segmented wood in pens. do you need bushes or not?

[Niels]

Hello,
I want to start making segmented pens. I was for instance thinking about making wooden pens with ebonite/ alumilite endcaps and sections. Now my question is. Do wooden custom pens need bushes for strength? adding pieces together would be much easier if you have bushes to glue them together? Saves a lot of work i was thinking.

 

[thewishman]

Not sure if I understand your question. The bushes most people talk about is a short version of bushings, which are used while turning to stop a person from making the pen barrels too thin. Could you be talking about using pen tubes? Those are the brass pieces that we glue into the center of a blank before turning it?
Tubes can be used and they come in many sizes beyond what comes with pen kits.

 

[jalbert]

Yes, preferably a nice boxwood or yew.

 

[leehljp]

Wood of most any kind, especially when making segments need brass (or steel if thin enough) tubes for strength. With experience and your own style, it might be possible to make a pen without brass tubes, but in general, brass tubes are a necessity.

 

[Niels]

Sorrie I mean tubes indeed. I thought they were called bushes.
Well i was thinking. I like pens who are made of different pieces. They look beautiful. And I made one but I noticed it was a lot of work. I was just wondering if it wouldn't be much easier to glue them together with tubes.
And i also wondered that a wooden tube of a few mm thick would be very brittle.
So it were two questions combined in one actually.
Buf I would need a very specific size of tubes. 9 and 12,2 mm because those are the sizes I drill with for making threads and the mandrels and I don't see them at Beaufort in the UK.

 

[jttheclockman]

I do not do kitless pens so all my segmented pens have tubes which make them easier to build and I think alot stronger. But kitless can be done too but I suggest to use tenons if doing that because any kind of end grain to end grain is very weak especially when thin down as much as we do to make a pen.

 

[wimkluck]

Niels it depends on the size of surface you can put glue on it. If you make a tenon on the endcap and can glue the endcap in the tube it won't give problems.

 

[darrin1200]

When I use wood for my custom pens, I always sleeve them with either Alumilite or ebonite.
Here is a couple of picture of my pocket pen using yellow cedar.

 

[ProSingulisArts]

When I use wood for my custom pens, I always sleeve them with either Alumilite or ebonite.
Here is a couple of picture of my pocket pen using yellow cedar.

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Curious how you attach the end caps/finials. Are they a slip fit and epoxied or are they threaded on? I think I saw one of your other posts about this style. It is designed around cartridges, correct? Very nice pens!

 

[darrin1200]

Curious how you attach the end caps/finials. Are they a slip fit and epoxied or are they threaded on? I think I saw one of your other posts about this style. It is designed around cartridges, correct? Very nice pens!

Good morning Frank.
'Thanks. Yes, the finials are slip fit and all three pieces are epoxied. These ones are designed to just fit a single Standard International Cartridge.

 

[Displaced Canadian]

With a wood pen I would use a tube of some kind. When I do mine I don't use a tube but I make sure the blanks are thick enough so they don't stretch and let go of the threads when tightened.