Saving scraps?

[Woodchipper]

I'm in the process of making three pens for archery coaches at a local school. I cut an acrylic blank for a Slimline kit. I found that I have a bunch of odds and ends of wood and synthetic blanks. Thought of stacking and gluing them for something different. Anyone else do this?

 

[Drewby108]

I haven't done straight stacking of acrylic, but wood offcuts work well for segmenting.

 

[jrista]

I've incorporated a few acrylic or other resin cutoffs as segments in wood segmented blanks. Sometimes, a little bit of resin can be just the ticket to making something interesting and unique, and a level up from just a simple solid or single-style blank.

 

[jcm71]

Try this, John. I have done several out of wood scraps only. The idea of doing one out of synthetic materials leaves me flat for some reason.

Making a Random, Irregularly Segmented Blank

If you are like me, you have "tons" of blank cut-offs that you just can't bring yourself to throw away. Here are some of mine. If you are adverse (like me) to using small pieces close to motorized saw blades, here is one way to get around that...

www.penturners.org

 

[Woodchipper]

I remembered a blank that I turned for the soft grip Slimline. I had a piece of solid pink and glued it to the blank. Don't have a photo of the finished pen.

 

[Blood Woodson]

Mixing the mediums can look pretty good. It's about half of what I've been doing recently.

 

[Drewby108]

Mixing the mediums can look pretty good. It's about half of what I've been doing recently.

I love the copper/palm color combo

 

[MTViper]

Occasionally I'll mix mediums like those, but most often if I'm mixing mediums, I've had a chip out on the end and I want to save the blank, so I'll use my parting tool to square off the blank remaining on the brass tube and drill a small piece of complementary scrap for the contrasting collar. Saved a few blanks that way.

 

[derekdd]

I'm saving them with all of the above in mind. Thanks for that link @jcm71

Love the look of that pen, @Blood Woodson Very classy!

 

[Gary Beasley]

I have broken acrylic and resin cutoffs into chunks and put them into molds and poured clear resin into it. Made a nice stain glass look. Other colors poured in may look even better.

 

[RunnerVince]

I started gluing a bunch of cutoffs together to make endgrain coasters, but the weather (my shop is outside on my balcony), my lack of skill, and not having all the tools I wanted made it difficult, so I set the project aside. Maybe I'll get back to it when the weather warms again.

Also, depending on the size of the cutoffs, you can easily do keychains. I know lots of vendors sells the kits, and you can trim the tube to fit your blank size. Great for little gifts or a cheap alternative to a pen if you're selling. You can sell them for $10 or $15 and still make a nice profit margin because the blank is "free" and the kits are only a couple bucks (at least last time I looked).

 

[egnald]

I had a handful of plastic end cuts laying around once and glued them up just to see if it could be done. Turned them into a Cigar pen just for grins. - Dave

 

[penicillin]

When the girls in the family were young, I used to turn the cut off ends of pen blanks into beads for play bracelets. Watch out - they can be a dangerous choking hazard for babies!

 

[RunnerVince]

When the girls in the family were young, I used to turn the cut off ends of pen blanks into beads for play bracelets. Watch out - they can be a dangerous choking hazard for babies!

And just like that, your penmaking hobby can transform into an "anything for my girls" hobby.

 

[penicillin]

And just like that, your penmaking hobby can transform into an "anything for my girls" hobby.

Not so. They are nieces and great-nieces.

 

[Ray-CA]

I do that all the time. Someone here called them "chaos" pens. It's as good a name as any and they're kinda like a box of Forest Gump chocolate. You never really know what your gonna git!

 

[cl1237]

For whatever reason, I've been saving off cuts from alumilite blanks. Decided to simply stack a few of them to make a new blank. I cut blanks on the bandsaw without a jig, so my joints didn't line up perfectly. I could feel a small ridge at the joints so I finished with CA to even out the surface.

 

[Woodchipper]

It shows what can be done with scraps that are tossed in a box, just begging to be used in a blank. The pens shown here are the result. To all, thanks for sharing.