How do you make your own centerband?

[ossaguy]

Hi All,

I have two completed barrels done to a comfort slimline without the cushion,but I have no centerband.I want to try turning my own.

I have pieces of wood,plus I have some pick guard material I have not tried to do anything with yet.

Instead of fumbling around experimenting on my own,I thought I'd ask the experts here for any tips on how it's best done.


Thanks for any help,
Steve
San Diego

 

[BRobbins629]

I'm sure there are other ways, but here's how I do it. Make some bushings from scrap material to the dimensions you want. Then turn on a pen mandrel just like you would make a pen only without the tube.

 

[mredburn]

Plus you can glue different colored woods or different materials on to the end of your blank and then turn it at the same time. A micrometer of some type would help, digital or otherwise.

Mike

 

[gwisher]

I've only made 2 centerbands myself out of corian. I just CA glue it to the end of the blank before I drill and insert the tube. I do not put the tube through the glued centerband but I still use a barrel trimmer to square up that end until I just start to see that i'm taking material on all 360 degrees of the barrel (if that makes sense). Seems to work for me.

 

[traderdon55]

As I do not like the narrow slim line bands I have started using a comfort bushing in the middle when turning slimlines. I then take the material that I want to make my centerband out of,cut it to the thickness I want it,drill a 1/4 inch hole in it and put it on the mandrell between my comfort bushings and turn it down to size. After turning it down to size I switch to slimline bushings so that I can finish it with the bushings out of the way. This may not be the best way but it is how I am doing it.

 

[ldb2000]

You can just segment some slices of different woods like this http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=61805 . There are a number of different pens made this way in this thread . The segments for the centerbands were cut using a parting tool on the lathe to give very consistent slices for the segments but you could just glue a couple of slices of wood to your pen blank before you drill and turn it . I like these methods over using a separate centerband because there are no gaps to the centerband / upper blank and the finished blank looks like one piece .