This should have been easy.

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KenB259

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At a show last year, a lady asked if I had any pill holders, I did not, so after the show , I ordered a few kits. Did nothing with them until this morning. The blank I had made was intended for a possible pen. I wanted to try a 3 sided design that was a little wider. Well after getting it all glued up, I realized it would not fit any pen hardware I had. Enter the pill holder hardware. Should be easy right?? Well first off, I was intending to add end caps. The blank alone was the exact length of the pill holder tube. I could have shortened it and still add end caps but decided not to. Since this was going to be a pen , I had a quarter inch hole drilled through it. I do this with any three sided design so I can use a dowel for alignment. Great, since I switched gears, now I had to drill a 9/16 hole down the center and the only 9/16 drill I have is a brad point. Went ahead and just glued the dowel in do the brad point would have some meat to bite into. Worked okay, wasn't much left for turning but I went ahead and glued the tube into it. Kit had no instructions, but come on, this is so simple , who needs them anyways. After the tube dried , I realized , I had no good way to trim the blank square, and there wasn't anything to spare anyway. Luckily I am in the habit to make my blanks square from the get go. The drill went through perfectly straight so I got lucky there. Turned it down added a CA finish. I figured it all just presses together, here's where instructions may have helped. One end of the tube has internal threads, I was afraid to look to see if I mucked up the threads with epoxy. Again, got very lucky, threads were squeaky clean. Here is the result. I think it would look better with end caps. I probably would have had an easier time if this project was planned from the beginning instead of a lot of backpedaling. I have more to make , but I need to figure out a good squaring method, none of my transfer punches are a good fit.
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If you have a 3/4" mill head, you can buy the shaft that's about the right size to put the mill head on to square up the ends... or use a disc sander if your blank is square.... I've made a number of the pill holders and they sold well... have long since stopped making them as I got bored with them....

BTW, like the blank... very creative.

My carry pill holder is turned from deer antler and hangs on my key ring... I have a touch of vertigo and carry a Dramamine pill with me at all times.
 

SteveG

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An easy squaring solution is to turn and drill a section of left over pen blank material. ID = one of your transfer punches, OD = good fit for the tube with this kit. If you intend to reuse on a regular basis, glue in a tube as you would any regular blank, making the sleeve more durable.
 

KenB259

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An easy squaring solution is to turn and drill a section of left over pen blank material. ID = one of your transfer punches, OD = good fit for the tube with this kit. If you intend to reuse on a regular basis, glue in a tube as you would any regular blank, making the sleeve more durable.

Good idea, this what I will do. Thanks for the suggestion.


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KenB259

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Dec 24, 2017
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Revision to my post. The supplied tube is not threaded on the inside. The threads get pushed when you press in the cap. It is just preassembled. That's why I did not see threads when I glued the tube in. Also, I have some 5/8 acetal rod that fit perfectly in the tube so I made a sleeve from it and it works fine on my sanding jig. Got another one started from another blank I glued quite awhile ago.


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