Ideas on how to turn a custom finial insert for the cap

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egnald

egnald

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Hi all, as a sidebar to my thread on blowing out a nice piece of ebony, I have a plan on what I am going to do to turn a custom finial, plug, cap insert for my Jr. series pen. This will be my first time, so any and all methods and techniques that you all use to turn these would I'm sure be very helpful in developing my procedure.

Since the bit of blank I have to start with is so short, I am planning on using a 1/2-inch plug cutter to reduce its size and make it round for turning. I am planning on gluing it to a little mandrel that I made up for turning. For the mandrel, I glued an old bushing to a short piece of drill rod that will fit into my M2 tapered mandrel holder. The face of the bushing and mandrel are flat and flush and the diameter is slightly undersized for the bit that is needed (about 0.41-inches in diameter). Then I will turn it down to size, round the top over, sand, finish, etc. before gluing it into the cap.

Am I on the right path or is there something more tried and true that I could or should be doing?

Regards,
Dave
 
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Chevron finials - BUT, start with a simple one - they are actually not that hard.

Nothing wrong with the method you described, but you may want to skip a few steps and simply glue your small piece to a sacrificial dowel and just start turning it to size (calipers are a must).

Have FUN! (Ask any questions).

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I was at work when Marla wanted to make a finial for a Jr pen she was making. She took one of my tenon cutters, cut a round length of wood and put it straight into a chuck and turned it. Brilliant as it never would have occurred to me to do it that way. I later got some Morse taper collets to hold the dowels while giving more knuckle room. So your method will work nicely but you could skip the bushing/drill rod and glue to some wood. A tenon cutter will make a 1 1/2" to 2" long dowel so you can turn several finials from the same piece of blank. Lots of ways to accomplish the same thing.
 
The one negative to turning a dowel is all you get is end grain. Unless you are using acrylics then it does not matter. Not what you want for a cap. As mentioned just glue to a scarificial piece and chuck it up and turning 101. Use calipers to get to size. This is the same way I make the replacement clip crystals.
 
I used the term dowel to mean drilling in any direction. Looks like I shouldn't have. Make the plug any direction to show the figure/grain the best.
 
crokett said:
that link goes to a sanding video. which was still useful, but not a custom finial.
Click to expand...
It just worked for me. If it doesn't link up, click on Mark Dreyer's name below the video at YouTube and select it out of Marks list of videos. It's there. An add will probably play before the actual video starts.
 
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