Lonn
Member
I'm new to this forum and relatively new to pen turning. I turned a couple of hundred pens and made all the mistakes possible before I found you folks. Once in an earlier life I was a master cabinetmaker, then converted to become a master wood turner and yes I have all my fingers, but cutting these 3/4 to 1 inch square blanks into short lengths to become top and bottom sections of pens can become a dangerous ordeal using standard size shop wood sawing machines . Big table saws, big band saws and chop saws can take off 5 fingers at once (your hand). Small 4 inch table saws, scroll saws, jig saws and band saws take fingers from us one at a time. I realize PSI has a small 1 inch chop saw that should perform well to cut 3/4 square blank to say 5 inches long (that's is basically squaring up both ends) but to separate the pen top section from the bottom section involves unavoidable risks or clamp modification to their saw that might be beyond the skill level of the typical pen turner.
I took a different approach. Procured a 6 inch medal chop saw from Harbor Freight $34.95. http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=chicago+saws and an appropriate modifiable 5 3/8 inch Delta 24 tooth carbide tipped blade from Lowes for $18.95. The only operation you must perform is to enlarge the arbor hole from factory 10 mm to a useable 5/8 of an inch hole diameter. This can be easily accomplished centering the blade on your drill press using your pen 10 mm drill, leave the blade in the factory shrink wrapper with its cardboard side against the metal drill press table and clamp it on each side with secure clamps then switch the 10 mm drill bit to a good quality 5/8 inch metal drill bit and proceed at a drill rotation speed of about 250 RPM'S to resize the factory 10mm arbor hole to become a 5/8 inch arbor hole. Install the blade and your saw is ready to use. It will produce a very smooth accurate cut while the wood is held with a metal screw vise. This saw turns at 9000 no load RPM's (Caution DO NOT use inexpensive Harbor freight blades that are rated for speeds only up to 6,000 RPM's).
I made two additions modifications to my saw in that I taped a ¼ inch dowel onto the first foot or so of the cord to prevent somehow clipping the cord (alternate method would be to power this saw via a GFCI style outlet). I know harbor freight thinks this machine is OK not being grounded since it has an emery blade and a plastic motor frame, I differ because the base frame is metal and if that ungrounded cord gets clipped an unpleasant experience will occur. The second addition was to use carpet two sided tape to glue a pen blank on the back side of the metal fence in such a position to touch the blade and serve as an indication of exactly where the bade is to pass through the wood. The reason for the two sided tap is that I may want to remove the blank occasionally to cut precise angles with this saw.
I hope the pictures help.
I took a different approach. Procured a 6 inch medal chop saw from Harbor Freight $34.95. http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=chicago+saws and an appropriate modifiable 5 3/8 inch Delta 24 tooth carbide tipped blade from Lowes for $18.95. The only operation you must perform is to enlarge the arbor hole from factory 10 mm to a useable 5/8 of an inch hole diameter. This can be easily accomplished centering the blade on your drill press using your pen 10 mm drill, leave the blade in the factory shrink wrapper with its cardboard side against the metal drill press table and clamp it on each side with secure clamps then switch the 10 mm drill bit to a good quality 5/8 inch metal drill bit and proceed at a drill rotation speed of about 250 RPM'S to resize the factory 10mm arbor hole to become a 5/8 inch arbor hole. Install the blade and your saw is ready to use. It will produce a very smooth accurate cut while the wood is held with a metal screw vise. This saw turns at 9000 no load RPM's (Caution DO NOT use inexpensive Harbor freight blades that are rated for speeds only up to 6,000 RPM's).
I made two additions modifications to my saw in that I taped a ¼ inch dowel onto the first foot or so of the cord to prevent somehow clipping the cord (alternate method would be to power this saw via a GFCI style outlet). I know harbor freight thinks this machine is OK not being grounded since it has an emery blade and a plastic motor frame, I differ because the base frame is metal and if that ungrounded cord gets clipped an unpleasant experience will occur. The second addition was to use carpet two sided tape to glue a pen blank on the back side of the metal fence in such a position to touch the blade and serve as an indication of exactly where the bade is to pass through the wood. The reason for the two sided tap is that I may want to remove the blank occasionally to cut precise angles with this saw.
I hope the pictures help.