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  1. #1
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    Default May....be prepared

    SPOILER I have three on the go as we speak,glued up ready to turn tomorrow on the first. Our 5th born turns 57 on the 1st ie tomorrow. Ides of March were kind to this forum,now for the merry month of MAY.

    Peter.
    Nil Desperandum

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  3. #2
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    Apr 2006
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    near Mackay
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    Default

    Good stuff Peter. I have a couple in the plans for May.
    It also looks like I might have a commission from the US as well ( if he doesn't go with one of the pens I have in stock already ) hopefully I can add that one to my May tally.
    ​Brad.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Warragul Vic
    Posts
    1,093

    Default

    I look forward to seeing some lovely pens and beautiful & unusual woods from you both
    .... and hoping others will join the May challenge

    Euge

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
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    Launceston, Tasmania
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    33
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    62

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    I will be joining! Finally got everything sorted for my lathe, the fun of shop built lathes . Still have to pick up a special nut my brother made for me and I'm good to go. Have 2 kits and my choices of timber are Blackwood, Huon Pine, Celery Top, Jatoba, Angelim Pedra and a couple others i'm not entirely sure of.

  6. #5
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by pkroeze View Post
    I will be joining! Finally got everything sorted for my lathe, the fun of shop built lathes . Still have to pick up a special nut my brother made for me and I'm good to go. Have 2 kits and my choices of timber are Blackwood, Huon Pine, Celery Top, Jatoba, Angelim Pedra and a couple others i'm not entirely sure of.
    Looking forward to seeing your results PK.
    ​Brad.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    NSW
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    Default

    Here is one for the first day of May. Bucking the trend of exotic timbers, this is from an unknown chunk of firewood. IMG_20190501_141121.jpg
    IMG_20190429_100044.jpg

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Caringbah, NSW
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    81
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    385

    Default

    Just proves you don't need exotic timber to produce an exotic pen - well done. And the May challenge is up and running!

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Location
    Launceston, Tasmania
    Age
    33
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    62

    Default

    IMG_20190501_193444.jpg

    AHHHHHH!!!! Mistakes were made. This was my first attempt at making a pen, I cut the blanks too long so after I turned them I trimmed the blanks and then put them back on the mandrel to clean them up but I must have tightened the nut on the end too far, which pushed the timber over the bushing. Oh well plenty more timber and I managed to salvage the barrel so in the end I still learnt something and didn't lose anything except a bit of time. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

  10. #9
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    Put it down to the learning experience PK. We have all made rookie mistakes.
    If you have any questions, just ask.
    If you haven’t watched them already, David at Timberbits has a number of penturning videos you can watch if you go to the Timberbits site.
    ​Brad.

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Leopold, Victoria
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    65
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    Default

    I was looking on David's site and couldn't see his links to the videos anymore but found them right down the bottom under "About us" and titled "Our videos"
    If you watch these you will see that you need to trim the blanks off flush with the tube before you mount them on the mandrel. That way the tube takes all the load of the bushings pushing up against them.
    We have all made mistakes as Brad says, just we all seem to make different ones. Good to see you admit to a mistake so that everyone learns.
    Dallas

  12. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
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    near Mackay
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    Here is my first pen for May. Not sure where this kit came from, its been in the drawer for quite a few years.
    The timber is cut from a block that my mate gave me about 20 years ago. It was from a dead tree in his garden that he cut down. When I cut some the other day it smells like Inland Rosewood, it doesn't look like it though.
    I just call it Morgan Gum, named after my mate who gave it to me.
    DSC_9706.jpg

    DSC_9708.jpg

    DSC_9713.jpg
    ​Brad.

  13. #12
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
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    Warragul Vic
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    Very beautiful wood, turning & finishing Brett. You have set the bar very high with that entry!

  14. #13
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    Sep 2006
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    All that glitters is Gold mate.

    Peter.
    Nil Desperandum

  15. #14
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Location
    Launceston, Tasmania
    Age
    33
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    Default

    Wow nice pen Ironwood.

    If you watch these you will see that you need to trim the blanks off flush with the tube before you mount them on the mandrel.
    Thanks Treecycle. I had watched a video on youtube and the guy said to trim them slightly longer but I won't be doing that anymore. Anyway I finished my first pen on Friday, I like it but it has some obvious flaws and boy did I have some issues with it.

    IMG_20190503_135203.jpg

    I didn't get any instructions with this and none of the instructions I found online addressed the issue I had... maybe because what I did was slightly dim (read very dim ).
    So after I finished the barrels I inserted the nib into the front barrel and the clip into the back barrel then the silliness began. I grabbed the twist mechanism and inserted it in the front barrel, then I thought about how far it needed to go, realising that it supports the centre band I made the decision that it must stick out the width of the band and promptly pushed it most of the way into the barrel.
    I threw the band on, put the cartridge inside and "fireworks". The cartridge stuck out the nib about 15mm and the back barrel had no way of joining the party.

    Now I don't have a pen disassembler so to take the nib out I had to use pliers which obviously wrecked the nib and then to get the twist mechanism out was an exercise in futility. I tried bashing it out with a nail; pulling it out with plyers; WD40. Finally I drilled it out, which wasn't simple either as I didn't have a drill bit the exact size of the barrel. My frustration levels were very high at this point as I had wasted a lot of time on this mistake, sadly for me it didn't end there. I had to use my second pen kit to finish the first now so I went to put the nib back in and somehow all the bashing and pulling and drilling had crimped the barrel, the nib would not go in. So now I had to open the end up again. Seriously, even when the nib was fully seated it still wanted to point off to the side, nothing like the first time I put it in. Anyway after I sorted it out everything else went smoothly.

    As for the pen, I didn't know how close to go to the bushings so the barrels are almost 1mm larger than they should be. The finish isn't amazing, it was my first time trying a CA finish and I only had the cheapest supermarket superglue on hand and no activator, which I understand gives a better gloss finish. I also should have spent more time sanding it. Aside from all that I can't wait to turn another.

  16. #15
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Warragul Vic
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Ironwood View Post
    .....
    The timber is cut from a block that my mate gave me about 20 years ago. It was from a dead tree in his garden that he cut down.
    When I cut some the other day it smells like Inland Rosewood, it doesn't look like it though.
    I just call it Morgan Gum, named after my mate who gave it to me.
    Comment on the wood: Rose (floral) smelling wood is a characteristic of drier region Acacias. I have not noticed any odour in "Inland Rosewood" - do you mean Alectryon spp? Or, do you mean Acacia rhodoxylon, a species with a very dark wood, dark short scaly bark, and where the species name means "rose-smelling wood"?

    To me it looks like it could be wood from another wattle. If your mate was from near Mt Morgan it may be wood from a Mt Morgan Wattle. I have never see heartwood from this species. So its just a possibility only with another link to your mate.

    Acacia podalyriifolia (Mt Morgan Wattle, Queensland Silver Wattle)

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