Well, I guess it's possible to make too many pens in one day...
I woke up this morning wanting more than anything else to make another 8mm Elegant American...
But I had 3 other pens to take care of first...
The first pen was some kind of a copper swirl acrylic. It turned out ok, so I used it to learn a little bit about photography.
The second pen was a black and white RP zen pen. It ended up with circular scratches in the black, so I had to backtrack and sand axially. Then that one turned out good.
The third pen was a simple strawberry mesh acrylic. Breezed right thru that one...
Finally, with the work out of the way, it was time to play... a pen for me to take to work tomorrow!!! Okay, Dark Red Synthetic Burl, 8mm, 24K gold Elegant American... let's do it... got the correct bushings... turned it... sanded it, micro meshed it... ah... looking good! Lets assemble this baby...
Press in the tip... press in the center band... press in the mechanism... screw it together... opps, it doesn't screw together... dang, why not?
Grab a beer, look at all the parts... Oh I see the problem... I got the short piece in the front and the long piece in the back... Disassemble pen...
Press the tip into the long piece... dang, the diameter is wrong...
Grab another beer...
Okay, so I could put the long piece back on the lathe and size it to match the tip. But the finale end is too small, and I can not put material back on...
So, here are my options...
1) Don't build it
2) Build it like it is, as a reminder to pay attention next time
3) Resize the long piece to match the tip
I opted for number 2. Probably shouldn't build more than 3 pens a day, eh? :laugh:
And just for S&G, here's the pic...
Mike...
P.S. Time to fire up the smoker to reverse sear a tri-tip for dinner!!! :wink: