Slowly gearing up from Texas, USA

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pencap51

Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2016
Messages
17
Location
Texas
Hello all, I registered about 2 weeks ago and I think this is as good time as any to introduce myself.

I probably have a very different background than most here.

I didn't start with kit pens, rather I was introduced to vintage fountain pens, then start using them, then rabidly collect them, and along the way learned how to restore them (with the help of an awesome teacher).

Last week I bought a Micro Lathe that was used primarily to turn kit pens by the previous owner, which looks like this:

30887551542_153849b570_c.jpg


My plan is to start with building parts to complete vintage pens that I'm restoring using ebonite or acrylic. And then slowly as I gather experience and skill, I'd like to design and create the whole pen that is inspired by vintage pen designs (no kit).

So that's my story. I hope to learn a lot from the fellow artists and craftsman/woman here at the forum and have a lot of fun.

A SIDE QUESTION: For those who are familiar with the Model 4500 II lathe in the picture above, how do I remove the rod and the rod holder? I have a 4-jaw chuck to put in their place. Do I just use ordinary 3/4'' wrench?
 
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That is a Taig Lathe. I have turned a fair number of pens on that kind of lathe. I have a Bonnie Klein lathe based on the head stock and tailstock.

The pen mandrel is held in a taig collet. take the collet retaining nut off and tap the collet loose. Looks to be a good bit of corrosion.

Headstock is 3/4 by 16 and does NOT have a morse taper.
 
Welcome to IAP, Will !!!! . I am interested in the direction you are headed. . I hope you will frequently post here, with some pictures of your progress.
 
KenV said:
The pen mandrel is held in a taig collet. take the collet retaining nut off and tap the collet loose. Looks to be a good bit of corrosion.

Headstock is 3/4 by 16 and does NOT have a morse taper.
Click to expand...

Hi Ken,
Here is a clearer picture. Have I identified the collet and the retaining nut correctly?

30715118580_cef7bb9db1_z.jpg


At the moment the retaining nut (and the collet) will rotate by hand freely in both direction. How do I take it off from the Headstock? Or do I?

I'm so sorry to ask such basic questions, I'm new to owning a lathe.
 
magpens said:
Welcome to IAP, Will !!!! . I am interested in the direction you are headed. . I hope you will frequently post here, with some pictures of your progress.
Click to expand...

Mal, I am excited too. I'm comfortable with restoring pens, but making my own parts is a new journey. One that I'm eager to take.
 
Will, I stand to be corrected on this .....

I think that what you have labelled as the Collet, is in fact the retaining nut ... the collet is inside the retaining nut and you can see only the end of the collet where it grips the mandrel (long steel rod sticking out of the collet). . The collet end shows 4 radial slits.

What you have labelled as the Retaining Nut is probably part of the rotating lathe spindle itself.

To remove the collet, I would place two wrenches ... one on the nut (that you label Retaining Nut) and the other on what you label as the Collet (which is in fact the retaining nut) and twist the latter off ... it should come right off and expose more of the actual collet, which you can then slide out together with the mandrel.

The actual collet has lengthwise slits cut in it which allow it to compress and grip the mandrel when the actual retaining nut is tightened. Hence the collet relaxes when you untighten the retaining nut. . The ends of the collet slits show as 4 radial slits around the mandrel in photo.

Hope I'm right about this particular machine.
 
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Good morning

There is a huge amount of micro-machining info about Taig on the web. Google "nick carter taig" to find a lot of taig details. Lee Valley sells the adapters to adapt the Taig to woodturning rests etc. There is not a clear body of penturning literature to tap into that I found. Taig with a oversized spindle is used by cue makers. Farmer has a lot of photos of his cue accessories for Taig based cue lathes.

Mal is on track. The knurled nut is called in the Taig parts list a "collet closer" or can be a called a couple of other things. Taig has variants with collets that I never purchased, so look at the nick carter site to match pictures to what you have. Taig has its own set of collets, and has a variant add on ER 16 adapter, then offered the spindle machined to be ER 16.

I used a OneWay Talon with 3/4 by 16 insert but keep to the light weight gear as that was pretty heavy for that little headstock.
 
magpens said:
Will, I stand to be corrected on this .....

I think that what you have labelled as the Collet, is in fact the retaining nut ... the collet is inside the retaining nut and you can see only the end of the collet where it grips the mandrel (long steel rod sticking out of the collet). . The collet end shows 4 radial slits.

What you have labelled as the Retaining Nut is probably part of the rotating lathe spindle itself.

To remove the collet, I would place two wrenches ... one on the nut (that you label Retaining Nut) and the other on what you label as the Collet (which is in fact the retaining nut) and twist the latter off ... it should come right off and expose more of the actual collet, which you can then slide out together with the mandrel.

The actual collet has lengthwise slits cut in it which allow it to compress and grip the mandrel when the actual retaining nut is tightened. Hence the collet relaxes when you untighten the retaining nut. . The ends of the collet slits show as 4 radial slits around the mandrel in photo.

Hope I'm right about this particular machine.
Click to expand...

Mal, you are absolutely correct. I realized my error when I found the manual for the lathe.

So I just need to use 2 wrenches, one to hold the headstock nut (the one I mislabel retaining nut in the photo), and the other to hold the collet retaining nut (the one I mislabel collet in the photo).

When I'm in position with the headstock on my left, do I twist the collet retaining nut away from me or towards me to loosen it?
 
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KenV said:
Good morning

There is a huge amount of micro-machining info about Taig on the web. Google "nick carter taig" to find a lot of taig details. Lee Valley sells the adapters to adapt the Taig to woodturning rests etc. There is not a clear body of penturning literature to tap into that I found. Taig with a oversized spindle is used by cue makers. Farmer has a lot of photos of his cue accessories for Taig based cue lathes.

Mal is on track. The knurled nut is called in the Taig parts list a "collet closer" or can be a called a couple of other things. Taig has variants with collets that I never purchased, so look at the nick carter site to match pictures to what you have. Taig has its own set of collets, and has a variant add on ER 16 adapter, then offered the spindle machined to be ER 16.

I used a OneWay Talon with 3/4 by 16 insert but keep to the light weight gear as that was pretty heavy for that little headstock.
Click to expand...

Good morning, Ken,
Thank you for the pointers. It's people like you and Mal that helps newbies like me when we don't even know what we don't know :)
 
dogcatcher said:
What town are you located in? One of us might be close enough that we can give some hands on help.
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I may ask for hands-on help later for more advanced stuff, but not for basic things like this that I feel I have to be able to do on my own. :)
 
Mal, you are absolutely correct. I realized my error when I found the manual for the lathe.

So I just need to use 2 wrenches, one to hold the headstock nut (the one I mislabel retaining nut in the photo), and the other to hold the collet retaining nut (the one I mislabel collet in the photo).

When I'm in position with the headstock on my left, do I twist the collet retaining nut away from me or towards me to loosen it?
Click to expand...
I am pretty sure that the collet retaining nut is a standard right-hand thread.

So, with the headstock on your left, and holding the headstock wrench handle in your left hand, you would turn the collet retaining nut in an anti-clockwise direction to loosen it. In other words, with your right hand on the collet nut wrench handle, you would pull that wrench handle towards you.

You might be able to do the operation with just the right hand wrench while holding the drive pulley with your left hand ... the drive pulley at the far left end of the headstock.

You can see the pulley in the diagram on page 12 of your manual; the collet assembly is shown on page 10.
 
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magpens said:
Mal, you are absolutely correct. I realized my error when I found the manual for the lathe.

So I just need to use 2 wrenches, one to hold the headstock nut (the one I mislabel retaining nut in the photo), and the other to hold the collet retaining nut (the one I mislabel collet in the photo).

When I'm in position with the headstock on my left, do I twist the collet retaining nut away from me or towards me to loosen it?
Click to expand...
I am pretty sure that the collet retaining nut is a standard right-hand thread.

So, with the headstock on your left, and holding the headstock wrench handle in your left hand, you would turn the collet retaining nut in an anti-clockwise direction to loosen it. In other words, with your right hand on the collet nut wrench handle, you would pull that wrench handle towards you.

You might be able to do the operation with just the right hand wrench while holding the drive pulley with your left hand ... the drive pulley at the far left end of the headstock.

You can see the pulley in the diagram on page 12 of your manual; the collet assembly is shown on page 10.
Click to expand...

Mal, just want to update you. I tried this, unfortunately, the collet closer (the big nut) is rusted and fused to the headstock spindle. I've tried WD-40 and it doesn't work. I'm getting a penetrating oil and will try it today.

This is getting to be more of an adventure :biggrin:
 
Welcome and I think Magpen has it right about extracting the collet. Google TAIG lathes and you will see the headstock construction which might make it clearer.

Once the collet nut is loosened or off, the rod will slide freely out of the collet.

Collets give a really accurate and self centering grip to the pen mandrel so keep the thing safe.

Regards Ian
 
howsitwork said:
Welcome and I think Magpen has it right about extracting the collet. Google TAIG lathes and you will see the headstock construction which might make it clearer.

Once the collet nut is loosened or off, the rod will slide freely out of the collet.

Collets give a really accurate and self centering grip to the pen mandrel so keep the thing safe.

Regards Ian
Click to expand...

Ian, thank you for the information.

And I think I owe everyone a mini update:

Yesterday, after a couple sprays of Nano Penetrating Oil (before this I tried WD-40 but nothing happened) and numerous attempts to get the collet closer (nut) loose from the spindle, I finally was able to break off the rust and safely get the collet and mandrell off the headstock (phew!)

31061589506_d45debabdd_z.jpg

Photo: Here's the collet replaced with a 4 jaw chuck

And today I was able to use the lathe to grind down a cap lip of a vintage fountain pen that has a chip on it. Using the lathe is like night and day difference compared to my previous attempts using my Dremel tool. The wheels on the lathe provide absolute control during the grinding process, which depends on grinding out the precise amount of cap material. The result is superior to anything I've done before.

I'm excited about the future of what this lathe can help me do and build. Thanks to all who chimed in and gave the support.
 
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