I am going to make Pens for the Freedom Pen Project.

I have been lurking and learning a lot lately over at the http://www.penturners.org. As you all know here I started turning about 6 months ago. The spark and desire to turn wood was set in me during high school wood shop, I still have the first bowl I turned in high school on my desk at work. A guy I work with started turning about two years ago and once I heard all his stories, I found yet another hobby.

I have since purchased two lathes, a band saw, a couple 100 pen blanks, and 70+ pen kits, and found a source for cabinet maker cutoffs. Hook line and sinker, I'm into the pen turning.

So far I have built about 20 pens and we have a lot of fun in store. I have overcome most of the beginner challenges, except the tips cracking on final assemble. I am working on this, and know I need to clean and debur the tubes before install. I am still working on building the "perfect" pen press.

I am concentrating on the "Slim Line" pens, but have not yet made a slim line, we jumped right into the advanced variations from the Rex and Kip videos and make most pens without the center band.

Oh and one last thing, I am joining the Freedom Pen movement, and plan to make 10 pens and send them right away. I think this is a great project and I am glad I can help out now I am getting better and pen making.

Pen Assembly troubles.

I am having trouble splitting the ends of the pens during the final assembly. The issues is really starting to bug me. I work for an hour or more nad make a perfect pen using some very nice wood and a finish I really like, then during final press together I get out of alignment and crack the tip or center of the pens. It is such a let down, I have tried to build some gigs to hold the pen tip exactly straight for Assembly and I have used a vise to apply gradual easy pressure to the pens. This is not working, I have had a few pens snap together and the notice the cracks.

I was reading this morning and I came to eh conclusion that I have excess glue in the tube and I must scrape it out before assembly. I have been using thick CA glue and letting it dry overnight and have not had any gluing problems. I was relying on the barrel trimmer I use to remove the excess glue. What I read and sounds like a good idea is to put a blade from a pair of scissors down into the tube and scrape out the glue and round the edge or bevel the brass tube a bit before assembly. I will certainly try this on my next set of pens.

I am also thinking I need to figure out a way to get less or no glue on the inside of the brass while gluing. I may turn a few round 6.5 mm chop stick looking assembly rods and try using these during gluing. Meaning put the brass on a small rod then apply glue and then slide this into the pen blank. Or I wonder if some plastic like ear plug material placed in the end of the brass before gluing would help keep glue out of the tubes. Either way I have to get over this problem and pruduce a fantastic pen vs. a failure at final assembly.

Here is a picture of a new Cocobol Pen I whipped out.

This is a version on the slimline pen that I have decided that I really like. If you look closely I have made the front section of the tip a bit longer and remove the center band. This pen has the older finish that I was using. This pen used the Crystal Hut Clear coat Friction polish. I have since changed to a different finish with shiny coat.