Popsicle Stick Pen

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jonjon

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Feb 28, 2018
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51
Location
Cleveland, Tennessee
When it comes to pens, if you don't try it you will never know how it will look. I decided to try and make a pen out of colored Popsicle sticks. So with a 5 dollar investment I headed home and glued up a blank. I was not sure how it would turn out and worried that the colors would run when I finished it. The glue up job was a bit of a mess. It has sort of a Popsicle stick stained glass look to it.


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I love it!!! Now the next Mission Impossible, layer each at 45 degree angles to each other. Or buy some dye and dye your own, this way you can create your own color schemes. To dye them, if you use a vacuum tank and you will get deeper color penetration.
 
Jon Jon I told you they would like to see your work. Hope you continue to show more and hope other youngsters show us old folks what the next generation has in store. Also hope you share some of your sales tactics with us too. Looks like you have a bright future in pen making if you stay with it.
 
I want to thank everyone for their kind comments about my Popsicle Stick pen. It was a fun experiment.

I am fascinated and amazed at some of the segmented pens that are shown here. Mark James' work is always amazing. I hope to experiment more with segmenting. Our wobbly old craftsman saw does not lend itself to precision work but....nothing ventured nothing gained.

Thanks again.
 
jonjon said:
I want to thank everyone for their kind comments about my Popsicle Stick pen. It was a fun experiment.

I am fascinated and amazed at some of the segmented pens that are shown here. Mark James' work is always amazing. I hope to experiment more with segmenting. Our wobbly old craftsman saw does not lend itself to precision work but....nothing ventured nothing gained.

Thanks again.
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Jonathan, you would surprised what you can do. If you have a saw where the blade turns round and a flat table, many jigs can be built off that platform to do any segmenting you want. I started out with my Dads old craftsman saw and made some nice stuff. gave to my brother and he did the same but became disinterested and sold it. I bet it still kicking somewhere. Those were at one time the benchmark of quality tools. Do a little maintenance on the saw and you are golden. Having a tablesaw is the first step to doing some cool stuff. I find it to be my workhorse in my shop. Keep them coming.
 
Outstanding pens. Off to Hobby Lobby.
Thomas Edison tried hundreds of ways to make a light bulb and succeeded. Trying different materials and designs for pen blanks is no different. If it wasn't for him, we would be watching TV by candlelight!
Edit: I got ahead of myself. Where did you get the Popsicle sticks? After they were glued up, did you have any trouble turning the soft wood?
 
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Woodchipper said:
Edit: I got ahead of myself. Where did you get the Popsicle sticks? After they were glued up, did you have any trouble turning the soft wood?
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I actually bought sticks at two different places Walmart and Dollar Tree. When I got home I broke a couple of sticks from each pack to check for dye consistency and penetration. The Walmart ones seemed best so that is what I went with.

Turning the wood was quite easy. With all of the glue from gluing it up it was quite a solid block. (I used Titebond wood glue.) The most difficult part for me was trying to keep everything in place while gluing. I made a jig to hold things square which helped, but still it was not perfect.
 
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Thanks. Hobby Lobby has them but one review said the colors run. will check out Wally World. Wife goes to Joann's, will check there.
BTW, dude, I live in Cleveland, TN! Send a PM and we'll try to get together for a cup of joe.
Edit: How about some info on the jig you built. Thanks.
 
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If anyone is interested in raw popsicle sticks I can help. I work for a manufacturer of popsicles. We throw out thousands of sticks everyday. If your willing to pay postage I'm willing to get you as many as you like.


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I'm so gonna have to try this out .... I have gone through several boxes of popsicles before, and saved all the sticks .... I arranged them and glued them together into a 2-layer 90-degree square and gave them a good coat of CA ... they made excellent coasters.


Woodchipper said:
Thanks. Hobby Lobby has them but one review said the colors run. will check out Wally World. Wife goes to Joann's, will check there.
BTW, dude, I live in Cleveland, TN! Send a PM and we'll try to get together for a cup of joe.
Edit: How about some info on the jig you built. Thanks.
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Uhh ... colors run, eh?

Seal them before you glue them together and make your blank. :)
 
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now how did it double post on me? lol...


As for keeping things in place while you glue .... in every layer before you start the next, sprinkle a little table salt over the glued sticks. The salt wont dissolve in the glue right away, letting it have some grit or tooth to hold onto the next piece .... as you clamp it down the salt will be crushed into powder and then dissolve into the glue, without really affecting the bond. A little bit of salt goes a long way in preventing the slipping between the layers.

Another method would be ... glue several layers up separately before you join them into a larger section .... or alternatively, glue up a large thin 2 or 3-layer construction and then process it into thin boards that you can then re-arrange and layer again ...
 
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Tried this today using Titebond II. Got a lot of dye-run. Did you use CA? Probably would have been a better choice. having said that, I'm going to take a look at the blank in a day or two and see how it turns out...pun intended.
 
Rick95602 said:
Tried this today using Titebond II. Got a lot of dye-run. Did you use CA? Probably would have been a better choice. having said that, I'm going to take a look at the blank in a day or two and see how it turns out...pun intended.
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Rick,

Gluing was the tricky part of this. I used titebond as well. I found two things helpful. First I made a simple jig to keep things square.(pictured below) It is simply a board with two strips attached a a 90 degree angle. With this everything stayed in place as I stacked the layers without slipping all over. Second was using enough glue, but not too much. Then placing the Popsicle sticks directly in place. It is the moving the sticks around that cause the colors to smear. That is where the jig helped.

I placed a piece of wax paper on the jig and then stacked the sticks with each layer at a 90 degree angle to the last layer. Then I place another piece of wax paper on top with a small piece of plywood on top of that and clamped it with four clamps.

It would have been very difficult for me with out the jig.

When all was dry I cut the blank diagonally from the block.
 

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Did my first one today. Turned out interesting (I'm a newbie to this, BTW). Anyway, I think I'll have to try that herringbone pattern for a future turn...which seem to come every day.
 
Reminds me...

Reminds me of a pen I "had to make" for my daughter when she was in college.

At the time we didn't have the wonderful variety of materials and colors we have today.

The wood for the blank was made from blue and orange dyed tongue depressors. laminated together. Came out better than expected.

To infuse the Trans Tint alcohol based dyes into the wood, I placed the individual "sticks" in a quart canning jar and drew the maximum vacuum the old Foodsaver machine could pull. Periodically I would re vacuum and a few more air bubbles would come from the wood each time for a number of times.

The colors were not intense, but sufficient to be easily recognizable as the school colors.

I don't recall the glue that I used on the laminations. The integrity of the blank was amazing. Held up very well to being turning. Got a nice pen on the first try.

15 + years later, she still has and uses this pen.
 
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