My son wanted me to post his pen here since he is very proud of it. I got into pen turning 2 years ago because my older son was starting to be lured by video games and I desperately try to keep my kids away from too many video games by keeping them busy doing other things. My older son also collects pens and I figured this would be a good hobby that we can do together. Two years later, he can care less. Yesterday, my 9-year-old son comes up to me with a drawing of a pen blank and says he wants to make a pen based on his pet leopard gecko. I immediately throw him over my shoulder and run down to the workshop. Finally, one of my sons wants to do something in the workshop with me without being forced!
I took a look at his design and figured that he should make some alumilite blanks. His design is yellow, orange/red, white with black lines between the segments. This design, he said, represents the tail of his pet gecko. He was adamant that he wanted to do everything on his own, so I just gave him verbal instructions. The only thing I did was push the material through the table saw when cutting and helped him shape the pen after he got it close to the bushings.
He first made alumilite blanks for his design. My son set everything up on the table saw and I just pushed the material through. He used a guitar pickguard to sandwich between the segments. Measuring was very loose, and he did almost everything by eye.
He changed his mind from a Sierra to a cigar pen so we had to decide what to do with the cap. He decided he wanted to clear cast a picture of his leopard gecko. I told him what to do, he did it:
Here is his final first pen fully designed by him.
I took a look at his design and figured that he should make some alumilite blanks. His design is yellow, orange/red, white with black lines between the segments. This design, he said, represents the tail of his pet gecko. He was adamant that he wanted to do everything on his own, so I just gave him verbal instructions. The only thing I did was push the material through the table saw when cutting and helped him shape the pen after he got it close to the bushings.
He first made alumilite blanks for his design. My son set everything up on the table saw and I just pushed the material through. He used a guitar pickguard to sandwich between the segments. Measuring was very loose, and he did almost everything by eye.
He changed his mind from a Sierra to a cigar pen so we had to decide what to do with the cap. He decided he wanted to clear cast a picture of his leopard gecko. I told him what to do, he did it:
Here is his final first pen fully designed by him.
