Christmas gifts and learning how to hand turn!

[Metal Mickey]

Tmuir, you won't regret it, I promise!

 

[tmuir]

I was hoping to buy a second hand lathe today off ebay but towards the end it came close to the price of a new one so didn't get it.

I've convinced myself I might as well spend the $319 and just buy a new small bench top wood turning lathe. Now I just need to convince the wife......

I went to go buy some polyurethane glue on the weekend to glue the brass tubes into the wood but Bunnings (our local hardware shop) wants $20 for 30mls of the stuff whilst the woodworking shop seel it for $30 for 355mls, so I will visit them this week to get the glue.

 

[Kermit]

The last thing I need to do at this time is begin another new hobby. ;D



But this one does have lots of appeal to me. Maybe in another few years .

On the subject of lathes? I've seen a device that is just an attachment to a hand drill and turns it into a very small lathe. You have to mount the drill and add a base to put the tail piece on as well. I think there is another brand that is a prebuilt and you just add your drill as the motor.

Way less than 100 buck to do. maybe it will spark ideas in a readers mind...Cause mine is blank right now on who makes those things.. :big:

Kermit

 

[Steelmaster]

Interesting to see all this pen turning stuff here.

I came to metal turning via pen turning! Make lots of pens and when I started making bullet pens I decided that a metal lathe would give me more scope to do things, so I bought a 9x20 lathe, then an X2 mill.............

funny how you go from one thing to the next.

Anyway, here are a couple of my bullet pens

 

[Troutsqueezer]

>I have seen Cocobolo. and wondered how it would turn so I may try and get some to play with.

While beautiful, there is one caveat when working with cocobolo, well, maybe two:

If you have a large disc sander, the cocobolo will clog it up immediately and ruin the disk in just a few seconds.

If you breathe the dust, it will burn your nose so be sure to wear a mask when turning, cutting or sanding it. If you cut a lot of it on the table saw, the blade will need to be cleaned frequently with Oven-Off.

I have made many pens and jewelry boxes using cocobolo as well as most of the exotic woods that are available. I'll dig out some photos tonight and show them off.

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Nice pens Steelmaster.
Do you experience any delays at airport security? ;D

 

[tmuir]

I've not seen bullet pens before Steelmaster, thats something new to me.

I've got a few ounces of scrp sterling silver and I've been contemplaing casting some parts for pens with that and machining it up on my lathe to fit the wooden parts. But before I try anything like that I will just get a few regular pens under my belt.

 

[Steelmaster]

Nice pens Steelmaster.
Do you experience any delays at airport security? ;D

Funnily enough, have never had a problem, go figure in this "security gone mad" world!

In fact I sold one of the bullet pens to a security person at the airport!

As well as the bullet pens, I make bullet pen kits for other pen turners and have mailed these all over the world, including to the US.

 

[Cliff]

I don't know if you guys know but you can machine wood on a metal lathe. Cliff

 

[zeeprogrammer]

I've thought about pens for gifts too.
Fellow at work just started. He made a pink one that he donated to the business for the Breast Cancer drive. Nice idea.

I used to work for a company that used CNC mills and lathes to make small robots. The owner was adamant about not turning wood. He thought that the chips would get in places, expand from the oil or coolant, and ruin the equipment. I don't know about that...in looking at my little equipment...I can't imagine it's a problem.

 

[Steelmaster]

I don't know if you guys know but you can machine wood on a metal lathe. Cliff

Yes, I often do, although I prefer to use my wood lathe, the saddle on the metal lathe tends to get in the way a bit.

I do turn a lot of polyester resin blanks on my metal lathe, turn to to max OD required, then transfer to wood lathe for final shaping by hand turning.

The autofeed on the metal lathe comes in handy for this sort of work.

I am in the process of buying a new wood lathe with a tail stock quill travel of over 4", very handy for drilling the blanks to take the brass tubes. Current metal lathe has only 1 1/2" travel as does current wood lathe.

 

[Troutsqueezer]

Some of the Christmas gifts I've given over the last decade.

Pens were popular. I made some out every kind of wood I could find, these are a few. I still have a big box of pen blanks in the shed, about 75lbs of 'em.

I also went through the bottle stopper phase, embedding some of the new quarters in the tops. These were a good way to use up scraps.

Jewelry boxes were the favorites. I gave this one to my mother, got it back when she went into a home.

cocobolo carcass and big leaf quilted maple top.

Gave this one to my wife.

Bird's Eye Maple

Padauk w/big leaf quilted maple.

The Home Theater remote box, bubinga and quilted maple

I really cranked these boxes out there for a couple of years. Not gonna bore ya with any more pics however.

-Trout

 

[Steelmaster]

Some nice work there TroutSqueezer, well done.

 

[tmuir]

Nice boxes.
Far better than any I've made.

 

[tmuir]

Just finished my first pen on my new wood lathe last night. Will post photos tonight.
I convinced myself to buy a small wood lathe with the idea when I finaly get set up to cast things I can now turn up wooden patterns.

As promised here is the picture of my new lathe.

My first pen.

This one was really a learning curve as I haven't used a wood lathe since I was 14.
The bottom is wider at one end than the other and I'm not overly happy with the finishing wax I used so I think I will be trying a different finish next time.
Also the whole pen could of done with the diameter being 0.5mm smaller.

But for a first attempt its fine.

 

[shred]

I used a couple of the wood pen kits to turn up some aluminum and brass pens a while back. That works pretty well, though Al turns your hands black after a while if you don't anodize or otherwise coat it.

 

[Troutsqueezer]

...so I think I will be trying a different finish next time.

This is what I used, there's nothing easier and it comes out looking great. It's a little pricey for the bottle but it goes a long long way.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2003238/1664/Behlen-Woodturner-s-Finish.aspx

 

[tmuir]

This is what I used, there's nothing easier and it comes out looking great. It's a little pricey for the bottle but it goes a long long way.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2003238/1664/Behlen-Woodturner-s-Finish.aspx

I'm not familiar with that brand, don't know if I can get it where I live, but I've seen a similar product that I plan to get today.

I hope to make a couple of more pens over the weekend and maybe even finish a set of cast ali wheel that Rob made for me when I was in the UK in June.

 

[Metal Mickey]

Regarding the link for the Behlen woodturners finish it really winds me up when we get ripped off just because we live on an island. Its frustrating that our own cars are cheaper when exported than they are where they are made (not that we have a motor industry left). I just checked to see if I could source the same product here in the UK and Behlen have there own UK website. In the link given the price is $17.99 and the $ price in the UK is $31.54!

I cannot believe it costs $13 plus to ship a bottle over to their UK base!7 http://www.behlen.co.uk/Merchant2/m...Product_Code=B611-08885&Category_Code=/[url]

 

[Metal Mickey]

Ohh grumble over. Troutsqueezer those are beautiful boxes indeed. :bow: :bow: and Tmuir that's a neat lathe how expensive was it?