Sizing and sorting your Bushings

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Bob Roehrig

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Aug 11, 2015
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Venice, Florida
As my accumlation of pen bushings increase and I seem to accumulate to many the exact same size, the question arose that it may be time to now organize and sort my pen bushings by size and not by the name of the pen kit itself. I would love to know what others do since there's many ways to do things and maybe there's a better way than the one I'm now thinking about doing......Thanks
 
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For Bushings I use a sewing item (I think it's a bobbin sorter thingy). It's got 6 to 8 trays that will hold my bushings pretty nicely and I use the label off the package to mark the slot. You can get them at sewing places and they're not really expensive (on sale). I cross reference them to my binder that handles all the instructions for the different pens and stuff I make (I refer to it as my Bible).
 
wolf creek knives said:
For Bushings I use a sewing item (I think it's a bobbin sorter thingy). It's got 6 to 8 trays that will hold my bushings pretty nicely and I use the label off the package to mark the slot. You can get them at sewing places and they're not really expensive (on sale). I cross reference them to my binder that handles all the instructions for the different pens and stuff I make (I refer to it as my Bible).
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Thanks and appreciate your reply, but I'm not quite seeing what your saying. Any chance you can post a picture of your organized bobbin tray? Pictures worth a thousand words :)
 
Woodchipper said:
FWIW, I now turn between centers. The only time I use bushings is to match the bushing to the ID of the blank tube. I need to post a photo of my setup.
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Curious about your firsthand experience here. I also turn between centers, but with bushings. So I don't necessarily have bushings for every pen I turn, but as long as I can find bushings that properly fit the inner diameter of the brass tube, I can mount the blank between centers and turn down to the correct diameter for the pen hardware just using calipers. Then I swap over to a mandrel w/ delrin nonstick bushings and a mandrel saver to do sanding and CA finish.

I've heard of people doing TBC without any bushings at all - a 60° dead center directly into the brass tube in the blank, and 60° live cone center in the tailstock side, again directly mating with the brass tube. Every time I've tried this, I flared out the brass tube to the point that it was no longer a good friction/press fit with the rest of the pen hardware. When I tried to avoid this by backing off tailstock pressure, I couldn't get enough hold to properly turn the blank. I can't seem to find the happy medium. What's your secret?

Edit: to OP, I started off with a pretty standard fishing-style tacklebox to store and organize my bushings. Ultimately I switched over to a custom 3D-printed TPU style of bushing storage that is very compact and hangs directly on my pegboard, so it's really accessible. I posted about it here.
 
I used bins like this from Harbor Freight in the past. It looks like they no longer have them, but similar products on Amazon (bead organizers). I used a label maker and just labeled the individual bushing boxes so you can view without opening.

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Bob Roehrig said:
Thanks and appreciate your reply, but I'm not quite seeing what your saying. Any chance you can post a picture of your organized bobbin tray? Pictures worth a thousand words :)
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He may be referring to Bobbin Boxes
BHuij said:
Curious about your firsthand experience here. I also turn between centers, but with bushings. So I don't necessarily have bushings for every pen I turn, but as long as I can find bushings that properly fit the inner diameter of the brass tube, I can mount the blank between centers and turn down to the correct diameter for the pen hardware just using calipers. Then I swap over to a mandrel w/ delrin nonstick bushings and a mandrel saver to do sanding and CA finish.

I've heard of people doing TBC without any bushings at all - a 60° dead center directly into the brass tube in the blank, and 60° live cone center in the tailstock side, again directly mating with the brass tube. Every time I've tried this, I flared out the brass tube to the point that it was no longer a good friction/press fit with the rest of the pen hardware. When I tried to avoid this by backing off tailstock pressure, I couldn't get enough hold to properly turn the blank. I can't seem to find the happy medium. What's your secret?

Edit: to OP, I started off with a pretty standard fishing-style tacklebox to store and organize my bushings. Ultimately I switched over to a custom 3D-printed TPU style of bushing storage that is very compact and hangs directly on my pegboard, so it's really accessible. I posted about it here.
Click to expand...
I also turn between centers and yes my tubes do flare, a bit.
I guess the secret is to only tighten enough to keep the blank from slipping. With the lathe spinning the dead center I will lightly hold the live center with my fingers while advancing the tail stock and when I cannot keep the center from spinning I stop advancing the quill and tighten the lock. This may happen many to a few times throughout the turning.
Honestly, I've not encountered the flaring to inhibit the press fit of the hardware into the tube.
 
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