# Segmenting Tutorial



## BassBlaster (Jul 27, 2013)

Back in the day when we did the very first pen exchange here at WB, I was asked by several to do a tutorial on the building of the blank. I know everyone thinks I completely forgot right? Lol. I dont think I have ever been so busy in my life. Its amazinig how much time having kids actually takes!! Thier worth it though. The Rebuilds will probably never make another deal with me since they are the ones waiting for the pen in this tutorial. Sorry Rob but its finally coming along!!

Tonight we are gonna cover the construction of the blank only. Youll have to give me another few days on drilling and turning but were making progress right!?!

Im gonna reserve a few slots so there are no replies in the middle of my tutorial because I know its gonna take forever to type this all up. Bare with me.

This is the pen we will be building. The exception is the maple will be replaced with holly since Rob wanted this to be made entirely from his wood!

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## BassBlaster (Jul 27, 2013)

Were gonna start with a nice chunk of monkey pod that the rebuilds sent to me along with some spalted holly. I think the spalting may take away from the design of this pen so were gonna try and get a piece out of there without any spalt.

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So everyone knows how to take rough lumber and process it into ready to use lumber, right? I didnt figure I needed to cover that here since theres allready so much information out there for anyone needing help. So, lets skip passed all the jointing, planing, etc.

Here we are with all the supples to build our blank. The holly piece was milled to 1/4" square. The monky pod is 1/4" thick and 1" wide. Length will be determined by the pen itself and how many segments you need to make your blank. In this instance I know I need 8 segments for a Sierra. I like to have a bit of a buffer so Im going to make 10 segments, just in case. The segments will be cut to 1" so my length here is 11". That gives me enough for my 10 segments and there will be a little scrap piece to toss. The aluminum is 1/16" X 1" angle. I believe its 6061. Its the one with the square corner obviously and not the rounded corner used in structural applications. You can get it at any of the big box stores and probably your local hardware.

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We'll start by glueing the monkey pod to the holly. I do this using the angle itself as a guide to keep everything square. I used regular TiteBond here. I did use some wax paper between the angle and the wood so nothing gets stuck at this point but the wood. I also fold the paper over so my little clamp blocks dont get stuck as well. I use rubber bands to hold it all together and my little home made clamp blocks keep it all square along with the angle. The blocks are just scrap 2 X 4 pieces with a notch cut in the top. Important: remove as much of the squeeze out as possible before letting this set up. Its difficult to get out after it dries.

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After your glue sets, remove the clamps and clean up any glue that may still need cleaned up. Your piece should look like this at this point.

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Next step will be to attach this to the aluminum. Scuff the aluminum real good with some rough sand paper. I used 120. We need some good scratches for the epoxy to grab onto. After scuffing clean it up with some DNA. I also wipe down the wood piece with DNA.

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Were gonna use a 2 part epoxy for the rest of this glue up. I use LocTite Heavy Duty 5 minute epoxy. Others probably work just as well. his is what I use for glueing my pen tubes so its what I have on hand.

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I smear the epoxy onto the aluminum with a popsicle stick and then press the wood into it. Then I put it back into the clamping blocks. Remember to use wax paper to keep your blocks from getting stuck to your project. Squeeze out is a good thing. It means we put enough epoxy in there. Id rather have a little drip out then have a gap that didnt get filled in my blank.

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## BassBlaster (Jul 27, 2013)

After the epoxy sets we want to clean up any squeeze out thats gonna cause any problems. I just trim it off with a razor knife. Then scuff the backside of the aluminum with the 120 sandpaper. No need to clean the aluminum at this point.

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Here you can see its starting to take shape!

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Now its time to cut our segments. Im going to cut them at 1". They dont really need to be that big. 3/4" would be plenty big enough but I have big hands so the smaller the pieces get the harder they are to work with. That and making everything 1" makes the math simpler in the beginning. For cutting the segments, I use an old, cheap 9" bandsaw. Im sure you could use a chop saw or something else, just remember to take your saw kerf into consideration when you lay out your blank originally so you end up with enough segments. This saw dosnt have a fence so I clamped a small scrap of oak to the saw and start chopping!

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Heres all our cut segments. Now clean up any rough edges you might have, especially if you used a bandsaw. We need a nice tight fit in the next step. I just use a 150 grit sanding pad to smooth the edges. We also need to clean the segments with DNA at this time. I just use a shop towel and wipe down both sides to remove any dust or oils.

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Now its time to mix up some more epoxy. Again with a popsicle stick, I apply the epoxy to the aluminum side only and then press them all together. Be sure to use enough, we dont want any voids or gaps. Dont worry about any squeeze out, it will all be cut or turned off later. Here I use another small clamping block to hold everything together.

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After the epoxy sets up, I sand the faces flat. If you scrape most of the squeeze out off before it sets this step will be simpler. I just use my belt sander so I dont worry too much about it. Be careful with the sander. The blank dosnt need to be perfectly square but the more square it is, the better. After making the faces flat on the sander, I draw a line down the center of the blank. The blank is 1" thick so it needs to be 1" wide as well, at least for the way I drill it, it needs to be pretty close to square.

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Now back to my cheap bandsaw for some trimming.

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After its all trimmed up, you have a finished blank! I like to get my tube out now and kind of locate what section of the blank Im going to use. Thats another reason to make your blank a little longer than needed. Moving the tube up or down just a little bit makes the pen look entirely different. The marks you see here are where I plan to glue my tube.

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At this point, Im going to let the blank set for a minimum 24 hours. I want all that epoxt to be completely cured before I start drilling and turning. Trust me this blank wants to come apart during turning, you definately dont wanna go to the lathe before your epoxy is cured.

Ill be a few days before I get back to this project and we'll cover drilling and turning. For the most part its pretty straight forward from this point but there are some things I learned along the way or things I learned not to do, lol.

If anyone has any questions up to this point, feel free to ask. I know this is probably the worst written tutorial youve ever read and my pics are probably lacking but you at least get the idea now.


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## BassBlaster (Jul 27, 2013)

Okay fellas, I was able to get back down to the shop today and you'll be happy to know (especially you Mr. Rebuild) that I was able to finish this pen up today! I kinda forgot to take pics at times but I think I got enough to explain everything and finish this little tutorial. Hopefully!

We left off with a finished blank ready to be drilled and tubed. Due to the nature of the design of this blank and the materials used, this blank really wants to come apart, especially during drilling. To hold everything together were going to wrap the blank in cheese cloth and then soak the cheese cloth in thin CA.

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After the CA hardens, go to the disk sander and sand off the excess cheese cloth and mark the center of the blank on the top of the blank, not the bottom. This is important.

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Theres several ways of drilling pen blanks and I do it several ways depending on the material. This is one of the few blanks I drill on the lathe. Im sure it can be done other ways but this is just the way I do it. Place the blank in a chuck with a loose fit. By loose fit I mean dont crank the jaws down tight just yet. I use a dead center in the tailstock just as an alignment tool. Put the point of the dead center on your center mark and hold it while you tighten the chuck jaws. Now your blank is perfectly centered. The design of this blank requires a near perfect hole to be drilled otherwise your pattern will be all jacked up.

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Now lets talk about drill bits for a moment. Both of these bits are a 27/64 bit, the size required for a Sierra style pen tube. The top bit is the bit I prefer to drill my blanks with. Its a brad point pen makers bit from Wood River. I love thier bits. This style of bit will destroy this blank though. DONT use this type of bit. The bottom bit is a standard or round nose bit, at least thats what I call them. This is what you need for this blank. Its nothing special, just a cheapy I picked up at the local hardware just for drilling this type of blank.

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Now were ready to drill. I run my lathe at the slowest speed it goes which isnt that slow, around 600 rpm. Slower would be better. Cut a little at a time and back out to clear the chips. Shut the lathe down every 1/2" or so and feel the blank. If it starts getting warm, STOP, and let it cool. It dosnt take a whole lot to heat the aluminum up and it will melt your epoxy and because your blank is wrapped in cheese cloth, you may not know youve weakened your joint untill your turning it and it explodes. Again, be sure you marked and are drilling from the TOP of the blank, not the bottom.

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Here you can see the bottom of the blank. We have a little bit of blowout and the end of the blank isnt square but those arnt issues. We left the blank plenty long enough to cut off the blowout and were gonna square the end before we turn. This is just to show that if you set everything up properly and used the proper bit, youll get a perfectly centered hole every time. The design of this blank kinda makes it self centering anyhow but if you dont do it right, it is possible to drill off center.

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Now were gonna go back to that cheap band saw and trim the blank down a little closer to size. Use your tube to remark your lines if you cant see them and be careful not to cut it too short. I almost did. If you screw up, you have to start over from the top so be careful. Then glue your tube in. I always reccommend epoxy for glueing tubes, for every pen. Why? Because you can look all over the net and read all kinds of forums and youll find guys questioning tube failures. I have yet to have a tube failure and I have made a crap load of pens. Sure glueing the tube in with CA is faster and simpler but why take the chance? Regardless of how you typically glue your tubes, use only epoxy for this one. Just trust me. Be mindful of tube alignment. Be sure the ends of your tubes are where you marked your blank. Your going to end mill to the tube so where you place your tube will determine where the pattern is on your finished pen.

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Now on to the end mill. Everyone that makes pens knows how to use an end mill right? NO and thats why I fealt we should talk about it for a minute. I recently was watching a video on Youtube and a guy was holding a blank in his hand while milling the end of the blank with a hand drill!! Really!?! Some peoples kids, I tell ya! If your gonna use your end mill in a hand drill, thats fine but clamp your blank into a vice or something, gheesh. I prefer to use my drill press and hold the blank with a pair of pliars. Either way, just do it safely. I can only imagine what a hand might look like after tangling with an end mill spinning at high speeds. Oh, light cuts here. The wood is much softer than the aluminum so it wants to cut much faster. Gentle pressure here will result in a nice square end! Keep your end mill handy, were gonna need it again after the blank is finished. Why might you need an end mill on a finished blank? Stay tuned!

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After squaring the ends, knock the corners off somehow. You can go back to the band saw but that requires some type of jig that will hold the blank on a corner. I havnt taken the time to make said jig so I just use the belt sander. It dosnt have to be pretty, just knock the corners off. If you use the belt sander, be careful again with the heat. Youll feel the blank getting warm. When you do, STOP and let it cool down and then sand some more. Afterward, we'll go to the lathe. Here I mounted to a mandrel with bushings. Im just gonna use these bushing to get me close.

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Now our blank is starting to take shape. It's actually round now and you can see what the pattern is gonna look like when its finished but theres still a whole lot of material to remove at this point. Im beginning to think 1" was way to big!! It gives us a nice buffer during the building and prep but makes for a lot of work when turning. I started with a freshly sharpen spindle gouge, this will remove material quickly and cuts the aluminum well. When we get close, Ill swich to carbide. High speeds and a light touch is key here. I think Im spinning around 3000 RPM's.

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## BassBlaster (Jul 27, 2013)

Once I get close to finished size, I like to go to TBC to make my finish cut. Bushing are great for getting close but I like to match my blank to the componants rather than the bushings. It requires a little more effort but the end result is worth it. I use a cone dead center in the head stock and a cone live center in the tail stock. Sorry for the blurry pic.

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Remember earlier I said we wasnt gonna sand this blank. Thats because aluminum dust or even dust from dark woods dosnt play real nice with light colored woods. If you sand this you will have sanding marks all over the aluminum. By the time you polish the aluminum back out your light colored wood will have a muddy look to it and thats not what were going for here. So, we need to get a finish ready surface without sanding. This is the part I struggled with the most when I did this pen for the pen exchange. Obviously the best tool for the job is a freshly sharpened skew. The problem with that is I have absolutely no skills with a skew. If you do, great!! I dont. So, I found that if I use an R2 radiused carbide cutter at a 45 degree angle, I can produce a finish ready piece without sanding. You still want to hold the handle parallel with the floor but twist the handle about 45 degrees similar to if you were shear scraping with a round nose scraper in a bowl. This produces very fine shavings, almost dust and a very smooth finish ready surface. Again, high speeds and a very light touch! Here we are ready for a finish.

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Now to the finish. I prefer a CA finish on all my pens and I highly reccommend a CA finish on this one. Im not gonna get into how to do a CA finish. Everyone has thier own way and thats fine. Here we are finished and polished and ready to come off the lathe.

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Okay, earlier I told you not to put your end mill away because we would need it again after we finish the pen. When you finish your pen with CA you wind up with a problem. If you used bushings, now they have become one with your blank and you have to try and remove them without cracking your finish. If you finished TBC like I did, then your finish ran over the end of your blank and it looks like crap now and it has to be removed before assembly. Here you can see the excess CA we need to get rid of.

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I used to trim this excess off with a razor knife. That was a bit tricky to do without cutting myself and it never resulted in a perfectly square end which is critical in final fit. I found a guy making and selling an end mill sander just for fixing this issue. It was a cool idea but I think it was 20 or 30 bucks and looked very similar to something I allready had in my shop, an end mill. I took a piece of 3/4" pipe and sharpened one end and put a cap on the other. Now I have a punch for punching out little circles of adhasive backed sand paper. Then I use a standard hole punch and punch a hole in the center of the circle and end up with this...

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Now take the cutter off of your end mill. Stick the sandpaper to the bottom of the cutter and reinstall it upside down. Now you have an end mill sander for cleaning the ends of your blank back up.

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I sand the ends by hand with the little end mill sander. No need to use the drill. Were just cleaning up the excess CA. I just sand it untill the brass tube gets a polished look to it. No need to get carried away. Here is a perfectly squared and cleaned end ready for assembly. Again, sorry for the blurry pic but you can kind of see whats going on.

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After sanding your ends assemble your pen and were finished!! I put this blank on a black titanium and platinum Sierra Elegant Beauty.

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And thats how its done! If anyone has any questions or if theres anything I havnt been completely clear on, just ask!! Hope you enjoyed this build and I hope it inspires you to try something new!

Credit for the design of this pen goes to member firewhatfire over at IAP. He was the fist person to do this. I just went about it from a whole differnt direction and simplified the building process for this blank.


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## NYWoodturner (Jul 27, 2013)

Subscribed !


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## Bean_counter (Jul 27, 2013)

Mr. Bass this is going to fantastic and I'm subscribing as well!


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## SENC (Jul 27, 2013)

Great tutorial so far! Subscribed!


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## JTTHECLOCKMAN (Jul 29, 2013)

I know this pen. Looks good and the tutorial is going well. Good to see a familar name.


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## robert421960 (Jul 30, 2013)

Excellent tutorial bass


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (Jul 30, 2013)

cool stuff looking forward to you next post.


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## ChrisN (Jul 30, 2013)

Great tutorial. Now you've given me something else I have to try...:rolleyes2:


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## manbuckwal (Jul 30, 2013)

That is sooooo cool !!! Thanks for sharing


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## BassBlaster (Aug 4, 2013)

Just a bump to let everyone know I finished the pen and tutorial. I had reserved a couple spots so all the tutorial will be on the front page so youll have to go back to page one to see the rest of it. Thanks guys and I hope this helps someone else push thier limits!!


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## Sprung (Aug 4, 2013)

I don't turn pens (I don't even have a lathe yet), but that is one well written tutorial. Really cool to see the method of making such an awesome pen! 

And one amazing pen! :wacko1: That is a pen design that I would love to own, or even be able to make, someday!


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## BassBlaster (Aug 4, 2013)

Sprung said:


> I don't turn pens (I don't even have a lathe yet), but that is one well written tutorial. Really cool to see the method of making such an awesome pen!
> 
> And one amazing pen! :wacko1: That is a pen design that I would love to own, or even be able to make, someday!



Thanks! I hope it at least has enough pics and details to show whats going on for someone that wants to make one. It really is fairly simple to make just kind of time consuming.

I cant take credit for the design, its not mine. Another guy over at IAP designed this pen. I just went about it a little differnt. He used aluminum flashing so there was a joint in the aluminum that I didnt like and I wanted the aluminum to be thicker. He also went about glueing together a whole pile of little tiny pieces. Making one piece and then chopping into segments makes it a lot simpler but would be much harder to do using flashing rather than angle.


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## ssgmeader (Aug 4, 2013)

Great tutorial. I've been doing my barrel TBC the exact same set up. So I love the idea of the pen mill sander tip. (I've just been trimming it with the pen mill and it seemed over kill) so I love the idea of that little end mill sander attachment.


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## leviblue (Aug 4, 2013)

Nicely done! Thanks for the tutorial.


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## BassBlaster (Aug 4, 2013)

ssgmeader said:


> Great tutorial. I've been doing my barrel TBC the exact same set up. So I love the idea of the pen mill sander tip. (I've just been trimming it with the pen mill and it seemed over kill) so I love the idea of that little end mill sander attachment.



The end mill sander is a life saver!! I dunno why I never thought of it. Like I said, theres a guy selling one designed for this purpose with a punch for punching out your circles for I think about 30 bucks. I made my punch out of a 3/4" pipe nipple that I think I paid less than $2 for. I just punch out an entire sheet and put them in a little box so I always have a fresh one ready when I need it. It only takes about 10 seconds to flip the cutter over and turn it into a sanding mill and it works realy really well. I use 150 grit on mine.


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## ButchC (Aug 4, 2013)

Very cool tutorial so far. I have been interested in how pen makers construct their blanks for the outlandish pens I've seen. That's very cool. I never would have thought of aluminum angle iron in a pen!!:fool:


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## ButchC (Aug 4, 2013)

BassBlaster said:


> ssgmeader said:
> 
> 
> > Great tutorial. I've been doing my barrel TBC the exact same set up. So I love the idea of the pen mill sander tip. (I've just been trimming it with the pen mill and it seemed over kill) so I love the idea of that little end mill sander attachment.
> ...



That's an awesome idea.


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## ripjack13 (Aug 5, 2013)

This is actually helping me. I now know why ChrisN needs flat stock sanded "smooth"...but not too smooth. And what it's going to accomplish. 
Thank you....


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## ChrisN (Aug 5, 2013)

ripjack13 said:


> This is actually helping me. I now know why ChrisN needs flat stock sanded "smooth"...but not too smooth. And what it's going to accomplish.
> Thank you....



Hey, you learn something new every day!  Now you know.


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## Vern Tator (Aug 10, 2013)

Beautiful pen!! If I ever get the time I might have to do one. Really, I know that I have an opening in 6 months or so, my wife said so.


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