A fine welcome back to segmenting

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jttheclockman

jttheclockman

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Feb 22, 2005
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NJ, USA.
Have to say my return to pen making is taking on some oops. I have not tried segmenting since I shown this pen back last Nov. It is a basic segmenting design. Nothing fancy. Yes the materials are a little finicky so much care was needed. And to say the least working with acrylics and doing segmenting work is a whole different game than working with wood. Throw in some metals and the pucker factor goes up. So for the past 4 days I have been attempting to get back with the tools and breaking out some new designs. This has proved to be challenging to say the least. First mistake was a simple mind numbing oops. Should not happen if I was more in tuned. Next mistake was equipment failure and part mental. Never really tightened the tailstock enough. OK so today third attempt and as I said acrylic can be both rewarding and frustrating as we all know when we spin some of these acrylics. But this mistake took me to some learning experience on how deep I can route a blank while still keeping it solid enough to eventually get my segments glued in. What I usually do with wood can not be done with acrylic. So back to square one and after the blow up just left the shop and knew it was time to walk away and come here and vent. :)

If you do not keep up with your abilitys they do get pushed back of the mind and hope your recall is quick enough to capture them again. So we are in the recapturing stage I guess you can say. Man need to get back in the zone. Have not even attempted my casting designs yet. I can imagine what I forgot there too. I am still determined though so that is a good thing. Frustration is all part of this hobby and more so with segmenting. So many things have to break right to succeed. I will be back at it tomorrow. OK I feel better.
 

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Sly Dog said:
Mind if I join the vent party? I wanted to enter the segmented pen contest this year but made too many mistakes that could not be corrected in time. I'm sure it will take you very little time to be on top of your game. 👍🏻
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Jump in my friend. It actually is not a pool you want to be in but there are those days. As I said segmenting with wood is far easier than acrylics. Maybe i should have started back with some wood designs.:)
 
I can also relate to this. With developing vision problems in my left eye, several recent blanks that were fussy to begin with with good vision did not go well with poor vision. But practice does improve things, and adaptation is possible. At times, I simply need to walk away and wait for the floaters to shift.
 
Moving those dark segments in from the ends makes for a very attractive piece. Better than just accents at the end of the barrel.
 
gbpens said:
Moving those dark segments in from the ends makes for a very attractive piece. Better than just accents at the end of the barrel.
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Thanks. When I did that one the hard part was working with such thin fragile material because I cut those on my tablesaw and that stuff likes to explode. So sharp blades was paramount. That is imitation casin material. The blue is a celoplast material and is beautiful to work with. I love that material.

Tony, no to CA. That is just polished to a high shine. Basically acrylic and aluminum.

This also brings up a point when people ask how did you do that?? It is sometimes so easy to forget a step or just did not explain it correct and it could make the difference in completing the project. This blank I am working on now it would be so easy to forget to mention about the depth you can cut into acrylic if cutting in from multiple sides and not have it crack. Wood will not do that. Many other small tidbits that sometimes get hidden. I will tell anyone how I do things if asked but again if I forget something it can be held against me. I switch to scrolling projects in the summer and leave pen turning again till winter. So this is why it takes me a little time to get back to doing things more to my liking. Hopefully I will get there and hope to get a few pens done this winter. Right now 5 pens are on the table and in various states of being built. I am not sure I can pull all of them off or none of them. Time will tell.
 
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