Wall Street II Pen made with Ancient Kauri Wood.

I made a Wall Street II pen using the Ancient New Zealand Kauri wood. I got the blank from a local Wood craft store. I have the pictures on the link provide. I found the wood I used to be very soft. I had to get out the dreaded "Skew" and cut very carefully. I did not scrape with the skew.

This pen has a CA finish on it. I am not very good with the CA finish but this turned out great in my opinion. If you click on pictures you can see them in huge format.

http://turninground.biz/pens/Kauri/header.php?params=Kauri

Ian
http://www.turninground.biz

March 2010 Wood Turning Events in Utah

Here is a Calendar of events coming up in the next few weeks, These event are based of Wood Turning Clubs in Salt Lake city Utah and the surrounding area.


Club Meetings:

Utah Association of Woodturners – Tuesday, March 1, 7:00 pm, High Mountain Forest Products

Wasatch Penturners – Thursday, April 7, 7:00 pm, Woodcraft Sandy Utah

Demo: Raleigh Lockhart – “Using the Skew”


Utah Woodturning Symposium Events:

Craft Supplies Open House, Wednesday, May 18, 8:00 am - 4:30 pm, Craft Supplies,

This is a very Dangerous Day It start out very early as Craft Supplies puts thousands of items on sale at discount price. This is the dangerous part. The rest of the day is wonderful, you will be able to see many different demonstrations using new tools and techniques from many world class demonstrators. The event is free and ends with a big drawing for tools and other prizes. If you have the time this event is worth a trip to Prove.



9th Annual Penturners Rendezvous – Wednesday, May 18, 7:00 pm, UVU

This is a fun event and has a small price tag of about $10.00 Everyone who attends gets a nice door prize from the Drawing.



Utah Woodturning Symposium – Thursday - Saturday, May 19-21, UVU

This is a 3 day event that combines 50+ classes in many different rotations over the 3 days. The format is open and very inviting you will learn from the wood turing masters be able to talk with your wood turning hero's before during and after the classes. The cost of this event it about $245.00 Before March 31st. This is a bargain for 3 days of full time hands on training from many experts.

Lets get back to Basics.

How do you start? Where do you start in Pen Turning? What tools do you need? What supplies do you need? What are the basic steps? What are the some tricks to help you? What do you need to learn? Where do you start? Initially turning a pen seems like a huge project to undertake. It seems like you need a lot of expensive tools and skills. This is and this is not true. The steps and the skills need for basic pen turning are simple and anyone can learn them. You just need to start simple and let your skills and tool collection grow as you get into more advanced projects. I am going to try to explain my journey into pen turning and wood turning and wood working. I hope I am able to provide some help to others who are learning or even skilled professionals who have turned a 1000 pens in the past. Everyone does things differently and everyone can learn if you just open up your mind and enjoy the journey from your first pen to better pens. Or from you most amazing pen ever yo your next most amazing pen.

Turning Pens book recommendation.

This Turning Pens and Pencils book is a complement to the DVDs done by the same two Authors REX BURNINGHAM, KIP CHRISTENSEN. The book shows details of all the steps in making pens and pencils. I really like the DVD that compliments this book.

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.