First segmented pen

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John Smith

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Oct 7, 2011
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154
Location
Lowell, Michigan
Here is a picture of a segmented pen I finished turning today. It is made up of 656 pieces of walnut and maple, with a CA finish. C & C welcome.
 

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Now here is a great example of what would be in the segmenting forum. Great piece of work. I wish you had some better close up photos. Care to share how you cut those tiny pieces??? Any other information you want to share with us??? I love it Job well done. Does the design go all around?? Thanks for showing.
 
WOW is an understatement. That is amazing.
Yes, please share how you cut those tiny pieces. Building my sled right now and might as well make it so I can cut 656 pieces.
 
Hmmm, me thinks this is your first time on a pen. Something tells me you have segmented other things before. Great job John. I aspire to be like you when I grow up :)
 
John Smith said:
Eric caught me! I have done a few other large pieces.
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Will you be willing to answer a few questions here??


I think most people would like to know how you cut that small of pieces and what tool is used. Do you have a jig that you are willing to show.??? You probably won't show your method but we can ask.

I know anything I make I am willing to share. I come to this site looking for help and willing to dish it out as well.


I will edit this post because I just read that Jeff will be making a seperate segmenting forum which is great news. Something like this pen would be a great opener in the new forum and I hope John Smith comes along and answers some questions there and kick that forum off. We all are starving for new ideas and innovations come along and be a part of something great.
 
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John, Here is a quick explanation of how I did it .I first ripped long strips at 11.25 degrees. I then glued 16 strips into a long cane. I then cut 5 inch pieces off those and bored them for the pen tube. Then i set up on the table saw and cut .061" slices of the cane pieces. Then I stacked up the different pieces on a mandrel to glue them together. Should have taken more photos i guess. Hope this gives everyone a starting point. All pieces were cut on my full size table saw with a Forrest blade. Only blew up a few of the rings.
 
It is obvious you have been doing segmenting for quite some time and the work is great. Someone just can't do this stuff that easily. There are many factors and I am sure you have developed some jigs to help you as well as formulas to get to the dimentions you needed. I think these are a few things that would help us understand what goes into segmenting of this caliber. On another forum you mentioned doing another pen and I hope this time you do somewhat of a pictoral how to for us to see. I am sure you will not have to worry about being copied. That is what we are trying to establish on this forum a working sense of what we do and some methods of how we do them. Thanks for showing and sharing.
 
John Smith said:
.I first ripped long strips at 11.25 degrees. I then glued 16 strips into a long cane. I then cut 5 inch pieces off those and bored them for the pen tube. Then i set up on the table saw and cut .061" slices of the cane pieces. Then I stacked up the different pieces on a mandrel to glue them together. Should have taken more photos i guess. Hope this gives everyone a starting point. All pieces were cut on my full size table saw with a Forrest blade. Only blew up a few of the rings.
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Sweet, sweet, sweet. So, who is this John Smith guy, who comes to us with his 16 posts and a STUNNING pen out of the blue?

I demand an exposé on the man behind the pen! (Oh, and a few more free tips would be a bonus.)
 
Yes it is my first segmented pen. It also is my first wood pen. I have turned about 50 resin pens, but no wood ones until now.

John, I have done 3 segmented projects before this. First was an 8" by 8" vase for a competition at our club . The second was a balloon 18.5" diameter by 30" tall for a local art contest called Artprize. These were both turned with a friend, Scott Fles. The third was a lighthouse 8" diameter and 36" tall for Artprize this year. The fourth is this pen just because I wanted to have some fun last weekend.

I have been working wood for third years. Creating this pen is like building a highboy dresser. Break it down and a dresser is just a bunch of boxes. A segmented pen is a bunch of rings stacked up. Don't look at the whole, but each ring. makes it much easier.

I have no special magical jigs. I ripped the strips on a PM66 saw. glued them into bundles. Drilled on a drill press. And then cut the rings off on the table saw .

KDM,I am more of a lurker than a poster. Just stated posting more on another site that I have been lurking at for years. Thanks for the compliment on my pen. It was so much fun, I am dreaming of my next one. I am thinking more, and smaller pieces. Got to push myself so I don't get bored.

To everyone, I am overwhelmed with all the nice compliments. Thank you very much. This is really a great site.
 
John Smith said:
Yes it is my first segmented pen. It also is my first wood pen. I have turned about 50 resin pens, but no wood ones until now.

John, I have done 3 segmented projects before this. First was an 8" by 8" vase for a competition at our club . The second was a balloon 18.5" diameter by 30" tall for a local art contest called Artprize. These were both turned with a friend, Scott Fles. The third was a lighthouse 8" diameter and 36" tall for Artprize this year. The fourth is this pen just because I wanted to have some fun last weekend.

I have been working wood for third years. Creating this pen is like building a highboy dresser. Break it down and a dresser is just a bunch of boxes. A segmented pen is a bunch of rings stacked up. Don't look at the whole, but each ring. makes it much easier.

I have no special magical jigs. I ripped the strips on a PM66 saw. glued them into bundles. Drilled on a drill press. And then cut the rings off on the table saw .

KDM,I am more of a lurker than a poster. Just stated posting more on another site that I have been lurking at for years. Thanks for the compliment on my pen. It was so much fun, I am dreaming of my next one. I am thinking more, and smaller pieces. Got to push myself so I don't get bored.

To everyone, I am overwhelmed with all the nice compliments. Thank you very much. This is really a great site.
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Hi John

I wish you would take this conversation over to the segmenting forum. IT makes for great talk there.

I do know what you are talking about cutting slices and all that for I too do segmenting pens. If you go there you will see a couple of mine. My question is when you make the blank and I think in this case there are several blanks because of the different patterns in each row, how are you cutting the pieces to make the blank??? Are you making staves??? You have to used some formula to get the exact pieces to fit around a specific diameter tube. Am I a correct on this???
 
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