First TBC

[Lenny]

Ok... I read the excellent tutorial by George...
Ordered a 60 degree live center, and other goodies from johnnycnc..
Nice new tool rest from rherrell ...
read a few more posts by Hank Lee on turning mandrell-less...
grabbed one of my Afzelia blanks I got from Kelvin awhile back...

tried to summon up the courage to return to my turning area after my bout with cocbolo on New Years day... rash is all but gone ...??? ...
Hooked up my new Delta dust collector .... soon discovered I needed to add some hardware cloth at the hood so I wouldn't lose all my sandpaper:tongue:
Set up my Oneway chuck with spigot jaws and drilled the Afzelia, first with a 60 degree center bit and then with the 31/64ths and 33/64ths bits.
This was a little ...
Finally got down to business .... Tried to take the finishing process SLOW this time as was mentioned By Russ Fairfield in a recent thread...
anyway here's the results ... my first pen between centers ...a Cambridge

 

[juteck]

Nice looking pen! Good job on the between centers method.

.... soon discovered I needed to add some hardware cloth at the hood so I wouldn't lose all my sandpaper

Been there........

 

[maxman400]

Looks Great, How does it compare to turning the other way. are you convinced?

 

[Whaler]

A great looking pen. I sure have been a happy turner since I threw my mandrels away.

 

[JBCustomPens]

Nice pen. What's your opinion on TBC? I know I would never go back to a mandrel. Very nice job!

 

[RAdams]

I CANNOT WAIT to be a convert!

 

[Texatdurango]

Ok... my first pen between centers ...a Cambridge

Dontcha just love it when a plan comes together! Nice pen, I'm not a huge fan of the cambridge because of the big black end pieces and that black center band section but it does go well with the orange color of the afzelia to make an overall nice looking pen!

 

[Lenny]

Maybe the Cambridge wasn't the best kit to use to go mandrell-less .... It calls for using the "B" mandrel which is much heavier and less prone to the problems associated with your typical 7mm mandrel. Still ... It works!
What I don't care for about the Cambridge kit is that the cap is not postable .... I guess it's really meant as a desk pen ... ???
I used just the stock bushings ... no problems there. May try chamfering them sometime...
Not sure what to do with 7mm kits ... mostly Roadsters (aka Ambassador ... not sure what other names it goes by). I guess I would need to create my own bushings out of delrin???
I can't say that I'll never use a mandrel again but I certainly will continue with "Between Centers"!

 

[rjwolfe3]

Excellent work!