The ups and downs of a newbie pen turner.

[alpha1]

This pen turning business can be a bit frustrating and also very rewarding when it goes right. I continue to have problems with wooden blanks the one I was working on today shattered on the last turning on the mandrel before switching to sanding. I swore a lot composed myself went and had a cup of tea as us English do in times of stress
Any way the weekend was not a total disaster. I turned a Leveche in acrylic it turned out very nice. Inspired I turned a Royal pen in acrylic that turned out nice and disappeared out the door before I had time take a picture. I had a go at another acrylic it machined OK but you could actually see the brass tube through the acrylic. It looks awful I will be dismantling and using a different blank. I'm starting to realize that there is a difference in quality of blanks and that's why some of the acrylics are more expensive than others.
I need to get to the bottom of the wooden blanks problem because up to now I have had very little success with them at all my acrylics are spot on but wood is a disaster. I'm wondering if its because I use a metal work lathe for my turning using carbide cutters in the tool post holder to take the blank down to the bushings then finishing of with a gouge.

Acrylic good.
Wood bad.

 

[Penpal]

Wood varies,Acrylic varies,no such thing as a standard,they both require careful buying. It is not necessary to use a metal lathe in any case unless threading or extending your skills. If you do use a metal lathe as your go to lathe metal work carbide cutters are different to the ones used for timber. Why not grind your own HSS cutters to suit?
Pens require care, not to cut too deeply and sharp tools ground to suit.

Kind regards Peter.

 

[fortress]

When it comes to having accidents on the lathe, you are not alone Dave, it sounds like you keep getting catches, maybe the angle of approach is slightly off, do you start a cut running into an end? Try starting the cut away from the end then run off the other end, then do the same in reverse, if that makes sense. When it comes to working acrylics, shine a light in the drilled blank, if you see the light shine through, paint the inside of the blank, some, Myself included, paint tube and blank.

 

[Lons]

I'm wondering if its because I use a metal work lathe for my turning using carbide cutters in the tool post holder to take the blank down to the bushings then finishing of with a gouge.

Probably got it in one. Why aren't you using the gouge from the start? and if all the way down to the bushes why use the gouge at all? Not 100% clear what your doing from what you said. A metal lathe runs quite slowly and won't help your efforts TBH although I've turned a number of wood items on my little metal lathe.

You don't need to spend money on wood blanks for practice - and that's what you need to do - plenty of free wood around. Look for old hardwood furniture, legs of tables and chairs are ideal, send for free samples of hardwood flooring and you'll get 100 - 150mm wide bits x 18mm thick of oak, walnut wenge and even bamboo. Look on freecycle and in skips and you'll be surprised what you can find.

As I previously suggested however make a modest investment in some tuition as it will repay you many times over or get in your car and pay me a visit, for the cost of petrol I'll help and you'll most likely go away with some free timber as well.

Once you've learned haw, you'll never look back as timber is much more rewarding than acrylics and in most cases easier, less messy, not static charged and doesn't smell as some of the plastics do.

 

[alpha1]

I don't have a wood lathe I have a small machine shop in a building behind the house. My lathe is not a small hobby jobby. I fitted it with a large motor and an inverter it certainly isn't slow. I also have a milling machine etc. I stumbled on pen making by accident. My lathe only has a conventionnel four post tool holder not the the type you get on a wood lathe. I use carbide cutters in the four post tool holder. I only use the gouge if I want to profile the ends of the blank actually its not a gouge it the flat bladed thingy is it a skew. I only own one small gouge and this skew thing that I use if I want to taper the blank..I can not justify buying a wood lathe so my technique is nothing like a woodturners I will have to work with what I have got for now. As I said I have no problem with acrylics but up to now very little success with wood. I turned a Oak celtic twist pen to day. I wish I had done it in acrylic I'm not impressed with the finnish of the Oak at all. But hay ho its just a bit of fun Im sure I will get there eventually. Thanks for all the replies. I may invest in some tuition but its not really transferable because of the lathe Im using.

 

[KevinMc]

Are you a member of a turning club? It seems to me that many turners have a history in metal work and metal working lathes and there may be others who are using metal lathes.. who could be very helpful to you.

Kevin

 

[Phil Dart]

I think a lot of the problem you have is may be due to the fact that a cutter on an engineering lathe behaves like a scraper on a woodturning lathe. You are effectively scraping the side grain of the blank, which whilst that may leave an acceptable finish on a staircase spindle, the closer you get to final size on a tubed pen blank, the thinner the wall gets, and becomes increasingly more susceptible to tear out and chipping, particularly at the ends.

A scraping action leaves a super smooth finish on metal or other hard mediums that don't have a grain, but on wood you need a bevelled cutting edge to achieve the same thing and to minimise the risk of damage to the medium.

If you only have access to an engineering lathe, you are lucky in many respects, as the accuracy and finish you will be able to achieve on acrylics, ebonites and metals will possibly be better than the rest of us strive for when doing it by hand on a woodturning lathe, but the downside is that apart from some super dense exotic hardwoods, you will probably always struggle to get good results when turning wood.

As far as the visibility of tubes through the acrylic is concerned, is isn't necessarily anything to do with the quality of the blank, although that may sometimes have a bearing on it. Some of the finest and most expensive blanks use resins and colours and pigments that are designed to be translucent, and you are therefore bound to see the tube through it. The perceived wisdom is to paint the inside of the drilled hole with a suitable colour, or at the very least paint the tube, to prevent it from showing through. I have turned a pen this evening using a resin blank that costs about £15. There is no doubt at all about it's quality, in fact they don't really get any better, and I'll be posting it on the forum as soon as I've got it photographed, but I still painted the holes before I glued in the tubes.

I hope that helps a bit.

 

[wm460]

Hope this shows the differants between the two.

Carbide tips for wood.

Google Image Result for http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/catalog/images/ewt_std_cutters_l.jpg

Carbide tips for metal.

Google Image Result for http://calloytool.com/uploads/Product-pic/General-Turning-small-pic/General-Turning-small-pic.png

 

[AllenN]

One other thought. Why not make yourself a tool rest for hand tools to fit on the lathe then you could use a small hand gouge and turn the wood just as if you were using a wood turning lathe? You might find that gave a better finish because as Phil says the cutting action is very different with metal turning tools.

 

[alpha1]

One other thought. Why not make yourself a tool rest for hand tools to fit on the lathe then you could use a small hand gouge and turn the wood just as if you were using a wood turning lathe? You might find that gave a better finish because as Phil says the cutting action is very different with metal turning tools.

I will give that a try. I will also see if I can source some wood carbide cutters. Thanks for the replies.