hello, new to this, simon

[simon1138]

hello,
i am simon from portsmouth, i would like to make a cigar style pen from wood. my dad has a hobby metal lathe that i was thinking about using. i would like to make parts rather than buy a kit. is there a post that shows how to make a mandrel and bushes?
thanks
simon

 

[alpha1]

All the kits have different size bushings and they are cheap to buy. Mandrels are 7mm in diameter just buy a piece of 7mm bar stock and cut it to lentgh. Hold one end in the chuck you wil need something in the head stock to support the other end. The bushings go on the mandrel to supprt the blank whilst you turn it.
To be honest by the time you purchase the materials and take into account the time to make them its cheaper to buy a mandrel and bushings. I use a metal lathe to make pens by the way.

 

[flexi]

Hi Simon, welcome aboard....if you don't want to use kit parts then a mandrel and bushes are redundant..... you will need some other expensive tap and dies to go 'kitless' Though, if this is a one-off I would use a better quality kit, or at least adapt one.

 

[Penpal]

Since I only ever have turned one piece or 1/2 pieces at a time,early days I used to buy long machine bolts trying the various ones until I found a neat slip fit.,yes I used to make mandrel savers,bushes etc why not whatever floats your boat.

Having bought and refurbished so many machines of all sizes and uses my wife said onetime she thought I enjoyed this so much it would be a let down maybe to turn pens.

Quite frankly what passed as pen lathes were just rubbish in the 70,s I made my own lathe.

Peter.

 

[Frederick]

Hi and welocome,

All of the above.

Cheers
Frederick

 

[21William]

Welcome Simon.
Some pen mandrels are not as good as they could be and often cost more than they need to. I bought an ER25 collet chuck for about 6 or 7 pounds on eBay. I bought a 7mm collet for it and also some 7mm silver steel rod. I then bought a pen centre from Chronos. SCT Pen Centre

Bushes if required are easily made on a metal lathe.

Making straight cuts in wood or acrylic on a manual metal lathe is a simple process using the existing tool post. A good tool to use are polished 6mm carbide profile inserts. If you want to make smooth curves though you will ideally need to make a tool rest to enable you to use hand held tools.

 

[wm460]

Welcome to the forum Simon.

 

[Bill Mooney]

Welcome aboard Simon.

 

[Phil Dart]

Hi Simon - welcome to the Forum

As Mark saysw if you're making a pen from first principles, it's actually a whole raft of different tools you'll require - in fact anything but a mandrel. You'll need to consider alternative work holding methods, not to mention the need to form threads in at least 3 different places. Pen mandrels are only any use if you're making a pen from a kit.