# Josh's Pen



## justturnin

I worked a trade with Josh in the trades section for some Silver shavings. My part of the deal is a pen. I figured since I am making a pen using my Cholla blanks I would do a little write up on making the pen. Hope this helps someone. 

So Josh chose a Platinum Barron with one of my Yin-Yang Jumpin Cholla blanks cast in orange pearl Alumilite.

Now I am working on a metal lathe but it is the same process I use on my Rikon 70-100 when I turn on it too.

First thing I do is round over the blank. Notice in this blanks since it is a natural material there will be holes in there that will need filling. It's just the way it is with any organic material.






I missed a pic here but I lay the tubes next to the blank and find the best look and mark the blank. Mark your witness marks in the center to make sure your grain and pattern align.





Cut it free.






Time to drill.

When I chuck it up to drill I place the witness marks so the bit is going in at the point where the pieces will meet. This helps w/ alignment if there is any play in the lathe.
I start each hole with a 60* center bit.









Then I drill it out, slowly, clear the chips often

Once drilled for any material that could be a challenge like Cactus I soak the inside of the hole with thin CA. Let it dry and drill it out again. This, IMHO, really helps to sure up the blank and can keep it together when things get hairy.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## justturnin

Check that the tubes fit freely.





I scuff my brass. Some don’t, I do.





Time to get ready to paint.
First thing, raid the kids playroom and take the can of playdo reserved for the “mixed up” colors. Don’t take the pink, they really get upset about that. 





Plug one side of the brass for now.





While you are in the house stop by the kitchen and grab a couple of wooden skewers. Get your acetone, a glove and napkin. 





Put on the glove and wipe the brass down w/ Acetone to get your oily finger prints and dust off of it. See how dirty? 





Now don’t touch the brass with bare hands again. Once cleaned take the skewers and stick them through the brass into the playdo, instant handle. 





Stick the skewers in the ground. Shake your paint, I am using white to help brighten up that orange and hopefully make the pearl really show. Paint the brass. 





With the gloved hand, hold the blank and spray inside the hole. These steps will prevent the brass from showing through when the resin gets real thin. Let it dry.







I will glue it tonight and start turning tomorrow or Saturday.

Reactions: Like 1


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## rdnkmedic

Some really good tutorials popping up here lately. Keep it coming.


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## kazuma78

Awesome! I am really glad you are doing this tutorial. I know you typed up some instructions when you were telling me how to do resin cast blanks but its so much better with a visual aid. Thanks for both the trade and the build thread!


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## justturnin

.....and since I dont like waste I took the little extra 1" piece of pen blank and made an acorn while the paint dries.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Cody Killgore

This is awesome!


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## justturnin

goslin99 said:


> justturnin said:
> 
> 
> 
> .....and since I dont like waste I took the little extra 1" piece of pen blank and made an acorn while the paint dries.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Should have used it on your open reed antler burr Predator call....
Click to expand...


I have a good amount of these little pieces of all different types of woods, castings and what not's.


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## kazuma78

Ever think of doing a melting pot casting of a bunch of different kinds of bits and pieces like that? It could turn out cool. I can picture something like that being neat especially with different colored chunks in it.


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## justturnin

Cody Killgore said:


> This is awesome!



Thanks, but it's no Damascus


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## justturnin

kazuma78 said:


> Ever think of doing a melting pot casting of a bunch of different kinds of bits and pieces like that? It could turn out cool. I can picture something like that being neat especially with different colored chunks in it.



I have, that is where the blanks I sent you came from. Cutting those little bits and pieces is stressful for my finger tips though so I don't make many.


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## kazuma78

Yeah I bet. Those chunks are pretty small. But those pieces are all the same type of wood in my blanks. I meant using different scraps, even ones that might have some casting in them, all on one blank. Or would that look too strange? Not all of my ideas are good ones haha


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## Cody Killgore

justturnin said:


> Cody Killgore said:
> 
> 
> 
> This is awesome!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks, but it's no Damascus
Click to expand...


Very interesting to me. I just got into turning and have only done 2 pens and roughed out 1 bowl. Of course the bowl gouge kept catching on me and so it ended up a lot smaller than it was going to be:wacko1: Seeing how someone else does pens is very useful! Also, would have never thought of painting the tubes on some of those cast blanks...

I wish I had a metal lathe... :dash2:


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## justturnin

Ok, time to glue the tubes. I use Epoxy. I feel it gives a better hold and does a far better job at filling any voids. I mix the epoxy and coat the inside of the blank as well as the tube. Overkill? Yes, maybe, but it won’t let go and that peace of mind for about $0.15 worth of wasted epoxy is well worth it. Sorry for the bad pic, I was in a hurry.





After getting the tubes in make sure the brass is closest to the end w/ your witness marks. Again, this will help with matching the grain up. I cut my blanks long but the majority of waste should be on the ends of the pens and not the center. Notice my witness marks on the top, I could have been a little closer to the end than I am. Also, notice something is missing. This will cause a problem in a few hours.





Let ‘em dry.

While we wait, let’s make some bushings. It’s easier than digging through my mess and finding my old ones, trust me.
I have some corian pieces glues up. I used three 0.50” x 4”sq pieces glued up. This yielded 16 0.75” x 0.825”sq pieces once cut down. I pre round them and stick them in a box.





Turn down the inside of the busing till it just fits in the tube.





Now we need to spec out the pen kit to get the outside dems for the bushings. I like to lay the pen out in finished form to make sure I don’t miss anything. 





I measure the pieces that will actually come in contact with the blanks. Another bad pic sorry. The size of this ring is 0.481”. I make my bushing 0.43”. This give me room to go below the final size w/out the bushing being in the way. I will explain that later but it has to do with the finish.





I turn between centers so after turning the outside dems I drill a 60* hole to set on my Live and Dead centers.





Missing a pic here but I clean off the blanks before the Epoxy get super hard. I still use an end mill. Still works for me so I still use it.
After cleaning up the holes I soak the ends in thin CA again. Same reason as before. I feel it helps sure up the blanks.










After cleaning the blanks take your reamer and clean the burr off of the inside of the brass tube. If you skip this and that burr rolls in you risk forcing the tube to flare and possible giving a loose fit or even worse cracking your blank and if it stays out the parts wont sit flush.

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## justturnin

Remember that skipped step? Well here it is. My bushings don’t fit. If you go back to the pic you will notice I did not plug the other end of the tube and they got epoxy in them.





Break out the q-tips and acetone and clean out the brass. Dont flood it because it can mess up your epoxy and CA on the ends, not to mention the resin in the blank.





There we go, a nice suction fit.





Both sets of bushings done. Gonna let the Epoxy cure a little longer and will get to turnin.

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## justturnin

Alright, now were turning. Pretty lame on a metal lathe but I turn my pens B2B so I like it dead straight. I start a little rough w/ some carbide. The cactus has a lot of silica in it and dulls tools pretty fast. Once I get withing a few MM I switch to a freshly sharpened HSS cutter.





So I turn to my finished size of 12.22mm (0.481")





Then I take an additional 0.06-0.07mm off. This is to account for my CA finish. I dont count coats of CA. I measure it. I try for all of my of my pens have about a 0.10mm coat of CA when complete. What good are 25 coats of CA that are bragged about when you have no idea how many you took back off to get to your finished size?





I sand w/ Mirlon sanding pads. They are much less aggressive than regular sandpaper so you dont gouge you Resin and last a long time. Just rinse them off when you are done. Since I took my final cuts with a freshly ground cutter I start my sanding w/ the 360 pad, then 1600, then 2800 to get my final 0.03mm for my finish.





I use closed cell craft foam to apply my CA. 1 pack will last the rest of my life. I cut it in little 0.5" x 2" strips. Just a dot of CA will do you because it will not soak in like w/ paper towels. Not everyone like the foam for applying but it works well for me.





Just a dot of CA.





I will apply 5-6 coats of thin CA to seal the blank then switch to Med CA to build up my finish.





I will build up my finish to +0.10mm above my finished size. This will give room to sand off all of my ridges by wet sanding w/ 600 grit. If I sand to +0.05mm and I still have ridges then I really messed up. I will clean the blank off and set it on a shelf to dry for a few days then apply more CA. I have figured I can run through the 9 MicroMesh pads and eat up the remaining 0.05mm of CA to get a nice F&F. I will snap some pics of this blank when I get it to 12.32mm

Reactions: Like 1


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## kazuma78

Man this is some legit precision pen turning here. I really like it though because its a very good tutorial. Sometimes you just dont get the little steps from a video. Im definitely gonna start using my calipers to turn pens and try to get them nice and fitting well.


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## justturnin

kazuma78 said:


> Man this is some legit precision pen turning here. I really like it though because its a very good tutorial. Sometimes you just dont get the little steps from a video. Im definitely gonna start using my calipers to turn pens and try to get them nice and fitting well.



Thank you. Calipers are a must. Bushings are nothing more than a guide to let you know when you are getting close. There are some articles that are published in Woodturning Design by a guy but I cannot remember his name. I read them and it changed everything. I will hunt him down and get the link to the articles up.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## justturnin

Here it is:
http://kurthertzog.com/demos.htm

The top set "Journey from Penturning to Penmaking"

I read each one several times. Great articles on stepping up your pen turning.

Reactions: Like 1


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## kazuma78

Man I just looked at a couple of those and they look great! Cant wait to go through them!


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## Cody Killgore

I really appreciate you posting those links. I've got lots to learn!


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## justturnin

Cody Killgore said:


> I really appreciate you posting those links. I've got lots to learn!



That is my pleasure.


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## justturnin

Well I got both sections turned and the CA applied. They will sit for a few days to cure. I let my pens site because the CA will off gas for several days and with these blanks there are some voids that were filled with extra CA. That said, if I were to polish the blanks today and they would continue to off gas those spots w/ more CA would become dips in the surface of the finish. I will try to get these polished up Tuesday and in the mail Wednesday.


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## dycmark

justturnin said:


> I will try to get these polished up Tuesday and in the mail Wednesday.



But hopefully not before posting pics of the finished goods.


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## justturnin

dycmark said:


> justturnin said:
> 
> 
> 
> I will try to get these polished up Tuesday and in the mail Wednesday.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> But hopefully not before posting pics of the finished goods.
Click to expand...


You can count on it.


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## justturnin

I didnt show the polishing session but all I did was take my end mill and clean off the excess CA on the ends. Started sanding w/ MM and ran through the first 5 or 6. Then I polished w/ Huts Ultra High Gloss polish.

Here are the polished blanks.

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## justturnin

And the completed Pen. I hope you like it Josh.

Reactions: Like 2


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## kazuma78

That pen looks awesome, Shes gonna love it for sure! Thank you very much for the trade! I can't wait to see it in person!


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## Cody Killgore

Oh my.......... Super Job!~!! 

WTB Cactus blanks!


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## justturnin

Cody Killgore said:


> WTB Cactus blanks!




How many can I put you down for?


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## myingling

justturnin said:


> And the completed Pen. I hope you like it Josh.




That's a sweet lookin pen ,,,he should be happy with that


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## NYWoodturner

THats a damned fine blank as well as a damned fine pen.


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## kazuma78

So im doing one of your cast pen blanks and I'm at the gluing the painted tubes in the blank step but I cant get the tubes to fit in the blank with the coat of paint on the tube and on the inside of the blank. The added thickness makes the tubes too big to fit in the blank, even if I try and force them. Am I doing something wrong or is there a way to remedy this?


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## Wildthings

I quit painting my tubes and only back paint the inside of the blanks - for that reason right there. Works very well.
Barry


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## kazuma78

Thanks! I appreciate it, I didn't want to ruin any of my cast blanks by going through trial and error haha

Reactions: Agree 1


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## rdabpenman

Looks great from here.
Well done.

Les


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## Johnturner

Is the guy Kurt Hertzog (sp?)???

This tutorial is fasinating. I am learning a lot.


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