What do i need to start?

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halman

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I have a Jet 1221, a set of chisels, a 4 jaw chuck, and a chuck for the tail stock. What else do I need to purchase to turn pens? An all in one kit would be nice. I don't want to buy more than I need, but don't like wishing I had spent a few more $$$ either. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!
 
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Drill bits and bushings to fit the pen set tube sizes, and pen sets. Also, two part epoxy to glue the tubes in the holes, sandpaper and micromesh or Zona paper for finishing and your finish of choice… CA, lacquer, friction, and plastic polish or buffing. Impound of some sort.
 
Oh, where to begin....
I'll let others chime in on everything else, but one thing I am just about absolutely certain on is don't bother buying the individual drill bits for each pen. Go ahead and invest in a quality pair (metric and SAE) of drill bits. Even if you find this isn't for you, the drill bits will be good for a lot of other needs.
 
JohnU said:
Drill bits and bushings to fit the pen set tube sizes, and pen sets. Also, two part epoxy to glue the tubes in the holes, sandpaper and micromesh or Zona paper for finishing and your finish of choice… CA, lacquer, friction, and plastic polish or buffing. Impound of some sort.
Click to expand...

Plus: Either a drill press (expensive) or just a jacobs chuck for the lathe, to hold those drill bits and do the actual drilling.
 
You are so out of luck! 😓 It doesn't stop!😭 It is a deeeeep hole!

IF you DO want to avoid buying a lot of extras, then the alternative will be to read quite a bit and look at the kind of pen that you want to make.

Warning: While many people do make pens with mandrels, there are enough dissatisfied with low end and medium priced mandrels that they end up buying more high end mandrels - thereby spending more money. The problem with low end and medium priced is that the mandrels can be bent, warped and vibration introduced which makes for an imperfect pen. Barely noticeable but if you are a perfectionist, it is aggravating. If you think you may sell some pens, then you want to eliminate that and go to a quality mandrel system. TBC can eliminate these problems all together. But for two part pens, you can only turn once section at a time with TBC. For TBC, you will need a dead drive center to go with a live center. Regular bushings will work and there specialized bushings for TBC also.

Next, you have tools, do they require sharpening, or are they carbide inserts that can be replaced? If tools that need to be sharpened, do you know how to sharpen them and do you have the tools to sharpen them. The sharper, the better.

Get a good set of calipers (metal, not plastic) to measure your turnings. Do NOT trust the bushing for sizing. Bushings will decrease in size a tiny amount every time your sandpaper touches it while turning and the same with the tool.

Finish - CA is quick and makes a good protective finish, but some do not like it. Some like to finish with oils so that the natural beauty of the wood is felt and seen. Polyurethane , lacquers, and others take longer to CURE before handling. Each has a learning curve.

PRACTICE, Practice, Practice. Everyone want to make a pen. Make a couple or 3 or 4, or even a dozen. THEN get some pine or oak blanks, and get some extra tubes. Practice drilling blanks and practice glueing the tubes in. Practice getting used to the tools to the point that you can feel the difference in the handle with different kinds of wood or the speed of the lathe. Feeling Feed Back HELPS. Practice sanding. NOTE, With pens - realize this is not Flat Work - book shelves, tables etc. No need to start with 80 grit or 120 grit or even 180 grit. The grit from those numbers must be completely sanded OUT. The best of pens with excellent finishes are sanded to 600 or 800 before finish or oil is added. Too low a sanding number introduces deep scratches that have to be sanded all the way out or they WILL BE revealed in the end.

Here is a good link:

MINIMUM BASICS YOU NEED TO GET STARTED WITH PENTURNING

Here's an excellent, well thought out document for anyone interested in penturning. Click on the image below to begin download. Author: penicillin
www.penturners.org

An Old post:

If I had known this earlier . .

I am on a fact finding mission. Can you help? What do you wish you had known earlier in pen turning? or in different words: Knowing what you know now - IF you could go back and start over in pen turning - what would you skip, change or do differently? answers for instance: - I wish...
www.penturners.org

NO ONE set of tools is good for all kinds of pens. Spend some time - 30 minutes or an hour - looking through this thread and see what kind of pen you would like to make and then which tools are needed to make that pen.

No Comments Just post new segmented pens and Likes

Please post only your segmented pens in here and don't comment on anyones work just Like it then we can keep a record of works. Hope you all like the idea. Purple Heart and Black Ash Burl on a Jr. Gent 2 Fountain in Gold
www.penturners.org
 
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You will probably always wish you had spent "just a little more" for something better. The first thing you need, and always will, is patience. Just trust me on that one. Those links that Hank posted are fantastic places to start. If you want to get the good stuff right away, we can give you an impressive list, and corresponding credit card bill.

I'm a cheap skate, mostly out of necessity, so here's my 2¢ worth. Get some inexpensive basics to get your feet wet, then start saving up (you'll need it ;)). You can fine tune later. You need at least some basic stuff to do these steps.
  1. Cut blanks to length
    I'm just going to assume you have a way to do this already
  2. Drill blanks
    When you say that you have a chuck for the tailstock, are we talking a Jacobs/drill chuck?
    If so, all you need is a drill bit of the appropriate size
  3. Glue tubes in
    This is pretty intuitive. Epoxy or Gorilla poly glue are both great for wood, Epoxy for resins.
  4. Trim/flush/square the ends of the barrels/blanks
    The mainstream way is to use a penmill. It won't set you back much and will get you started right away until you decide on what you want to do from there.
  5. Mount on the lathe
    A mandrel is the most common way. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably still start there, even if I don't use them anymore.
  6. Cut/carve to size/shape
    You already have the chisels.
  7. Apply finish
    That can be quite a can of worms that I'll let you sort out. My suggestion would be to start with a little friction polish (Pens Plus is great) and play around with CA later.
  8. Assemble
    I started out using a wood vise that was part of my workbench. Just be careful to keep the parts lined up when pressing, which is true with any method/tool.

If you use a mandrel, you will need either a mandrel saver or a 60° live center to hold it at the tailstock end. You'll probably get a lot of use out of the live center no matter what you turn. If you use one for a standard mandrel, do NOT overtighten the tailstock, or you could bend it.

Most people tend to start out with slimline kits. That's not because they are a great beginner pen, but they are cheap. Many of us will say to pick out a single barrel pen kit you would like to start with. There are plenty to choose from. If you find one with a bead where the barrels meet the hardware, they are pretty forgiving. A little imprecision won't show as much. The PSI Gatsby is a good example of this, or even the Gatsby Grande.
 
PSI offers a free DVD on how to get started. You can get it on their site and is what I used. Keep an eye out for yard sales and estate sales. You can usually get some decent equipment that won't cost you an arm and a leg. Good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions. Lots of experts on this site (I'm not one of them).
 
For me, I would say the thing that REALLY got me started, was all the time I spent watching woodturning videos. Before I ever invested in any equipment, I had actually been watching videos on woodturning for a year or so. IT was actually watching those videos that made me realize, hey, I could get my own lathe and do this myself!

There are some excellent woodworkers and wood turners out there on the internet. You need to exercise some judgement, look for that true skill, talent...and watch those people who exhibit fine technique and sound safety practices. Then learn from them. You will learn a lot about the equipment and tools, as well as the techniques for turning. Now, I'm not saying to wait for a year, but...the learning aspect is, IMO, foundational to "getting started" as much as any piece of hardware or tool.
 
Baby steps, Baby steps. get the basics for turning wood and acrylic blanks I good lathe. Live and dead centers, good pen chuck works well but that gets pricey. A good round carbide cutting tool. get a good brand many out there. Eventually you do want to learn to use a skew because that tool can do it all and do it cleanly. Good luck. the links provided will help greatly.
 
tomtedesco said:
All above info is great. Most helpful would be a second job to buy everything you need/want. :eek:
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Tolerant wife / partner with a large bank balance helps, especially if you compile a decent birthday / Christmas / anniversary list(s) 😉

Cant really add a lot to the above but it's great fun
 
wolf creek knives said:
PSI offers a free DVD on how to get started. You can get it on their site and is what I used. Keep an eye out for yard sales and estate sales. You can usually get some decent equipment that won't cost you an arm and a leg. Good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions. Lots of experts on this site (I'm not one of them).
Click to expand...
Not True Tom

Anyone getting uppety re that statement remember an ex is a has been and a spurt is a drip under pressure ! 😉
 
You have opened a can of worms here. Some of this is tough because we don't know what other equipment you have or don't have, or how experienced you are with turning. Given that, I'll list the things you need to accomplish along with a few options.

First, the must-haves:
  • A pen kit and blank:
    • Slimlines are the cheapest both in terms of price and (generally) build quality. Most of the catalogs have starter packs that include several kits, the bushings, and the drill bit, but many offer similar options for other pen kits as well. I'll also say that because of how slim they are, slimline pens can actually be some of the more difficult kits to turn. When turning something with a small diameter, it's much easier to overshoot your target when turning to size.
    • For blanks, cherry, walnut, and maple are great to turn. For exotics, I like blackwood and pink ivory for turnability. Figured woods can be tricky unless they are stabilized, in which case they can be a pleasure to turn (I like Craft Supplies USA's dyed boxelder burl blanks). Stay away from softer woods which can ironically be more difficult to turn because they're more susceptible to tearout. Turn a few pens before you do anything that costs you more than $5-$10 for the blank. There are plenty of good options even under $5, and blanks are even cheaper if you have and mill the stock yourself from larger pieces.
  • For drilling your pen blanks, EITHER:
    • A Jacobs chuck for your tailstock combined with pen jaws for your chuck (I think most chucks come with a set of pen jaws; I know both of mine did). Many say this is the most accurate drilling method, and the Jacobs chuck is an all-star multi-tasker in my shop.
    • OR a drill press with a way to hold your pen blanks securely and accurately
  • The right drill bit for your pen kit. If you are only trying things out, stick with a single type of pen kit and get the one drill bit. If you plan on turning a variety of pen kits, get a good-quality bit set (or sets) in metric and imperial.
  • Adhesive for gluing the brass tubes into your blanks: I've had great luck with thick CA glue, but YMMV. Others use polyurethane glue (Gorilla glue) or epoxy. I've had terrible results with Gorilla glue, and epoxy takes longer than CA without (for me) any compensating benefit.
  • A method for squaring the ends of your blanks to your tubes:
    • The pen mill is the least expensive, but least accurate. I've found them to be susceptible to non-concentricity, especially if mounted in a hand drill.
    • I highly recommend @rherrell 's offset sanding jig (here, about halfway down the page). At only $40, it's not that much more than the pen mill, but is MUCH more accurate. The downside is you also need a faceplate, a set of transfer punches, and a way to mount it to the tailstock (Rick's post explains all this). He also offers a couple of extras to make it work even better, for not that much more money.
    • If you already have a disc sander, there are multiple jigs available from PSI, Craft Supplies USA, and others that will work with the miter slots on your sanding table. Not sure about the cost of these, but it's also possible to DIY them. Again, you'll likely need a set of transfer punches.
  • A method for holding the pen in the lathe:
    • This may be controversial, but I recommend a dead center for your headstock and a 60° live center for your tailstock, along with a decent set of calipers. Cost-wise, this may be slightly more expensive than a cheap/midrange mandrel (though considerably less than a high-end mandrel from someone like Woodpecker), but in the long run will save you money because you don't need any bushings. It also circumvents a whole load of potential issues that can arise from the use of a mandrel. This is known as the "turn between centers" (TBC) method of turning, which you can read all about on these forums. I honestly wish I'd gone straight there when I started. The big disadvantages are a slightly steeper learning curve and being limited to turning a single barrel at a time.
    • A pen mandrel, along with bushings for each type of pen kit you wish to turn. (Buying a new pen kit? You'll need the bushings in addition to the right drill bit.) Don't go bargain bin here. Cheap materials will flex under load or even permanently bend. I recommend at a minimum a "mandrel saver" system where the mandrel goes through the tailstock adapter instead of one that uses a center that puts the mandrel under tension. Also, remember that bushings are consumables. No matter how careful you are, they get beat up, sanded down, scratched by tools, enlarged by layers of finish, and so on. They will need to be replaced at some point. Finally, folks have wildly different experiences with bushings. The penturners I respect most say that, at best, you should use the bushings as a rough guide only. A decent set of calipers will be much more useful in getting a good fit with your pen kit's hardware.
  • Your choice of finish:
    • CA (i.e., superglue)/CA-adjacent seems to be the most common. You'll want a high-quality CA, not the little tubes you get from Walmart. Which one should you buy? Ask 10 pen turners and you'll probably get 12 different answers (two from one guy, one each from nine guys, and one from a guy you didn't ask but who has an opinion to share anyway; the same goes for the actual method). I honestly suspect climate has a lot to do with all the variation, so ask someone from your region what works for them and start there.
    • Polyurethane, lacquer, varnish, etc. Some finishes are arguably more durable than CA but take longer because of drying and curing times. I won't say they're any more finicky; only that each has its own quirks, just as CA does.
    • Oils and waxes: Super easy to apply, but not all that protective, will need to be reapplied eventually, and difficult/impossible to get a glossy finish if that's what you're after.
    • Friction finish (many are commercially available, or you can make your own with equal parts shellac, boiled linseed oil, and denatured alcohol) is a nice compromise between a hard film finish and an oil/wax. You can still get a decent shine and a somewhat durable finish. This is probably the best option if you want to keep the natural feel of the wood or want a less glossy finish.
  • Various sandpapers, polishes, buffing compounds, etc. To start out, I'd recommend sandpaper up to 600 grit (you can find higher-grit papers locally at a lot of auto parts stores like Autozone). You don't necessarily need to sand the blank itself that high (I stop as low as 320 and go as high as 1,000, depending on the blank; I find the straighter the grain, the higher the grit required). However, you'll need something to take any sort of film finish (whether CA, poly, lacquer, etc.) to a decent shine.
 
I forgot to add some sort of vice for assembly. The pen vices are nice. I've actually had good luck with my bench vice and a couple of pieces of leather to keep from marring my pens. The lathe itself can also be used effectively with a very little DIY initiative.
 
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