DIYbanter - Pen Turning

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enough with the bowels turning. I also want to turn pens. what are
some good suppliers of pen kits? What kind of tools do you use in your
pen turning? What kind of wood is best to practice on? I know I will
ruin a lot of wood before I get "good"

Mark Russell wrote:
enough with the bowels turning. I also want to turn pens. what are
some good suppliers of pen kits?

Berea Hardwoods
http://www.bereahardwoods.com/

What kind of tools do you use in your pen turning?

A small roughing gouge to round out the blank and a skew.

What kind of wood is best to practice on?

Free wood of course!

I know I will ruin a lot of wood before I get "good"

It's actually pretty easy to make a pen.

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA

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"Mark Russell" wrote in message
ink.net...
enough with the bowels turning. I also want to turn pens.

Mark,
Try looking at www.pennstateind.com They have some starter kits that supply
all that you need. Usually they send Rosewood pen blanks. You will also
need a mandrel, but they have that too.

On Thu, 13 Apr 2006 20:01:02 GMT, Mark Russell
wrote:

enough with the bowels turning. I also want to turn pens. what are
some good suppliers of pen kits? What kind of tools do you use in your
pen turning? What kind of wood is best to practice on? I know I will
ruin a lot of wood before I get "good"

I expected Mac to chime in here, but I imagine he's on his way to Baja
now, so I'll do it for him: Pens of Color. He swears by them for
selection, price and exceptional customer service. I've honestly
never used them, but if Mac says they're good, that's good enough for
me.

Honestly, if you are patient and learn to sharpen your skew, you can
do it all, rough to finish, with a sharp, 1/2" skew. To be fair,
though, if I have a bunch of pens to turn, I will admittedly use my
5/8" bowl gouge for roughing and shaping, then finish with the skew.
Saves a heckuva lot of time, and I don't have to prove anything with
my skew to myself. It's a nice skill to have, though.

--
Chuck *#:^)
chaz3913(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
Anti-spam sig: please remove "NO SPAM" from e-mail address to reply.

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Check with the Yahoo penturners group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/penturners

Plenty of links and comments about suppliers.

I second the recommendation on the Yahoo penturners group. They have an
excellent FAQ section that should tell you everything you need to know
to get started.
Brad
hardingpens.com

Actually, thinking about it, making a pen is easier than making a dowel
- no whip as it's got an chunk of steel through it and it'll only be 4
inches long, in two pieces at that. The only hard part is that it must
be close to a certain diameter. Of course all bets are off if you're
doing something fancy like desk pens, wood finials, odd shapes, fancy
inlays or spirals. I now make pens that are all wood (no metal parts
other than one 2mm tube, two 7mm tubes, the mechanism, and the re-fill)
from just two pieces of wood, a spiraled walnut one looks like a
Tootsie Roll.

I doubt you'll be making much stove fodder, I didn't when I made my
first ones - pen and pencil sets for everybody on my Christmas list and
I wasn't (still am not) very good with the lathe. Although I won't say
they were really good, but they were as good (better, I think) as the
ones I've seen in stores.

What kind of wood is best to practice on?

Free wood of course!
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
But, seriously, Mark: the pen kit costs much more than the wood, so I would
recommend choosing a good looking piece of hardwood with fairly fine grain.
A piece of wood may look good as a log, but by the time you isolate a 3/4"
shaft, the beauty of the grain may be lost.

On Thu, 13 Apr 2006 20:01:02 GMT, Mark Russell wrote:

enough with the bowels turning. I also want to turn pens. what are
some good suppliers of pen kits? What kind of tools do you use in your
pen turning? What kind of wood is best to practice on? I know I will
ruin a lot of wood before I get "good"

Initial investment for fun pen turning is about $30 to $50 if you already have
basic turning tools...

I tried 3 different mandrels (the thing that hold the wood you're turning for
the pen) and really am happy with this one:

http://www.pocwoodworking.com/index....ROD&ProdID=290

It comes with a set of bushings (size guides when turning) and a drill bit, so
you're ready to turn pens..

I'd start with 10 or 15 "slimline" pen kits.. they're priced from $1.70 and have
everything you need to make a pen, except a couple of wood scraps and some
glue..

My wife bought me a pen press, which is handy, but not really needed:

http://www.pocwoodworking.com/index....ROD&ProdID=212

If you have a friend that turns pens, or somewhere nearby that sells
"predrilled" pen blanks, you can look at one and see what/how/where, etc.. you
need to start...
If not order a few and duplicate them...

http://www.pocwoodworking.com/index....TS&Category=35

As you can see, my links are from Pens of Color... I really like their stuff,
their service is outstanding and I can't find better prices on kits.... most
kits come with instructions...

Your basic pen is made from 2 pieces of whatever you want to turn, with a normal
starting size of 3/4" x 3/4" x 2" with a hole drilled down the center... you can
see that the definition of "scrap" gets a lot smaller when you do pens... I can
make a few pens from the stock left from cutting a bowl blank..

If you ask him REAL nice, Chaz might send you a copy of his "pens made easy",
which has a lot of great info..
Mac

https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis
https://home.comcast.net/~mac.davis/wood_stuff.htm

Mark Russell wrote:
enough with the bowels turning. I also want to turn pens. what are
some good suppliers of pen kits? What kind of tools do you use in your
pen turning? What kind of wood is best to practice on? I know I will
ruin a lot of wood before I get "good"

Hi Mark,
I am just in the process of writing a "How to make a wooden pen"
instruction. I have it finished except for pictures. If you like I can
email it to you. The instructions are seven pages long without the
pictures so it is fairly detailed. I also have a web site where I sell
highly figured exotic wood pen blanks that you might be interested in
once you feel confindent in turning pens. It is www.penblanks.ca
All the best,
Bill