Pen Barrel Trimmer chews up end-grain
I just tried making my first pen. When I used the barrel trimmer
(Woodcraft.com p/n 146139), it chewed up the end grain on my pen blank. It was far from a nice clean cut. What's the best way to prevent this from happening? --Scott |
Pen Barrel Trimmer chews up end-grain
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Pen Barrel Trimmer chews up end-grain
chewed up the end grain on my pen blank. It was far from a nice clean cut. What's the best way to prevent this from happening? --Scott Scott I like to chuck my pen mill in my drill press and usually simply hold the blank tightly by hand and slowly lower the mill until it has done the job. Does a great job, wouldn't be without it. Recently bought one of those centering vises and now use it instead of holding by hand. Does a great job too and you can ensure same alignment as when you drilled the blank. If you need a larger diameter pen mill try using the centering vise again and use a Forstner bit to do the squaring of the end. Works great. Bob, London, Ont, Canada |
Pen Barrel Trimmer chews up end-grain
wrote:
I just tried making my first pen. When I used the barrel trimmer (Woodcraft.com p/n 146139), it chewed up the end grain on my pen blank. It was far from a nice clean cut. What's the best way to prevent this from happening? --Scott It sounds like the cutter chattered. I'm looking at ways of eliminating the chatter. First: Was the wood in good shape to start with? Punky wood is tough to cut cleanly. Second: Did you have the brass tube glued in? If not, then the hole in the blank wasn't ready to be trimmed yet. It was over-sized and missing the bearing surface the tube provides. Third: Were you using the correct size trimmer shaft? Using a too-small shaft would allow it to rattle around in the blank. Fourth: You may also have had the speed wrong and encountered chatter. Start by lowering the speed WAAAY down. This will actually make the operation go more quickly as the tool gets a good, readily controlled, bite into the wood. Fifth: It may have come new to you ... and dull as a joke without a punchline. Take a look at the cutting edges and touch them up if need be. I use a small abrasive disk on a Dremel-type tool but you could also use a diamond file against the flat face. Remove it from the shaft (small set screw) and stroke until the vertical flat faces (not the short beveled edges) gets cleaned up. I have notches cut in my Chiwanese wooden clamps to accommodate my blanks for drilling. Using a pair of water pump pliers to hold them for trimming seems to help. Bill --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. Virus Database (VPS): 0665-0, 12/29/2006 Tested on: 12/29/2006 12:06:14 PM avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2006 ALWIL Software. http://www.avast.com |
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