Fester
Member
Hi Everyone,
My name is Terry and I just recently started making pens. I have always liked pens, and when I happened upon a phenomenal deal on a lathe I jumped at the chance to try my hand at pen turning. My "day" job (actually work midnights) as a Corrections Officer in a county jail is not something I really enjoy much anymore, and pen making is a good stress reliever.
Now on to the headache....
I was not prepared for the number of different "methods" to make pens. A guy I work with finishes his pens with steel wool, there's CA, CA/BLO, melted Plexiglass, etc.
I have been learning on my own and have found wading through all the different methods has become a nightmare. Unfortunately I was trying to learn the hard fast rules so I could cut out any excess expense of the trial and error method.
Recently I made a trip to a local store that deals with woodworking, lathes and pens. I asked about collet chucks because I want to drill my pen blanks on my lathe since I can't for the life of me get my drill press to drill straight (maybe operator error or the product of buying a drill press on a budget). I was promptly told that drilling on a lathe would be difficult. I've seen the video on this and it looks pretty much straight forward. I drilled an ice cream scoop handle on a lathe when I took a class, it seemed fairly easy.
The guy at the store told me what I needed was a pen drilling vise and he pointed to 2 models that the store carried, stating "Buy this one, not that one". Then later another store employee asked me a question so I told them the same story, they were o.k. with drilling on a lathe. When I told them the other employee told me to get a pen vise, they again pointed to the pen drilling vises in the store and told me to NOT get the one the other employee recommended, but get the OTHER one.
I had brought along some of my pens and asked about the finish because my Wife seemed to think they could have a better shine on them. They looked them over and said they were perfect and needed nothing done to them. They said the pens had a nice shape and I was doing a great job. THEN the employee that said drilling on the lathe would be difficult starts telling me about a $130.00 pen making 101 class they are having next month. Why would you say I'm doing great and then try to sell me a class?
Anyway, I've got a headache... but still enjoy making pens. My thinking on taking my pens to the store was to get pointers on finishing them. I don't want to take any shortcuts with my pens, I want a top quality finish. On my acrylics I sand to 12,000 micro mesh, then polish with a very mild liquid car polish that is safe for plastics. On the wooden pen (stabilized purple colored box elder) I used a CA finish. That pen is my least favorite, the finish needs to be re-sanded and polished to a brighter shine.
My next project is a "Tycoon" in Amboyna burl, a couple of "Wall Sreet II's", and a Cigar Pen.
It's a learning process, and I'll get it in time.
Here are 2 of my acrylic pens that I've made:
My name is Terry and I just recently started making pens. I have always liked pens, and when I happened upon a phenomenal deal on a lathe I jumped at the chance to try my hand at pen turning. My "day" job (actually work midnights) as a Corrections Officer in a county jail is not something I really enjoy much anymore, and pen making is a good stress reliever.
Now on to the headache....
I was not prepared for the number of different "methods" to make pens. A guy I work with finishes his pens with steel wool, there's CA, CA/BLO, melted Plexiglass, etc.
I have been learning on my own and have found wading through all the different methods has become a nightmare. Unfortunately I was trying to learn the hard fast rules so I could cut out any excess expense of the trial and error method.
Recently I made a trip to a local store that deals with woodworking, lathes and pens. I asked about collet chucks because I want to drill my pen blanks on my lathe since I can't for the life of me get my drill press to drill straight (maybe operator error or the product of buying a drill press on a budget). I was promptly told that drilling on a lathe would be difficult. I've seen the video on this and it looks pretty much straight forward. I drilled an ice cream scoop handle on a lathe when I took a class, it seemed fairly easy.
The guy at the store told me what I needed was a pen drilling vise and he pointed to 2 models that the store carried, stating "Buy this one, not that one". Then later another store employee asked me a question so I told them the same story, they were o.k. with drilling on a lathe. When I told them the other employee told me to get a pen vise, they again pointed to the pen drilling vises in the store and told me to NOT get the one the other employee recommended, but get the OTHER one.
I had brought along some of my pens and asked about the finish because my Wife seemed to think they could have a better shine on them. They looked them over and said they were perfect and needed nothing done to them. They said the pens had a nice shape and I was doing a great job. THEN the employee that said drilling on the lathe would be difficult starts telling me about a $130.00 pen making 101 class they are having next month. Why would you say I'm doing great and then try to sell me a class?
Anyway, I've got a headache... but still enjoy making pens. My thinking on taking my pens to the store was to get pointers on finishing them. I don't want to take any shortcuts with my pens, I want a top quality finish. On my acrylics I sand to 12,000 micro mesh, then polish with a very mild liquid car polish that is safe for plastics. On the wooden pen (stabilized purple colored box elder) I used a CA finish. That pen is my least favorite, the finish needs to be re-sanded and polished to a brighter shine.
My next project is a "Tycoon" in Amboyna burl, a couple of "Wall Sreet II's", and a Cigar Pen.
It's a learning process, and I'll get it in time.
Here are 2 of my acrylic pens that I've made:
