Need hep with segmented pen

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tseger

tseger

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Nov 27, 2005
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New Albany, MS, USA.
I have just recently tried to create a segmented pen. Just a simple checkerboard for the first one. I've turned one already, and it turned out O.K., but the thing I am having trouble with is... after I have the length of the blanks glued up and start cutting the sections across the blanks, I can't get the segments cut straight enough for a good glue up. I tried sanding them on the belt sander, that only made matters worse. Anybody got a good way to do this?
 
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One thing you can try is to place some sandpaper on a perfectly flat surface, tablesaw or piece of glass. Then sand, moving the blank over the sandpaper. Although I haven't done any segmented pens yet, I have had good luck getting perfectly flat sections of wood with this method.
 
With a bandsaw it looks like you are losing more wood because of poor glue joints.

Buy a 7-1/4" circular saw blade for your TS. I have one that is 5/64" thick.
 
I use a 7 1/4 inch thin kerf blade. They can be picked up quite cheaply at Lowes or home depot. For a 40 tooth cross cut blade expect to pay about $15. While you will have a maximum cut heighth of about 1 3/4 inches with the smaller size they can make it a lot thinner than standard thin kerf blades, I have never measured but it seems a little bigger than a bandsaw blade.

I personaly used a 40 tooth Freud Avanti ( think that is spelled right) that I got from Lowes. I have heard several people recomend the Freud Diablo that Home Depot carries.
 
Have you tried the 'stack & tape' technique? This is how I do my segments. I make small bundles that I wrap with masking tape and the chop with a mitre. I use a stop block to get nice even segments. Works for me.

-Peter-[:)]
 
band saw, a bit of the belt sander, and the rest use sandpaper on glass. Make sure with the checkerboard that all the pieces are the EXACT size. It's very easy to get different sizes. Hope this helps.[8D]
 
I second the suggestion of using the Freud Avanti or the diablo blade. They are wonderful thin kerf blades and very ridgid so you get a very true cut. I built a jig to clamp to the bed of my miter saw and use an adjustable stop to control the size of the segments...as well as my filler strips between the segments. This way your segments are uniform and square. Another tip ...I think Ron Mc clued me in to this...drill your blanks on the lathe before you cut them ....then assemble the segments on your tubes. There's a couple of segmented pens in my Album if you care to look
 
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