Non stick bushes

[Walter]

To turn between centres I would need live and dead 60 degree centres straight onto the turned tubed blanks right? Would this cause wear on the dead centre side of the tube due to slipping. Sorry if this is basic stuff. I am still learning.

The worst thing it could do is splay out the ends of your brass tube inside the blank causing potential problems fitting the pen together. You mustn't put much pressure on from the tail stock end when you turn between centres. It will mark your centres but shouldn't damage them. I personally would favour the plastic cone method rather than putting the centres directly into the brass tube.

I think Ray has pretty much answered you question. If you are turning between centres without bushes then you do need a dead centre in the headstock and a live centre in the tailstock. The tailstock needs to be brought up gently and tightened enough to prevent the blank from revolving but not so tight as to splay the ends of the tube. Cone bushes are less likely to damage the tubes and plastic ones probably the least likely of all to do so.

Thre again, there is the overriding question of whether CA is really the miracle finish it is made out to be. Lots of people, Woody for example, don't use it because of the fumes and as you have already discovered there are plenty of other options to try. as Ed says "Restricting your scope to a specific type of material limits your creativity".

 

[woodhacker]

Got some at Harrogate from Simon Hope's stand. Have used them and they seem to work. But as people have mentioned previously I found that the fumes where overpowering

 

[Jim]

But as people have mentioned previously I found that the fumes where overpowering

If you have a dust collector turn it on while applying the CA Peter, it helps remove the fumes tremendously .. Another thing that i do to reduce the fumes is only use the tissue with the said CA once, then bin it as i found that most of the fumes came from the used tissue ..

 

[Bob Ellis]

I turned mine from delrin rod bought on eBay. They work fine.

 

[Penpal]

Phew glad that settled down

Peter.

 

[wm460]

Sensible advice from Woody and Eamonn.

Here is what I said in my article on CA in Woodturning magazine:

"One of the problems many turners
experience when finishing with CA is that the
CA will stick to the bushings. A thin coating
will break away cleanly when the blanks
are removed, but a thick layer can cause
unsightly chipping at the ends of the blank.
Numerous weird and wonderful methods
have been devised to overcome this problem,
ranging from smearing the bushings with
wax to using the point of a skew chisel to cut
the blank cleanly from the bushings. In my
experience none of these methods are wholly
effective and it is much better to remove the
blank from the bushings and finish it between
centres or between cone bushings, so that
there is nothing in contact with the ends of
the blank for the CA to adhere to."

Well put Walter.

 

[Lons]

Hi Robbie

This subject has been covered previously if you do a search you can probably find it. I've just had a quick look and can't. I think Alex started the thread

You don't need to buy "delrin", it's just a brand name for an acetal homopolymer mix manufactured by DuPont and there are several other very similar brands available, however it isn't truly non stick and very few thermoplastics are. The nearest you'll get is PTFE but polypropylene, acrylic, polycarbonate and nylon in any grade work well also and apply a little wax on any of them and problem solved.
The better solution however is cones as they allow you to seal the blank ends and they are dead easy to make, I have several pairs, my first were made from scraps of acrylic pen blank and are still going strong. Alloy or brass will work as well if you're happy to turn it.

I'm lucky in that I used to work in the semi finished plastics industry many years ago so I still have an amount of scrap in several materials, if you want to try some out drop me a pm.

 

[qquake2k]

I turned a pair out of 1/2" Delrin rod.

 

[Vic Perrin]

Plenty of sound advice on this subject from those that have overcome the problem