Hello from Ohio

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lyonsacc

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Joined
Aug 31, 2012
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Cincinnati, OH
My 11 year old daughter wanted to start a little business turning pens - how could I refuse :). I am new to turning, but have been wood working since I was a teen (picked it up from my Dad). Have learned a lot from reading your articles and comments. We have turned 5 or 6 pens so far. Did our first acrylic - a slim line - the other night. Turns out the orange acrylic is somewhat translucent and you can see the roughed up brass tube and a smudge/dot of CA near the tip of the pen. Any suggestions? Should I just pick a less translucent acrylic for a slim line? I could have painted the tube, but the glue smudge would probably still show . . .

This weekend I think we will be trying a cherry pen & pencil set . . .
 
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Welcome. Painting tubes (and blanks) has kind of a learning curve in itself. Most folk seem to prefer acrylics (I do) and many of us just get a fairly inexpensive set at a place like Michaels. You'll be surprised how much painting the tube (and blank) can change the outcome of the pen. Tips: 1 - Get a decent quality brush to apply the paint. 2 - Don't put the paint on too thick, esp if you are doing the tube and the blank. It'll gum up inside and look just as bad as not painting. Check the fit before you paint. Sanding the inside of the blank can help here. 3 - I like to use 2 part epoxy. Latent water from the paint seems to speed up the cure of CA (super glue). Lillte is worse than a tube stuck halfway down!
 
Welcome to the IAP, many of us have been caught out by the translucent blank as it is all part of the learning curve in penturning, I also paint inside of acrylics after drilling and the brass tubes same as previous answers. :)
 
Welcome from Texas.

If you live near Harbor Freight (or the internet) you might pick up the set of wire tube brushes they sell. Running these through the hole in the blank a few times before you paint it will polish it a bit and get rid of the drill scratches that will show on the more transparent blanks. If you can see the hole at all through the side of the blank prior to turning, you will definitely want to get rid of those scratches. They will look terrible once you turn down to final thickness. Don't ask me how I know that :redface:

Harry
 
Also, there are quite a number of acrylic blanks available that don't require you to paint the tubes and blank. Normally the mail order dealers will advise you on their site which blanks should be painted, tubes, or both. And if you have questions, you can always ask before purchase. Because slimlines have so little material left when you've finished turning, I think the likelihood of seeing through the blank is substantially increased. Switching to another style of pen can help--but many of these translucent blanks will need paint no matter what style you choose.

Welcome to all the fun.
 
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