I was cutting pen blanks today and realized that folks get lathes for Christmas and I might know something that will help them get started..
I think a lot of tend to think the "everyone knows that" and not pass it on, so here's a basic plan of how I prepare pen blanks..
This assumes that you've either cut the wood into pen blanks or bought pen blanks:
Place the blank in whatever jig you use to cut to length.. before cutting, use a crayon or marker to draw a line down the blank that the cut with go through.. If you're cutting more than one blank of the same wood, number the blanks at each end of the line..
1 ---------------------------------1 2----------------------------------2After the cut, you'll know which ends go together for grain alignment... This is important and your pen will look better if you drill your blanks and glue your tubes from the "middle" of the pen..
If only one end of the blank will be drilled dead center, it's going to be the end you start from.. that will align the grain..
Glue the tubes and when they're ready to turn, use a pen mill to square the ends.. At this point, I use a red marker to mark the inside end of the tubes AT THE END WITH THE CUT LINE... 1------- (cut) ------1 This way you know which end of each blank will face the middle of the pen...
Place the blanks on your pen mandrel with the numbers facing the head and tail stock and the cut line facing the middle, as in all the dumb drawings above..
When you assemble your pen pay attention to your marked tubes and your grain should be well aligned... (on pens that don't allow for adjustment later, pay close attention to lining up the grain before putting the 2 halves together)
Hope that helps a bit... Raise your hand if you have a question or need to pee..
mac
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