newbie pen turning questions

Hi,

I purchased some pen turning equipment used from someone. There's no directions, so I have a few basic questions.

The mandrel has a morse taper on one end. I assume I use the tailstock to support the other end.. However the "tail" of the mandrel is simply a metal bolt.. My tailstock is a point, so I don't see how the tailstock will hold the opposite end (The point can't penetrate metal).. Is the friction between the mandrel and tailstock good enough?

I also got a pen mill. I know this is to square up the end of the pen blank. Do I turn the pen mill by hand or chuck it into a drill press to use it?

I know some of you will be laughing at these questions, but they are serious. Thanks.

Reply to
bf
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The pen mandrel is designed so that the morse taper can be unscrewed and replaced with a differnet size morse taper to suit you needs. The other end should be threaded, and have a round thumb screw on it to hold the busings and pen blank. If you look closely at the end with the screw on it, you should see a slight concaved area. The tail stock live cent is designed to fit into the small concave. Put the morse taper in the head stock, slide the live center of the tail stock up to it and make sure it is in the concave recess. Do not put pressure on the mandrel with the tail stock until you have snuggly tightened the bushings, pen stock, and thumb screw. If you fail to do this you can warp the pen mandrel shaft. After snugging it up, you can crank in the live center on the tail stock enough to keep the assembly from spinning when you begin turning the pen blanks.

If your pen mandrel does not look like my discription, throw it away and go get another one. You could have something that is home made????????

Pen mills are sized according to pen you are making, 10mm, 7mm, etc. You will need one for each type of pen you make. They are used to flatten the end of the blanks and to clean out any excess glue that may have found its way into the brass tubes during glue up.

You can use them by hand. When I do, I turned some small handles on the pen lath and inserted them into the handle when I used them. Saves the fingers. You can also mount them in the drill press which I prefer because it less work. Hold the pen blanks with something besides you hands, the drill press can put a lot of torque on the blank and pull it out of your hands.

Here is my approach: Cut the blanks to length, allow a little extra for squaring off later. Drill the correct diameter holes for the tubes. Glue in the tubes. When dry, use the pen mill to clean out the glue from the tubes. I square off the ends on my sanding machine. It has a belt and a disk sander on it. I hold the pen blank in the might guage set to 90 degress to the face of the round disk, and sand them down to the top and bottom of each tube. Use the pen mill again just to be sure its really square. Mount the busings and blanks on the pen mandrel, and tighten it up by hand using the screw knob, then mount it in the lath and turn it.

Good luck, Art

Reply to
Desert Rat

Is the small end of the morse taper threaded? If so, it is probably for a 1/4" draw bolt - goes through the handwheel on the headstock to hold the mandrel in place.

There are no stupid questions, only rude answers. ;-)

Greg G.

Reply to
Greg G

If you have either the "round thumb screw(?nut?)" or a regular nut do yourself a favor and toss it into a parts bin and get a Nylock (or any anti-vibration) nut, I've had too many plan nuts loosen while making chips.

BrianC

Reply to
Brian C

Reply to
Brad

Thanks everyone for responding.. Brian, will a nut with vinyl coating on the inside work as an antivirbration nut?

Reply to
bf

Good advise from Brian. A nylon locking nut will work. They have the plasic ring on the inside. Just be sure to get the right thread pitch.

Art

bf wrote:

Reply to
Desert Rat

may I respectfully disagree about the nylon nut? I dont' make a lot of pens any more, I made a few hundred before I got bored with them - a nylon nut will wear out and be just like a regular nut after enough removals - and loosening up isn't much of a problem (at least it is'nt forme) - you are spinning the blank quickly (I use 3K rpm) and you don't need much torque - and I like to spin the nut off when I'm done - so I just put the nut on finger tight and turn away - on a rare occasion I need it a bit tighter, but it's only rarely.

so my advise is to stick with the regular nut - if you find it's a real problem after you start making pens, then by all means fix the problem - but dont' fix a problem that you may not have - or buy a bag of the nyloc nuts just in case and toss them into the supply bin.....

bill

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Reply to
William Noble

I'm with Bill on this. Tighten finger tight. Knock the corners off. Re-snug the nuts (I favor the large brass round style from PSI) on a "just checking" basis, crank the rpms up to warp 7 and turn off anything that doesn't look like a pen.

If you don't already, learn to use the skew for the whole operation. That's one tool to keep sharp, one tool to master and a very real chance of cutting the need for sandpaper WAAAAY down.

Pens are just another sort of spindle work and that's where the skew shines.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

Sure, everything that we accept as fact, truth and undeniable is all opinion and that is what makes it possible to have new (and often better) ideas. To each their own or we'd still live in a tree (caves came later).

The nylon will eventually wear out but is cheap to replace and I will admit to doing some fancy things with a router and Dremel that cause more vibration than usual. Did you know that a pen with a spiral becomes left or right-handed? I didn't until I made one - although, with 20-20 hind sight, it should have been obvious.

BrianC

Reply to
Brian C

In addition to the good advice already given, have a look at

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and go to "Projects" and then to "Slimline Pen". There is a two page pdf file for you to download and/or print. It is brief but may answer a few more questions.

Dick

Reply to
Dick

Whatever you do, stay away from the gallery!

Bill

A) you'll have a hard time leaving B) you'll probably put a for-sale sign on your lathe and go sit in the backyard for a few days, staring into the distance and weeping C) some of the stuff in that gallery is simply awesome!

Reply to
Bill

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