Anouther Bowling Ball material Pen

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Daniel

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Jan 1, 2004
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Reno, NV, USA.
I mentioned reveiving a coupel of pieces of the Bowling Ball Material from Pens of Color.
I used one of the blanks and pieces of anouther to make a woodworkers pencil.


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the woodworker Pencil by it kit size requires that it is a fairly large pen. it requires a 10mm hole in teh bank. it is also different than other pen kits in that the barrel is one piece. just over 4-1/2 inches long. and must be drilled straight through from one end.
I also made anouther pencil from Ebony. (see my other post in this forum)
the kit also uses no Brass tube.
I thought this was a great kit to test out a new material. it requires extreme treatment in everything from cutting the blank extremely square at teh ends. If you do not mill the ends as I did it requires being able to handle the blank material in such a wa that very accurate cuts for length can be made. as well the blank material must be able too put up with the rigors of very deep drilling. I thought I was going to set the Ebony on fire and it took an hour for the wood to cool down after drilling it. I would definitly suggest getting the long bit offered to drill this kit.
the blank material must also be regorous enough to withstand the turning process while not being reinforced by the brass tube.
In my opinion the Bowling Ball Material was outstanding in all areas.
the blanks are large, 1" thick and the side are consistant enough to use as a referance for cutting the blank on my Radial arm saw. cutting in this manner left the ends square and the blank required no milling of the ends. this method also worked well enough to cut the two thin blue bands in a consistanly thick waffer. I did not have to do anything further for the inlay pieces other than to glue and drill them. as for drilling, the bit screamed and complained as well as got extremely hot. the balnk never even gave off an odor much less threatened to melt or burn. the chips cleared very nicely and there was no gumming up of the drill bit at all.
the results of the inlay. I simply cut the thin waffers with my radial arm saw. applied Poly glue and clamped all the wafers together. I was able to drill this section in about three hours wit no problem. I then glued this butt section to the main blank adn was ablt to turn the pen after about two hours again with no problems. there was never any indication that the poly bond would fail.
As for turning , this material is a dream. think of acrlic and then emagine smooth easy cuts. I used every tool n my rack on it and didn't get chatter or catches with any of them. very nice to turn.
the only problem I incountered in turning ws the build up of plastic like threads that wrapped around the mandarel and balnk interfearing mith the view of my work. this where removed easily and is usual for acrlics and other plastic type materials. A dust collector would go a long way in keeping this situation under control.
 
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