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

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

When I used to make pens, I made sure of two things and never had
problems. First, made sure the cutter was a clean as a whistle, and
sharp. These are easily shapened with one of those flexible diamond
files.

Second, make sure you trim the blank BEFORE you turn it for size
(diameter). That way small, brisk cuts with your trimmer have plenty
of meat to cut and won't be able to chip most woods. If the wood is
punky or prone to chip, drip some water thin CA on the ends to be
trimmed and let it set up. Then trim.

But for me, when I was making pens for $$ I wanted speed. I inserted
and seated the tubes in the blanks and let th glue set up. Then I took
the blanks over to the miter saw with thin kerf 80 tooth blade on it,
and cut it there. Trimmed that wood really smooth and square to the
barrel, and occasionally it even trimmed up the brass tube. I quit
using my barrel trimmer except to give a quick twist or two after the
miter saw to make sure I didn't leave any burrs on the tube. Trimmed
on the miter saw, the smooth end cuts fit perfectly on the bushings of
the mandrel.

The small amount of brass you might trim won't hurt your blade if it is
carbide. If you try it, just make sure you use a thin kerf with a lot
of teeth.

Robert

wrote in
oups.com:

I use both a barrel trimmer and at other times ( when I've lost the dang
thing on the workbench) I use my stationary disc sander. The only
difficulty with the sander is that sometimes the tube was not drilled
perpendicular to the blank and I can be off smidge. More sanding solves
though.

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

When I used to make pens, I made sure of two things and never had
problems. First, made sure the cutter was a clean as a whistle, and
sharp. These are easily shapened with one of those flexible diamond
files.

Second, make sure you trim the blank BEFORE you turn it for size
(diameter). That way small, brisk cuts with your trimmer have plenty
of meat to cut and won't be able to chip most woods. If the wood is
punky or prone to chip, drip some water thin CA on the ends to be
trimmed and let it set up. Then trim.

But for me, when I was making pens for $$ I wanted speed. I inserted
and seated the tubes in the blanks and let th glue set up. Then I
took the blanks over to the miter saw with thin kerf 80 tooth blade on
it, and cut it there. Trimmed that wood really smooth and square to
the barrel, and occasionally it even trimmed up the brass tube. I quit
using my barrel trimmer except to give a quick twist or two after the
miter saw to make sure I didn't leave any burrs on the tube. Trimmed
on the miter saw, the smooth end cuts fit perfectly on the bushings of
the mandrel.

The small amount of brass you might trim won't hurt your blade if it
is carbide. If you try it, just make sure you use a thin kerf with a
lot of teeth.

Robert

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

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


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