Ehunt
Member
After a month of making pens I was looking back and thinking about all of the mistakes I had made as part of the learning process. Figured I would share some of the biggest so others might avoid doing the same
1. Cheap sandpaper - After getting my lathe and just experimenting on a piece of maple between centers I used some cheap sandpaper from Harbor Freight, the grit came off of the sandpaper leaving black streaks in the wood.
2. Steel Wool – In order to remove the black streaks from #1 I used the only other thing I had, worked well until the steel wool caught on the teeth of the drive center ripping the steel wool from my hands and scaring the bejeezes out of me
3. Reversed Bushings - Accidently put the cap bushing on the tip end and the tip bushing on the cap end. Woodcraft kit didn't have any instructions so never realized they were different sizes. This was the second pen I turned, just happened to luck out and put them on the correct ends on the first.
4. Reversed Tubes - Accidently turned the longer tube for the cap end and the shorter for the tip, didn't even realize what I had done until I went to assemble and the refill stuck out a quarter inch past the end of the tip
5. Too Much CA - Using the craft foam to apply the CA finish, took me 4 or 5 pens before I realize the reason I kept getting lumps, runs, and extremely long dry times was I was trying to put on too much with each coat. Learned to just put on a very small drop for each pen section and it comes out fantastic
6. Turned off the lathe – Had a list of "honey dos" to take care of so put on a coat of CA, turned off lathe, and went to take care of some. Came back and found I had a very uneven finish. Sanded it down and hit wood very quickly in spots. Found this odd, but repeated the same procedure four times before I realized turning off the lathe before the CA set allowed it to run and create a terrible finish.
7. Posting all of my dumb moves for public consumption!
I've completed 14 pens and plan on my 15th going into the beginners beautiful pen contest (unless of course I make a mistake).
1. Cheap sandpaper - After getting my lathe and just experimenting on a piece of maple between centers I used some cheap sandpaper from Harbor Freight, the grit came off of the sandpaper leaving black streaks in the wood.
2. Steel Wool – In order to remove the black streaks from #1 I used the only other thing I had, worked well until the steel wool caught on the teeth of the drive center ripping the steel wool from my hands and scaring the bejeezes out of me
3. Reversed Bushings - Accidently put the cap bushing on the tip end and the tip bushing on the cap end. Woodcraft kit didn't have any instructions so never realized they were different sizes. This was the second pen I turned, just happened to luck out and put them on the correct ends on the first.
4. Reversed Tubes - Accidently turned the longer tube for the cap end and the shorter for the tip, didn't even realize what I had done until I went to assemble and the refill stuck out a quarter inch past the end of the tip
5. Too Much CA - Using the craft foam to apply the CA finish, took me 4 or 5 pens before I realize the reason I kept getting lumps, runs, and extremely long dry times was I was trying to put on too much with each coat. Learned to just put on a very small drop for each pen section and it comes out fantastic
6. Turned off the lathe – Had a list of "honey dos" to take care of so put on a coat of CA, turned off lathe, and went to take care of some. Came back and found I had a very uneven finish. Sanded it down and hit wood very quickly in spots. Found this odd, but repeated the same procedure four times before I realized turning off the lathe before the CA set allowed it to run and create a terrible finish.
7. Posting all of my dumb moves for public consumption!
I've completed 14 pens and plan on my 15th going into the beginners beautiful pen contest (unless of course I make a mistake).
