there!!!

 

[rej19]

You gotta be kidd'n. You mean he won't show with no children present. Who is that guy whose been visiting me for the last 30 years after the kids left?

 

[ed4copies]

Ron,

Read the WHOLE entry.

As long as you keep the Brandy comin, so will Santa.

 

[Nick]

Ron/Ed
what Ed said is true, notice my name (Nick) That is "St" Nick, Yes I am 66 years old, have a white beard (short) white hair and my last name is Nicholas. So there you have it.
Just keep the Brandy coming and I will be there.

 

[sbell111]

Who's Brandy?

 

[ed4copies]

Pick your port in a storm!

Who's Brandy?

Well, we know HE's not from "cold country"!!

 

[Nick]

Brandy

One of the lesser known elves here in the workshop

Who's Brandy?

 

[sbell111]

Well, we know HE's not from "cold country"!!

Nope. Luckily, I grew up in Buffalo so I didn't have to deal with 'real' cold.

 

[rej19]

Nick, You should be OK. According to my inside sources my Pen Wizard was ordered yesterday and it showed up today. I can not confirm that but I have been told that I can not enter the spare bedroom. If Santa is that fast he should have no problem making it to the west coast by Thursday! This puts me under extreme pressure to make the right gift choice in return! You don't want this to happen to you! Hilarious:rotfl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhv4I2EGFLw

 

[Nick]

Ron, You could buy "her" a new Dremel or Fordom tool

 

[gman]

when do you think it will arive so I can play with it

 

[Nick]

George,
Looks like Wed or Thursday

when do you think it will arive so I can play with it

 

[ScribbleSticks]

Hi Guys,
Just got my Pen Wizard yesterday. Haven't had a chance to set it up or try it out yet. I did pop the CD into the player in the house after I finished out in the shop last night. I got about half way through it before I feel asleep and TLOML had to wake me up. No, the video IS NOT boring, I was just too sleepy to try to watch it that late. I'm going to pop it in this evening and watch the rest of it. Just noticed this thread and thought I'd subscribe and read along. Just want to let you know I'm "in the game" too!!
Best Wishes,

 

[Nick]

It's here

Ron, The little old UPS driver, so lively and quick, deposited the box, after trudging through 12" of snow, on my front porch tonight. He was seen running back to his truck yelling "Another crazy pen turner" Any way It arrived!!

Nick, You should be OK. According to my inside sources my Pen Wizard was ordered yesterday and it showed up today. I can not confirm that but I have been told that I can not enter the spare bedroom. If Santa is that fast he should have no problem making it to the west coast by Thursday! This puts me under extreme pressure to make the right gift choice in return! You don't want this to happen to you! Hilarious:rotfl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhv4I2EGFLw

 

[KenV]

My wife dropped one of these under a tree for me yesterday -- JR must be making several runs a day to the shippers. I was looking through the tooling stash and saw a couple of boxes of carbide mills that came 50 in a box that I acquired a few years ago (from the circuit board industry as I remember -} all 1/8 inch shanks.... Hmmmmm

 

[sbell111]

In today's mail, I received Woodcraft's sale circular. As it turns out, Woodcraft's version of the foredom is going on sale from 11/28-12/31 for $143.99.

Item 147220 Wecheer 1/4 HP Flexible Shaft Carver Kit

1/4hp 120v reversible motor
flexible 42" shaft
variable speed foot control
Standard rotary handpiece
3 collets (3/32", 1/8", 1/4")
wrench
tool hanger

Incidently, the handpiece by itself costs $43.99. I wonder if it will fit my old foredom (or HF's variant).

Earlier in the week, I noticed that Sciplus had a foredom clone on sale for $65. I needed a new speed control for my ancient foredom any way, so I picked one up. I got it yesterday. It works just fine and my foredom #30 handpiece swapped over to it with no problems.

 

[Bob Roehrig]

Well, here is my first assessment of the PW. First of all, since I have the MillLathe, I have another mill with which to compare the PW. I used the foredom handset and the rope twist router bit mentioned earlier. There is what I consider a problem with the PW using this bit. The platform on which the cutting tool rests is free floating. Because the cutter floats and the rope bit takes such a large bite(1.2 inch diameter), the bit itself did not stay at the depth I had it set. Several passes were necessary and I finally had to hold down on the cutter mounting platform to keep the bit at the depth I wanted. This may not be a problem using bits that take smaller bites. Or, maybe I'm missing something and will get it figured out.

The MillLathe has a mechanism that locks into place once the cutter depth is set. I've attached a picture of my millLathe for those who aren't familiar with it.

The PW does do have the Guilloche attachment and the Milllathe does not. This is my main reason for getting the PW.

The PW has GEARS and my MillLathe has belts that tend to slip. I love the gears instead of belts.

I'll be playing with the other features of the PW tomorrow and will probably continue to do the rope twists with the MillLathe.

But, the PW is a fun tool and I look forward to the many things it will do that my MillLathe will not.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Hello once again Don, In my digging around to still find myself a Pen Wizard I came across a post of yours from eighteen years ago regarding the use of your MillLathe. You mentioned slipping belts and that seemed to be a huge issue to everyone that has the machine. Have you ever thought about taking the discs on the side of the machine and putting equal notches around the outside using an indexing head? You could then by a notched belt (I've seen them) and use that. Bet that would elimate the slipage..........Just a thought. Have a good day.

 

[its_virgil]

Hello once again Don, In my digging around to still find myself a Pen Wizard I came across a post of yours from eighteen years ago regarding the use of your MillLathe. You mentioned slipping belts and that seemed to be a huge issue to everyone that has the machine. Have you ever thought about taking the discs on the side of the machine and putting equal notches around the outside using an indexing head? You could then by a notched belt (I've seen them) and use that. Bet that would elimate the slipage..........Just a thought. Have a good day.

Not familiar with notched belts. I did entertain the idea of gears and a "transmission" like on the pen wizard. But, im not knowledgeable enough to do it myself.

Never had the slippage issue with the pen wizard.

 

[Bob Roehrig]

Not familiar with notched belts. I did entertain the idea of gears and a "transmission" like on the pen wizard. But, im not knowledgeable enough to do it myself.

Never had the slippage issue with the pen wizard.

Hi Don, Attached a picture of a smaller size "notched" drive belt that are on the market. Quite common since they grip nicely.