Bats
Member
I'm about to move into a little shoebox apartment about an hour away from my shop, and I'm trying to figure out just how I can continue making pens (to keep things simple, I'm only looking at kitted right now). I've got a little Taig microlathe (which I got cheap on craigslist and pretty much never used) that's just about the perfect size for the apt, but it's going to take some adaptation - especially since it'll have to be pretty much the only tool. Just to make things even more of a challenge: since I've also got all the usual moving expenses, I'm trying to do this on an extremely tight budget (so things like "Just get a Beall chuck" probably aren't going to fly, at least at the outset).
My usual prep process right now is to cut a blank to length on the bandsaw, center-punch & turn it round between centers (using a small steb center in the headstock), then throw it in the Pen Plus Jaws on a Nova chuck and drill it, glue in the tubes, then square it with a pen mill on the drill press.
I can get a compatible insert for the Nova (and I even have a spare chuck) so that part isn't a problem, I was thinking I could use a parting tool (like this one) to cut the blanks (a hand saw is obviously another option, but my technique sucks when it comes to straight lines - especially since I'm not sure I'll have space for a vise), and they make wood-turning tool rests (like this one), but holding it (both for cutting and for turning round) is eluding me. I can get a spur center (like this one), but that involves hammering a fair bit of spike into the blank, which just screams "split me" to my mind. I could stick the raw blank in the pen jaws, use a center drill on the ends, and then just run with a dead & live center, but unless the blank is perfectly straight & square (and most of what I end up with doesn't tend to be) those center holes are likely be somewhere other than centered - a big problem for fatter pens. Any brilliant ideas? Any just-kinda-ordinary ideas that I just-kinda-didn't-think-of?
I'm hoping there's enough torque that I can get by with a pen mill in the headstock - otherwise I may have to find a faceplate and go the Rick Herrell route, but that's an expense I'm hoping to avoid for the moment (it's something I've been meaning to get anyhow, but, well... budget).
Once I've got the blanks prepped I usually TBC, which probably isn't going to be an option (the Taig live center - like this one - has a point that's too narrow for anything except maybe a 7mm tube), so I'll likely be using a standard mandrel in a collet (like these, for the proprietary headstock taper) for turning and finishing. I can live with it, but it's not ideal, so I'm open to any suggestions there too. Icould should make use of all these metalworking machines that I keep stubbing my toes/cracking my head on to make a .497" straight-shank body with a fat ball bearing head holding a real-sized live center, but I've got even less free time than I have money right now, so that's probably not happening in the short term. Maybe once (if) more money becomes available I can convince Mr. Herrell to come up with a solution to that too. The center, not the lack of time. Although if he can solve that one, he'll be a very rich man.
Chisels are another issue - since I don't think I'll have room on the "workbench" for my grinder - but I figure I can cheat my way around that one with carbide.
I'm open to any suggestions/alternatives/improvements. Also, if there are any stages in the process that you think I'm overlooking, you're probably right - and I wouldn't mind suggestions on those too.
My usual prep process right now is to cut a blank to length on the bandsaw, center-punch & turn it round between centers (using a small steb center in the headstock), then throw it in the Pen Plus Jaws on a Nova chuck and drill it, glue in the tubes, then square it with a pen mill on the drill press.
I can get a compatible insert for the Nova (and I even have a spare chuck) so that part isn't a problem, I was thinking I could use a parting tool (like this one) to cut the blanks (a hand saw is obviously another option, but my technique sucks when it comes to straight lines - especially since I'm not sure I'll have space for a vise), and they make wood-turning tool rests (like this one), but holding it (both for cutting and for turning round) is eluding me. I can get a spur center (like this one), but that involves hammering a fair bit of spike into the blank, which just screams "split me" to my mind. I could stick the raw blank in the pen jaws, use a center drill on the ends, and then just run with a dead & live center, but unless the blank is perfectly straight & square (and most of what I end up with doesn't tend to be) those center holes are likely be somewhere other than centered - a big problem for fatter pens. Any brilliant ideas? Any just-kinda-ordinary ideas that I just-kinda-didn't-think-of?
I'm hoping there's enough torque that I can get by with a pen mill in the headstock - otherwise I may have to find a faceplate and go the Rick Herrell route, but that's an expense I'm hoping to avoid for the moment (it's something I've been meaning to get anyhow, but, well... budget).
Once I've got the blanks prepped I usually TBC, which probably isn't going to be an option (the Taig live center - like this one - has a point that's too narrow for anything except maybe a 7mm tube), so I'll likely be using a standard mandrel in a collet (like these, for the proprietary headstock taper) for turning and finishing. I can live with it, but it's not ideal, so I'm open to any suggestions there too. I
Chisels are another issue - since I don't think I'll have room on the "workbench" for my grinder - but I figure I can cheat my way around that one with carbide.
I'm open to any suggestions/alternatives/improvements. Also, if there are any stages in the process that you think I'm overlooking, you're probably right - and I wouldn't mind suggestions on those too.