Final version pen mill sander

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Firefyter-emt

Firefyter-emt

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Putnam, Connecticut, USA.
Ok, first off, no ... I will not offer these for sale, it is way too much work to mill these down from 1" CRS to the 1/4" shaft!

However, just for me ... Well, it was worth it! I had this spare drill chuck around a while back and made a handle for it to use for hand drilling on the lathe. The down side is the chuck is only a 1/4" chuck so it's very limited. (plus, I had to turn at least another 1/4" off the drill chuck end to hold it!) Although I did put the entire thing back in my lathe and re-turned the handle to a beter shape. I never did care for how it came out. [}:)]

I use a 1/4" transfer punch and a large pen bushing to press the hole out of the sandpaper and then stick it onto the new mandrel. A razor knife trims it flush with the base.

I know it's old news by now, but after a couple prototypes I really like this one, I have been using then with great luck for knocking down the CA build up on the ends. I have not tried it yet, but it can be placed in my lathe drill chuck or drill press and used to end mill a blank too large for the cutter mill.

Anyway, I thought ya'll might like to see it.
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This is a really timely topic as I have just received my first Baron and Emperor kits and was wondering how best to square them as the pen mill doesn't have anything that large. I know that a lot of you use gun cleaning kits to clean the glue from the brass tubes but I don't feel real comfortable free hand sanding the ends square. I think I'll look around and see what I can find that I could make a sanding mill out of. I also heard of using some delrin to make custom sleeves to use with the pen mill.
 
Chris, the baron can be done with a normal pen mill, not sure about the Emperor kit though. If I remember corectly, the Gent and the El-Toro were too big for the standard pen mill.

Honestly, I use this more to clean up the blanks in the finishing process than the inital milling. I make my own sleeves like many others here. I use what ever I feel like, but I always use diffrent materials and woods. This keeps them in order better if left out. I have mine in one of those tackle storage boxes like my pen kits. In fact, the blank on the pen mill is a sleeve for a kit (Churchill I think) I just use slimline tubes and turn to size.
 
If I'm understanding what you're doing, the same thing can be done with a regular pen mill. Just reverse the cutterhead on the shaft, so the blades face away from the blank, punch a hole in a piece of adhesive sandpaper and stick it on the pen mill. Fred in NC does this and I think was the first to mention it.
 
There are many "ways" to do this, but this one works great for me. The pen mill cutter will work, but you are again stuck to the diameter of the cutter head which is too smal for a couple kits. On top of that, you need to switch it back and forth. (I know my chuck end is way too chewed up to run into a pen tube!)

If I find something that works good, and can be improved upon, I always want to go just one step above. I spent a couple days on this off and on a tiny bit at a time. While applying a CA finish I would walk over to the metal lathe and take a few passes of metal off and go back to what I was doing ect. Now that's it's done I have close to the best of the best and I use it many times while making a pen to knock down the CA finish using my method. I also find that it works much better to perfectly flatten the end of a tube where the cutter can "hop" on some woods.

For a "quick and easy" one, I like the lock collar idea the best. Buy a new mandrel from Joe and use the old one for this. [;)] Good thinking Ron!
 
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