Micah, I am sure you will like it and the learning curve is greatly reduced this way. You are less likly to have a blow out as they blank can spin if left with a bit less tension. I do this on hard turning woods, I would rather the blank stop while rounding it out than take a chunk out of a nice blank. I turn with calipers to measure and whe it comes time to sand, I remove the bushings all togather and sand between centers. This will keep your bushings in much better shape and keep the metal from getting pulled into your blanks. When you apply a CA finish, there is no mess to clean off the bushings and you have ended ever having to worry about chipped finishes or stuck bushings. I do "push" that you use a sander mill to clean off the CA and flatten the end of the blank over the cutter mill as the cutter can chip the finish. You can make your own, and that method is posted here on IAP, I also make them from solid steel, but they are not cheap.
Best yet, is you can skip buying a mandrel, junky bushings, another mandrel for bigger pens, you see where I am going with this??
I also find that if you want to "round out" a pen blank to hold it in a chuck to drill your holes, the dead center used as a drive will allow you to turn it all round without fear of hitting the spur centers teeth!
Enjoy, and welcome to the dark side! [}
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