Shop Aid - Pen Turning Caddy

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egnald

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Joined
Jun 9, 2017
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3,151
Location
Columbus, Nebraska, USA
Hello all and Greetings from Nebraska!

This is a handy little gadget I made out of some bits of scrap Baltic Birch Plywood, a few pieces of outside corner molding, and some 1/4-inch shelf pins. The pictures pretty much show how it was made and what the purpose is.

The blanks overhang the 90-degree holders so that any glue, paint, or anything else that drips out of them drips down onto a layer of blue masking tape that can be replaced when it gets too messed up. The shelf pins hold bushings and a set of non-stick bushings. I always have the nib end on the left and the cap end on the right, so the bushings, blanks, and tubes are lined up in that fashion. There is a spot to hold my little bushing jar and a 3/4-inch spot to hold my custom finial glue up. The holes for them were made with Forstner bits. There is also a spot built up with some bits of scrap that holds in a small plastic drawer converted to a parts tray for holding the bits and pieces of the kit until assembly. (Note: for custom finials I hot melt glue the blank cutoff to a 3/4-inch dowel and use a collet chuck for turning).

I use this to keep everything together and organized through all of the processes.

Regards,
Dave

Here are the thumbnail pictures of it Unloaded:
IMG_2342 Cropped.jpg IMG_2344 Cropped.jpg

And Loaded with a Jr. Gent and Lacewood Blank, ready to be drilled:
IMG_2345.JPG IMG_2346.JPG
 
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jrista

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Aug 12, 2021
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Colorado
This is awesome. I put together a basic blank holder recently, just a few pegs stuck into a piece of wood in a row, and with another piece of wood glued on the back so it could stand on its own. Your setup is much, much nicer and more useful though! Will have to give making some of these a whirl next year...
 

egnald

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Joined
Jun 9, 2017
Messages
3,151
Location
Columbus, Nebraska, USA
Hello all, I made an upgrade to my Pen Turning Caddy this afternoon based on the "Pen Section Holder" post from Cullen Bengtson (Wmcullen]). I took out one of my 45-degree horizontal blank/tube holders as it was rarely used and I added back in its place two vertical holders for tubed parts. The posts are pieces of "C" drill rod (0.242 inches in diameter) so they should work nicely with 7mm tubes. As you can see in Cullen's design there is a cone shaped bottom on each post so that tubes larger than 7mm will rest on the HDPE cone to protect the finish - much in the same way the cone shaped Hold Fast Non-Stick Bushings work when applying finish on a mandrel.

Thanks Cullen for the clever design. It made a nice improvement to my caddy. - Dave

IMG_2442 Cropped).jpg
 
Last edited:

jrista

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Aug 12, 2021
Messages
2,241
Location
Colorado
Thanks for the update!

Just curious...where are you getting the "C" drill rod? I've been using wooden dowel, but they are prone to breaking by the errant hand movement when swinging around the workstation...
 

egnald

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Joined
Jun 9, 2017
Messages
3,151
Location
Columbus, Nebraska, USA
Thanks for the update!

Just curious...where are you getting the "C" drill rod? I've been using wooden dowel, but they are prone to breaking by the errant hand movement when swinging around the workstation...

I used to use wooden dowels too, but I learned that the tolerances are just not very tight and I often needed to tweak them with sandpaper to get bushings and 7mm tubes to fit on them, and then there is the breaking problem you eluded to.

I really like drill rod because it has a very tight tolerance like +/- 1/2 thousandth of an inch.

I get all of my drill rod from Grainger. I use "D" drill rod for my normal mandrel (0.246 inches +/- 0.0005 diameter). It costs just a little over $6 for a 3-foot piece.

The standard pen mandrel is spec'd at 0.247 inches +0 / - 0.0002 inches. So "D" drill rod works perfectly - except....

Sometimes the 7mm tubes on my Slimline style kits feel a little too tight on the mandrel, so I switch to a mandrel with "C" sized drill rod which is slightly smaller (0.242 +/- 0.0005 inches). To insure that my jigs and fixtures will accommodate 7mm tubes as well as everything else, I use the slightly under sized "C" drill rod for them.

I suppose drill rod can be cut with a hacksaw and cleaned up with a file, but I use an angle grinder to cut them off and my disc sander to clean up and bevel the cut ends. I have also used a Dremel tool with a cutoff disc in the past.

Regards,
Dave
 
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