My new metal lathe and project

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J

jj9ball

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Joined
Dec 23, 2008
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140
Location
Norfolk, NE
Hi all,
I've never really spoke up before... in fact this is my first post. I've been reading all the great tips and I kinda feel guilty for never speaking up about anything. So here is a picture of my new lathe. Its a grizzly 12x36. The non gunsmith version. I was looking at the pm 11x27 with the 1 1/2 inch bore, but I needed to be able to take a 29 inch pass. I bought the lathe with the intention of starting to mess around building pool cues. Now that I've used it for pens I don't even really feel like making cues. Pens are much funner than I thought they would be. The pen attached to this is my first kitless attempt. I'm a little embarrassed to say that it took me almost 6 hours. Someone please tell me they don't normally take that long!!! I just wanted to thank everyone for all of the great posts. I am amazed at how helpful it is to read what everyone else is doing. Who knows, without all of your help this pen might have taken me 8 or 9 hours. I welcome any comments.
 

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You did your 1st kitless in only 6 hours?:eek: . . . . . . . With a clip too?!?!?

Now I'm embarrassed.:redface:

I don't have a metal lathe, but I came here just to buy wood for making gun grips. You know, I haven't made a set of grips in over a year. Yep, pens are more fun.
 
Nice to see you come out of the shadows. I have the gunsmith version :wink: so know your lathe will serve you well.

My first didn't have a clip and it took at least as long if not more than yours did plus there were fewer tutorials to help with the learning curves. Well done.

 
Nice blank, It can take up to a week to make a pen when Im doing an "as built". Meaning I designed it as I built it.
 
Curly said:
Nice to see you come out of the shadows. I have the gunsmith version :wink: so know your lathe will serve you well.

My first didn't have a clip and it took at least as long if not more than yours did plus there were fewer tutorials to help with the learning curves. Well done.
Click to expand...

I really wanted the gunsmith version but it was on backorder for 3 months at first... then six months... and to my knowledge still isn't available. I gave up the 2 or 3 extra options for a couple hundred bucks and the chance to use the lathe instead of waiting for it to come in.
 
BSea said:
You did your 1st kitless in only 6 hours?:eek: . . . . . . . With a clip too?!?!?

Now I'm embarrassed.:redface:

I don't have a metal lathe, but I came here just to buy wood for making gun grips. You know, I haven't made a set of grips in over a year. Yep, pens are more fun.
Click to expand...

It did only take six hours, but I left out the 3 or 4 hours that it took to make a few different mandrels and pins that I used to hold the pen on my wood lathe for final turning and polishing. Also I had about 2 or 3 hours of messing around and destroying some acrylic trying to figure out how to cut threads and other experiments. If you add all that together this pen could have more like 10 or 12 hours in it... even more embarrassing.
 
ironman123 said:
Good lathe choice, good looking blank and great first kitless.:good:

Ray
Click to expand...

Thanks I'm looking forward to more projects to come. I'm hoping to pick up some more tips about making pens on the metal lathe. It seems there are about 50 different ways to do everything.
 
NO WAY should you be embarrassed by the amount of time the pen took! Do you think Rembrandt just popped out a masterpiece in first grade? All of these skills LOOK easy when someone else does them. Only when you attempt them yourself do you understand what went into the production of a kitless pen. Those parts you made will serve you well for pen after pen. I love the pen you made. I looked at that blank and wondered how it would look on a pen. It is incredible! Now I will have to buy a few of them. Thanks for posting this fine effort.
 
Welcome! That's really nice lathe and pen. Yes, it takes that long, and when you start adding bands to the cap, and bands on body finials, and custom end pieces with threads on them, it can take a little longer :biggrin: MOST of the time, it's worth it :wink:
 
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