Where do I go for Pen Turner's Anon meetings?

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Skie_M

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Lawton, Ok
Hi, my name is Greg, and I'm addicted to turning pens on the lathe.


I guess that's enough about me. :)



Or not .... ok, nobody else is talkin ....




Alright ... I got my lathe in April of 2015. It's a Harbor Freight Tools Mini Wood Lathe, with an 8 inch swing and a 12 inch bed. Ever since then, I've been obsessed with making beautiful things. Bowls, Pens, Keychains, ect ... it doesn't end!

My living room floor is now covered in wood chips and sawdust. I think I need a workshop.


I turned my first pen back in June, and it seems like I just can't stop.

Slimline, Comfort, Trimline, Designer ... then it hit me... I got my hands on a Deer Antler and the Deer Hunter 30 cal bolt action kit from PSI. I've made 5 of those now, and still have plans for more!

Next thing I knew, I was getting requests for Breast Cancer Awareness pens in pretty pink colors, and Comfort pens with gold crosses made from Bethlehem Olivewood. My house smells like an Italian restaurant, and I'm half Korean!

I'm going through superglue faster than the crazy homeless man on the corner, and he snorts whole bottles of the stuff every chance he gets...

Can anybody tell me .... does the madness ever end?





Why am I talking to an empty room? :bulgy-eyes:
 
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I do not understand the question, what madness?

Do you mean the madness to invest hundreds of dollars, hundreds of hours and never seeing your family to make pens?

Or, do you mean to make pens in a world being taken over by computers, phones and wrist radios?

I have a shoebox full of pen kits I have plans for, and a tub of blanks I was sure I needed.
 
Madness? Financial Nightmare? NO!!!! NO!!!! We have a twelve step program to help you, the first step is.....................Oh hell forget it every body who ever made the mistake of turning that first slim line has become a raven PENAHOLIC, next thing you know you'll want to try segmenting, than stabilizing, next comes the shakes as you venture into casting, in your sleep your wife will swear you were calling someone named Kit or Kitless, yes your on the road to becoming the next PENAHOLIC, so the next time you make a trip up to the Oklahoma City area come on by our little shop in Shawnee and see what a full blown PENAHOLIC looks like, the coffees always on and we accept credit cards. Hee,Hee said the spider to the fly.
 
I figured that my first pen cost me about $3,000. Therefore, I keep making more in hopes that the unit cost will eventually get down to $2.00-$3.00 each. But its a fun ride and I don't dwell on the cost anymore. I just go with the flow and try to learn more and expand my knowledge. The wife says that at least I'm off the streets and she always knows where to find me.
_____________________________
Turncrazy 43 Georgia
 
Is it also bad that I clean my lathe and work table regularly and sweep the wood shavings into gallon ziplock storage baggies?

I dunno if it's a good idea or not, but I do have a smoker .... and I get my own Northern Texas Mesquite wood from the field.... Been thinking about cutting it with some maple, bethlehem olivewood, or hickory sometime and running it through my smoker. :)


The stuff all over the floor is what misses the table or is mixed in with something else or has superglue stuck to it. Good thing my feet are pretty tough, though I occasionally get a splinter. You won't find me making any videos .... I usually turn sans pants, lol! No pants, no socks, no sandals.

And down here in southern OK, it's sometimes 100 degrees in my house WITH THE AC ON.


I still need to get around to building my photo studio, and finding a decent quality camera to work with. For now, here's some old pics of my first few pens...


8SiRLbg.jpg

top: My very first pen. Satin Slimline in American Walnut
middle: My fourth pen. Satin Designer in Cocobolo
bottom: My seventh pen. Gunmetal Trimline in Massaccar Ebony (bright light really makes it pop!)

5KKbdZs.jpg

This one's still on the lathe .... that's real turquoise stone inlay! I don't have a pic of the finished pen, because I gave it to my sister right after I finished it. My eighth pen... 24kt Gold Comfort with Gold Cross clip in Cocobolo with Turquoise Inlay.

ITYGYB0.jpg

My ninth pen. Satin Comfort in Purpleheart with Sodalite stone inlay (I picked a nice purple looking rock).
 
Quick shot of my first lathe ....

9Zg2b4Z.jpg


Yes ... those are zip ties on the tailstock being tensioned by corn dog sticks. :)

Solid oak construction, the centers are reasonably close enough for government work, but the tailstock end is a dead center so I gotta keep the speed down. Haven't turned any pens on it yet, need to figure a mandrel setup for it, but I'm all for doin it for that newbie pen turning competition thingamaflutter....


Far left, you can see my 2 step pulleys. I have a vacumn cleaner motor that I was going to mount to the rear and run 3 stepped pulleys there for multiple speed controls, but my headstock turned out to be just a bit too short.

Bearings being used are stainless steel slip bearings. They have a light coat of Pro-Long on them for abrasion resistance, and the spindle is a T6 steel bolt, threaded at both ends.

The pulleys are pressed together by "nuts" that I improvised out of screw-in furniture attachments with internal threads, and fender washers. More fender washers on either side of the headstock prevent those improvised nuts from eating into the wood while it spins.

The spur you see is improvised from a metal standoff (low grade stainless steel, I believe) from a set of buffing wheels. (In fact, those same buffing wheels that are supposed to be mounted on it are instead mounted on my disc sander...)

Wood screws pull the body of the headstock and tailstock together, while carriage bolts secure the lathe to the base board. The tool rest was never completed, but it's means of attachment will be similar to the tailstock, and clamped to the baseboard in position with a c-clamp to the worktable surface from underneath the baseboard.

The dead center in the tailstock was drilled at the same time as the headstock while they were clamped together, to get as close to dead-on center as I could. The nut was then countersunk (drilled and epoxied in) from the back side, and a piece of allthread with the end ground to a point was put through the hole in the tailstock to form the dead center point. A nut was added to the front in order for me to be able to lock the tailstock in position as well as prevent the nut in the back from being pressed out with pressure applied against the center while I'm working. A small handle was turned from available hardwood (random large dowel ... probably ash or poplar).

So ... there you have it. Nobody has an excuse for not having a semi-functional lathe. If someone really wants to, they can make one very similar to mine, and even incorporate some other design changes and improvements, like turning it into a treadle (foot powered) lathe, or adding a speed control motor with a dial to control the lathe speed, or possibly putting a thrust bearing into that tailstock and making it a live center...

If it weren't for my taxes coming in a little earlier than I expected and being a little more than I expected, I'ld not have had the money to go out and get my Harbor Freight Mini Wood Lathe this past April, and I'ld probably have finished this thing and put it to real use. So, for now, it's still a project in progress for a rainy day.


(I have used it on a few occasions to turn small things, like the handle for the tailstock screw ... I just chucked the spindle in my cordless drill and zip-tied the trigger on for a few minutes...)




So, there you have it .... proof that this guy here has more than a few screws loose. :)
 
STOP!

THIS IS NOT AN ADDICTION... IT IS THERAPY FOR ANOTHER ADDICTION:

Gambling... Thirty bucks in a blank, it better hold together!

Sex.. Straw was bad enough, but wood chips, she drew the line!

Internet .. This site does not help. What kind of wood was that?

Shopping.. Never mind.

Video Game.. HA. thumbs are busy holding that darn skew or what ever it is called.

Plastic Surgery.. use a push stick and keep the long sleeves away from the headstock.

Food.. if I can just find the cashews in the wood chips.. the dentist is going to kill me.

Risky Behavior.. never mind
 
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I am not addicted. I am NOT. I can quite anytime I want. ANYTIME I WANT.
I know, I know, and some people in my house hold have said that I live in a river in Egypt. Has any one else ever been told that ?
What river you ask. Da Nile.
And, I am sure I can stop this when ever I want to. I just don't want to, right?
Oh, look, a deal on some old oak boards, honey can I get them.....
 
I know I am not addicted. Oh just because I reek of CA fumes, 5 minute epoxy, Cactus Juice, and have a rainbow of colors of resin drops on my jeans everyone thinks I am obsessed. Just because I turned a bedroom into a wood shop doesn't mean anything except I am practical. Kids gone, use the space. Wife has 2 more bedrooms for guests. The initial cost was a bit of a stretch but sales finance the operation now, sorta, kinda. Well, OK, I spend more that I sell, but its picking up and will pay for itself soon, really. Denial is not just a river in Africa.
 
Don't Panic!

You can always give it to (wife, girlfriend, family member, someone in the hospital) as a gift when you're done .... and then maybe they'll get off your back for a bit so you can make 5 or 6 more they don't need to know about ...
 
BIG tree along side the road

There was BIG tree along side the road.... chainsaw in the back, wife next to me ..... chopped up tree in the back , chainsaw somewhere, in the back (I hope) .... wife...... darn, new I left something(one) back at that last curve, passenger door want stay closed.:rolleyes:
 
OK, YOU'all are BUSTED.

You cannot join the Pen Turner's Anonymous Meeting!

If you do then you are not ANONYMOUS anymore!

P.S. This is a public thread.
 
hcpens said:
OK, YOU'all are BUSTED.

You cannot join the Pen Turner's Anonymous Meeting!

If you do then you are not ANONYMOUS anymore!

P.S. This is a public thread.
Click to expand...




And so we have a fine example of someone who is in such denial that he thinks it's a river in Madagascar.... (the movie, yo!)


But that's OK ... we'll all hoist a pint (of something or other ...... me, I'll take a glass of my home made meade), and give a toast to our latest greatest member!
 
I wonder....years ago when I was a drunk we used to say the difference between an alcoholic was " Us drunks don't have to go to meetings".

Do we have anything comparable we could apply here????
 
Hi my name is Chris and i am addicted to making pens and storing inappropriately small offcuts.

It started with blanks then I moved on to kits. Before I realised what was happening I got into balllpoints. I find i'm never satisfied and I keep having to change the shapes to get the same buzz. If I don't get help soon I just know i'm going to move on to rollers and fountains and then i'm in real trouble. To my eternal shame I've even made my own jigs. When I can't afford pens I have to make keyrings and it makes me feel dirty.

I don't know what direction to turn. I spend all of my money on wood, kits, tools, finishes, books, shows, internet sites. I then have to sell blanks, pens, tealights and mushrooms to buy more. I admit it i'm a user dealer. Some would call me a pusher after watching me sell to vendors.

I always have ca glue on my nails and smell of canubra wax so its difficult to hide.

I had to quit my job to immerse myself in the lifestyle. My lathe is my best friend and my skew just encourages me to more excess.

Can anyone help?
 
Tell me again, how small is inappropriately small?

I have the habit of saving offcuts that are only 6mm square, for making tie tacks.

I also make wine bottle stoppers, miniature baseball bats, and alabaster stone pens, vases, keychains, and beads.

Trust me, kid, you ain't there yet, but welcome to the club. :)
 
OKLAHOMAN said:
Madness? Financial Nightmare? NO!!!! NO!!!! We have a twelve step program to help you, the first step is.....................Oh hell forget it every body who ever made the mistake of turning that first slim line has become a raven PENAHOLIC, next thing you know you'll want to try segmenting, than stabilizing, next comes the shakes as you venture into casting, in your sleep your wife will swear you were calling someone named Kit or Kitless, yes your on the road to becoming the next PENAHOLIC, so the next time you make a trip up to the Oklahoma City area come on by our little shop in Shawnee and see what a full blown PENAHOLIC looks like, the coffees always on and we accept credit cards. Hee,Hee said the spider to the fly.
Click to expand...
I'm hooked as well and just north of OKC (Edmond). Seems like those of us in OK should get together and do some turning!
RossVH
 
This forum is a support group. We're all here to help you optimally wax your skis, best method of binding said skis, and offer a gentle nudge to help you get down that slippery slope in the most efficient way possible. :biggrin:
 
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I hope not, I don't think I can afford 12 of these things ...


Found out that I'm getting sensitive to Cocobolo (Mexican Rosewood)... 2 weeks ago I bought a 15 lb medium flat rate box of Cocobolo slabs and pen blanks. I think I'm a lost cause ....
 
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