Barrel trimmer gap......

[Bob Roehrig]

Have a problem in that I think my barrel trimmer is a cheap piece of junk. I'm noticing that when I use my barrel trimmer to square up my blank ends (Tube glued in) the wood itself is squared up but the tube still has a small piece of tube protruding outwards. Upon further inspection of the trimmer I notice a small maybe one to two thousandth gap between the carbide blade trimmers and the shaft of the barrel trimmer. I'm thinking the shaft on the barrel trimmer needs to be exactly a tight butt up to the carbide blades so the it trims the tube also flush along with the wood itself. Am I correct and need a new barrel trimmer or am I missing something that I could solve the problem Carbide blades are silver soldered to the barrel on the trimmer so their no adjustment option of moving them in tight with the trimmer shaft. Would love to hear from others and if I do need a new barrel trimmer, what is a brand that one can depend on to be well made and accurate. I'm sure mine was a Chinese knock off and of poorer quality. See Pictures below. Thanks

 

[Twist&Click]

I have that problem when doing 7mm tubes. I finally just used a flat file to knock the burr off of the tube. I have tried different brands but they were all the same because of the changeable cutter heads. Only the 7mm tubes gave me problems, all other sizes were fine. I changed to the Rick Herrell sanding jig and never looked back.

 

[d_bondi]

+1 for ditch the barrel trimmer (for many reasons) and get Rick Herrell's sanding jig!

 

[Monty]

I second David's method.

 

[Woodchipper]

I got the Woodcraft carbide cutter for my trimmer set. Much better than the old steel cutters.

 

[Bob Roehrig]

Called Penn State Industries today and talked to a fella in tech support. Explained my problem as I did in my post above. He explained to me that the barrel trimmer I had was not damaged or defective, but out of adjustment. We talked about the issue for awhile and he enlighted me on serval things I did not know about the barrel trimmer. Most important was the fact that the 7mm (smallest) shaft had a larger diameter on the bottom half than the top. If ones barrel trimmer sits to high on the shaft one will get the problem of the gap that's happening in mine. He had me loosen the set screw and slide the shaft down a bit. After retightening, the gap disappeared. My problem was the barrel portion was to high on the shaft and this is the narrowest portion. When that happened the gap was created. Trimmer now works great and I go a good education lesson on the proper adjustment of a barrel trimmer.

 

[Kenny Durrant]

I can't tell you to ditch the barrel trimmer because I use it for years and still gab it every once in a while. As mentioned earlier Rick H. sanding jig is worth every cent. Well since they don't make Pennie's any more maybe every nickel. There's so many pluses with it, it will save a lot of headaches down the road. I don't know what blanks you turn but when working with soft wood or segmented blanks there's a lot less worry about blowout. When a barrel trimmer starts getting dull it will flare or mushroom the end of the tube. If it's bad enough it will split the pen or separate a clear cast when pressing it together. That's just my 5 cents worth. Ha ha ha

 

[Woodchipper]

Used the Woodcraft trimmer for years. Never had the problem as Bob R. described. As mentioned, went to the carbide cutter. Works great, smooth surface.

 

[randyrls]

Some of the pen mills have a smaller than 7mm shaft and cut the entire blank including the brass tube. a sanding setup puts minimum stress on the blank

 

[Ink and Edges]

I haven't used the jig mentioned above but I do use my 12" disk sander, the table and a miter gage to get the right size transfer punch (that's one that fits inside the tube but doesn't have any extra room to go up the next size) square to the sander, I spin the blank with my hand as I press it gently into the disk sander...guessing the jig may be a bit safer but what I've got has been working w/o any issues for several years. I've still got the carbide barrel trimmer and the default sizes of shafts. The Harbor Freight full set of transfer punches works for every tube size.

 

[Bob Roehrig]

After reading so many good posts on the subject of Sander vs. Barrel trimmer I have opted to use the disc sand method. Have made myself a fine accurate tool to mount on the sander table and will use my transfer punches to fill the right tube sizes. Not going to ditch my carbide barrel trimmer entirly especially after talking to the tech people at Penn State and learning the right way these trimmers need to be adjusted. Must say that the sander does a great smooth job and quickly. Thanks to all that have posted on this subject......very informative ideas.

 

[howsitwork]

If the brass tube is protruding slightly then a quick rotate of a hand countersink would remove the burr AND give you a nice soft entry for the transmission or other parts into the barrel , just an observation.
I went over to a carbide set a while back and although they need careful use in a drill press I am happy with them. Gentle touch either on sanding disc or trimmer is ESSENTIAL, for me at least