Turned Pens
How to make Turned Pens!
Turn pens are entering new heights nowadays and are now considered as collectibles. Turn pens differ in cost depending on their maker. Custom turned pens would cost you about $35USD to $50USD plus shipping cost if you would be ordering online. You could find different sites online that offer turned pens. Options include wood turned pens, hand turned pens and the custom turned pens.
Pen turning can be a very exciting hobby and the pens that you would be making, you may give as gifts or you can even sell them for extra money. If you are going to make a hand turned pen or a wood turned pen you would need the same tools. You would need a mandrel - this is a metal bar that fits between the centres of the lathe and holds the pen blanks for turning. Bushings are also needed; these are used to shave the blanks down to the appropriate size of the pen kit.
Lathe is obviously needed as is a drill bit, drill press, table or band saw, disc sander and clamps for pressing the parts together. Parts and supplies that are needed are pen kit, wood blanks, glue and sandpaper. There a few simple steps that you would follow in making this turning pens. The first thing you need to do is get a blank, a blank is a piece of material that is used to make the pen out of. Your blank of choice can be made of wood, plastic, crushed velvet or others.
The next thing to do is cut the blanks into two pieces; one for the top part and one for the bottom part. Then square the ends of your blanks using a disc sander with a mitre gauge. Next is to drill the centre of your blank. You should drill slow and remove the bit out often, to remove the chips.
Glue your brass tubes into the blanks and let them dry. When the glue dries out assemble the blanks with the right bushings; you should tighten them, but not too tight. Position your tool rest as close to the blanks as you can without making contact, and turn the blanks by hand to make sure they will not contact the lathe then set the lathe to its highest speed and start turning.
After turning the pens, put on the sand in the blanks using sandpaper, for the finishing of your pen. After the finishing assemble the pen. Last is to admire the work that you have done. A Turned pen is as we have seen definitely easy to make.