Help with Hexagonal Pen Barrel

[wizard]

I'm asking a question that I haven't been able to find an answer to in the IAP resources. If anyone knows of a thread, tutorial that I 'm not aware of, please let me know.

I am trying to make a hexagonal barrel for a pen and wanted to know if a mill attachment to a metal lathe would work for that purpose. I have a Micromark 7x14 minilathe and both Little Machine Shop and Micromark carry the attachment as shown:
http://www.micromark.com/MINI-LATHE-MILLING-ATTACHMENT,8184.html
or
would I need to invest in a separate mill?

Thank you,
Doc

 

[JerrySambrook]

Yes, you can do it with the mill attachment

 

[rjwolfe3]

For that price I would think that you might be able to pick up a used pen wizard or something similar maybe?

Wasn't there a post just recently where someone did it with a Dremel tool and a wood jig on their wood lathe?

I have always wanted to do it myself but wasn't sure what the cheapest way to do it was.

 

[devowoodworking]

Doc, I picked up a Dremel holder from Kent in Oregon that works quite well...fits in any tool post: :wink:

http://www.kenbo.org/products.html

 

[workinforwood]

If you have indexing on your wood lathe, figure out how many clicks takes you a full revolution and divide that by eight...so if you have 16 clicks on a revolution, that would mean every two clicks is your flat surface. Now you just need to build a slide to mount over the top of the lathe for a router and a straight shank bit. You could even build an L shaped jig that would fit right into the bed of the lathe, but I think I would prefer to build a table right over the top of the lathe because then you can use more solid wood.

Option two...metal lathe you say. Well heck...all you need is a mill cutter...not a lot of difference between a straight shank router bit and a mill cutter..just depends what type of material you are cutting..if it's wood or plastic, then a router bit mounted in a collet in your lathe headstock is all you need. A lathe is also a mill, it's just horizontal instead of vertical. You can get a collet indexer pretty cheap on ebay...like I'm talking $25-30. You mount the collet indexer on your cross slides instead of your tool post, insert the pen in the collet and use the upper cross slide to push the pen over the cutter. All you need to do is have the collet indexer at the right height..you may need to shim it if it is too low, and you obviously need to know how many indexes are available so you know how many clicks to turn for each side. I would measure from the bed of the upper cross slide to the center of your headstock so that you can compare that measurement with the height of the collet indexer you purchase. Like I said..if the indexer is too low, you can shim it, but if it is too high, you are out of luck.

 

[its_virgil]

I don't see something similar to this being difficult to build.
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/LIXSET.html

Do a good turn daily!
Don

 

[BRobbins629]

I've done it with a dremel like tool clamped to a couple of pieces of angle iron and an index wheel.

 

[Chuck Key]

You should be able to come up with something that will work. Here are a couple of idea photos.

 

[cowchaser]

Wow you guys have some fancy gadgets.

 

[Russianwolf]

Skippy showed his home made system for doing stuff like this too. Go look for his posts.

 

[Parson]

If you get this hexagonal blank thing down, we could use osage and make pencils!

 

[devowoodworking]

You should be able to come up with something that will work. Here are a couple of idea photos.

Very cool set up John!!!