Bree
Member
Well I was tapped to do a pen making demo over at the WNY Woodturners #1 last night. I carted over a ton of pen making equipment and got set up. Had to use the Maryvale school's big VS Jet lathe which was a little out of alignment but I am adaptable.
Before the demo we had Show and Tell which I turned into Smell and Tell. I brought 10 Jack Daniels Distillery blanks still soaked in Jack Daniels Whiskey. They were in a plastic bag. The oak barrel stave blanks are all covered on the outside with carbon from being flamed. Anyhoo... the guys all had a GREAT time smelling the Jack. That was one of the highlights of the evening. Who would think that these old charred pieces of white oak could make such a splash! LOL!
The demo was lil ole me making a Black Titanium Cigar pen out of Figured Asian Satinwood. The blank in the raw state was pretty boring which is what I wanted. I was hoping to turn something ordinary into something extraordinary.
I cheated a little and drilled the blank before I came. I didn't trust the accuracy of their drill press so I pre-drilled. But I did go through the things to watch out for in the drilling and gave some tips on drilling, milling, and glueing in the tubes. Actually I was talking like a chatterbox for the entire demo about this and that aspect of my pen making.
I broke down the blank to cylinder but I only did half with a roughing gouge. The other half I did with a Bedan and I showed how the Bedan cuts like a skew and leaves a wonderfully fine surface. I showed a bit of how it is an outstanding bead turning tool and could easily be used to do the entire pen.
But I really wanted to use my Lacer skew, so I switched from the Bedan to the Lacer and got to work turning. I showed how I taper the cigar in both directions and get the shape that I want. I had an undersized blank so the cigar I turned was relatively thin compared to others that I do. It also took less time. I only had 45 mins allotted for the demo.
I let everyone come up and touch the blank at various stages. There were several people who were very curious and touchy feely. I think they liked being able to get hands on.
The sanding was demo'ed... very light to be sure and making sure to stop and cross sand the radial scratches. Went from 150 to 600 grit and then showed the MM-12000. I was surprised that a good many of the people were not familiar with this ultra fine grit material. I pointed out the differences between the sandpaper, MicroMesh, and the buffer abrasives showing how they are different from one another even at the same grit and compliment each other.
I also showed my little fast drying tung oil concoction and showed its application and super heating to dry it faster. It quite predictably took a dead nondescript piece of wood and popped the curl right out of the ballpark. The buffer really got the wood looking good and ready for CA.
Many of them thought it was done at the buffer. I said that the finishing was just starting. The wood under the finish had to look perfect since the finish would be like glass showing eveything underneath. I started by showing them how I wax the bushings to prevent glueing them together or to the blank.
I did my three layer CA/BLO finish for them. I do heavy applications that are thick and smooth. I do them one tube at a time/ I do not sand in between because they don't need it. The BLO coupled with jumping the lathe speed to 2,000 RPMs and applying a lot of gentle pressure, motion, and heat make the CA as smooth as a baby's butt. Once we reached the third layer, the thing looks like glass.
They were surprised when I took the red MM and took the glass-like finish off. But as I went through the grits to 12,000 it reappeared and once the buffer did its work it was really nice. Before going to buff, I showed how the waxing had worked perfectly as none of the bushings had stuck to anything else. The Ren waxing was the final step and I passed the mandrel around to everyone to see how the wood looked and felt.
I assembled the parts using my home made pen press. Several guys liked that thing and asked some questions about it. I showed how easy it is to align the grain and answered questions about the cigar kit components. Then the completed pen was handed over to the crowd for inspection. It took just over an hour. Several of the guys wanted to shake my hand and I was very proud that things worked out well. Here is the pen.
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
Before the demo we had Show and Tell which I turned into Smell and Tell. I brought 10 Jack Daniels Distillery blanks still soaked in Jack Daniels Whiskey. They were in a plastic bag. The oak barrel stave blanks are all covered on the outside with carbon from being flamed. Anyhoo... the guys all had a GREAT time smelling the Jack. That was one of the highlights of the evening. Who would think that these old charred pieces of white oak could make such a splash! LOL!
The demo was lil ole me making a Black Titanium Cigar pen out of Figured Asian Satinwood. The blank in the raw state was pretty boring which is what I wanted. I was hoping to turn something ordinary into something extraordinary.
I cheated a little and drilled the blank before I came. I didn't trust the accuracy of their drill press so I pre-drilled. But I did go through the things to watch out for in the drilling and gave some tips on drilling, milling, and glueing in the tubes. Actually I was talking like a chatterbox for the entire demo about this and that aspect of my pen making.
I broke down the blank to cylinder but I only did half with a roughing gouge. The other half I did with a Bedan and I showed how the Bedan cuts like a skew and leaves a wonderfully fine surface. I showed a bit of how it is an outstanding bead turning tool and could easily be used to do the entire pen.
But I really wanted to use my Lacer skew, so I switched from the Bedan to the Lacer and got to work turning. I showed how I taper the cigar in both directions and get the shape that I want. I had an undersized blank so the cigar I turned was relatively thin compared to others that I do. It also took less time. I only had 45 mins allotted for the demo.
I let everyone come up and touch the blank at various stages. There were several people who were very curious and touchy feely. I think they liked being able to get hands on.
The sanding was demo'ed... very light to be sure and making sure to stop and cross sand the radial scratches. Went from 150 to 600 grit and then showed the MM-12000. I was surprised that a good many of the people were not familiar with this ultra fine grit material. I pointed out the differences between the sandpaper, MicroMesh, and the buffer abrasives showing how they are different from one another even at the same grit and compliment each other.
I also showed my little fast drying tung oil concoction and showed its application and super heating to dry it faster. It quite predictably took a dead nondescript piece of wood and popped the curl right out of the ballpark. The buffer really got the wood looking good and ready for CA.
Many of them thought it was done at the buffer. I said that the finishing was just starting. The wood under the finish had to look perfect since the finish would be like glass showing eveything underneath. I started by showing them how I wax the bushings to prevent glueing them together or to the blank.
I did my three layer CA/BLO finish for them. I do heavy applications that are thick and smooth. I do them one tube at a time/ I do not sand in between because they don't need it. The BLO coupled with jumping the lathe speed to 2,000 RPMs and applying a lot of gentle pressure, motion, and heat make the CA as smooth as a baby's butt. Once we reached the third layer, the thing looks like glass.
They were surprised when I took the red MM and took the glass-like finish off. But as I went through the grits to 12,000 it reappeared and once the buffer did its work it was really nice. Before going to buff, I showed how the waxing had worked perfectly as none of the bushings had stuck to anything else. The Ren waxing was the final step and I passed the mandrel around to everyone to see how the wood looked and felt.
I assembled the parts using my home made pen press. Several guys liked that thing and asked some questions about it. I showed how easy it is to align the grain and answered questions about the cigar kit components. Then the completed pen was handed over to the crowd for inspection. It took just over an hour. Several of the guys wanted to shake my hand and I was very proud that things worked out well. Here is the pen.
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
