Fox3 8th July 2007, 03:29 PM Was kind of over the wasp-waist look on the slimlines and decided to try something without it. Overall I think it came out well.
The yellowheart was kind of plain so I smudged in some of the ebony dust with the shellawax to show the grain. Not at all sure I did good there.
The ebony front end worked out well for a first attempt. That stuff is HARD. The PSI trimmer mostly just spun on it no matter how hard I grunted (it seems to do that to some degree with almost anything, even after I sharpened it).
Overall I am pleased but less than impressed with the yellowheart.
Currently the top project:
http://wrlabs.shacknet.nu/~vw/MyMachineShop/ (http://wrlabs.shacknet.nu/%7Evw/MyMachineShop/)
I had been busy and a bit below the weather so it was nice to get back in the shop and play some!
Comments most welcome.
Thanks & take care, Vikki.
kruger 8th July 2007, 05:32 PM nice work.:oo:
the colors are well matched .
you have transformed the "slim" into a small "designer". personally I prefer the caps a little rounder.
I see that you have the same problem as me to prevent that the clear colors take dust of dark wood. :?
now I make last a very fine passage and I a layer of sanding sealer puts before making the completion of the black
when will you make a "slim" which turns to 3/4"of bottom? :D
good continuation
50193
lubbing5cherubs 8th July 2007, 06:13 PM Viki Nice job for your first segmenting..
Froggy can we see a side on shot of that pen it looks intriguing but I like to see the pen
bye
Toni
kruger 8th July 2007, 10:17 PM 50221
50222
50223
50224
hi, Toni,
your wishies are orders for me!!!!!!!!!:p
lubbing5cherubs 8th July 2007, 10:37 PM NIce Froggy very nice indeed
Toni
bdar 9th July 2007, 10:52 PM Vicki this is my opinion only but I think the Ebony dust detracts from the pen the lamination withe the Ebony is great but the black against the yellow would have made a better look. I like your design concept but try for a smoother transition between the 2 barrels for a better flow. The fit up of components to the barrels are great.
Darren
Fox3 10th July 2007, 03:48 AM Bdar: I had the yellowheart clean to begin with but it was just SO plain that I thought I'd try to enhance the grain. Still thinking on this and am not at all sure I did the right thing, perhaps the raw contrast would have been better.
As for the shape, I was just trying to do something creative, not sure I did the right thing there either :-.
Somehow I think I am going to either end up with a box of "dead" pens or spend some time disassembling them and turning the wood off the tubes.
Actually starting to wonder if I really do have what it takes to do this, but it is still fun to do the actual turning :-.
ScrollZilla 10th July 2007, 06:27 AM Vikki,
I love the way you styled that pen. I may have to give that style a go with your permission. As for the ebony/yellow heart contrast, I like it. I don't care to work with yellowheart that much because it is a little bland. If you were to cut it cross grain, you will be amazed when you polish it out, of course, it is a bit harder to turn.
As for you wondering if you have what it takes......trust me you do. I looked through your site at some of your pens. Very nice. You should have seen some of my early pens. Even now, mine get boring quick. You seem to have the creative eye for design, the willingness to try it, and you seem to enjoy it. What else do you need? lol.
In regards for your "dead pen box", you can look at it as a source of quick gifts. If you intend to start selling them, always carry an extra 2 or 3 around with you that you can use and show people what you do. Make sure you have business cards with you.
I know that if the missus and I are in a store and a clerk really looks taken with one, and we don't think they would ever be able to buy one, she is quick to give it to them. At that point, they are apt to decline the pen. She then gives them a card and says something to the affect "take the pen. Use it and show it off. If somebody likes it, you can tell them where to get one. You do that and we will call it even". They are always delighted. Worse case scenario is we made somebody's day by giving them a pen and maybe made them feel good. I can live with that any day.
Cheers,
Rick
Fox3 10th July 2007, 02:19 PM Vikki,
I love the way you styled that pen. I may have to give that style a go with your permission.
Thank you Sir!
By all means if you like it have a go at it! I'm not the entertainment mafia :rolleyes:.
As for the ebony/yellow heart contrast, I like it. I don't care to work with yellowheart that much because it is a little bland. If you were to cut it cross grain, you will be amazed when you polish it out, of course, it is a bit harder to turn.In retrospect, I think I would have been better to leave it alone. I have a "habit" that dark woods are the be all and end all for anything. That said, seeing some of the work on the forums here I am starting to seriously appreciate the various materials and colors.
For now all I have are the pen blanks and until I get someplace where I can get real wood and be able to make my own blanks I won't be doing too much fancy :(.
As for you wondering if you have what it takes......trust me you do. I looked through your site at some of your pens. Very nice. You should have seen some of my early pens. Even now, mine get boring quick. You seem to have the creative eye for design, the willingness to try it, and you seem to enjoy it. What else do you need? lol.Thanks for the encouragement / re-enforcement. I'd been thinking about that for the past couple days and I do enjoy it and have fun doing it and you are right, what else do I need :-)?
In regards for your "dead pen box", you can look at it as a source of quick gifts. If you intend to start selling them, always carry an extra 2 or 3 around with you that you can use and show people what you do. Make sure you have business cards with you.
I know that if the missus and I are in a store and a clerk really looks taken with one, and we don't think they would ever be able to buy one, she is quick to give it to them. At that point, they are apt to decline the pen. She then gives them a card and says something to the affect "take the pen. Use it and show it off. If somebody likes it, you can tell them where to get one. You do that and we will call it even". They are always delighted. Worse case scenario is we made somebody's day by giving them a pen and maybe made them feel good. I can live with that any day. What a truly wonderful and absolutely nice idea! Thanks VERY much for that insight Rick!
I figured I might start doing some kind of sales once I get a bit further along and out of the city (there is always the net :-) so my "dead pen box" turns out to be MUCH more than that :D :2tsup:.
More appreciated than you know!
Thanks & take care, Vikki.
bdar 10th July 2007, 09:30 PM Vicki I would not pull apart your first pens, they will be a reminder of where it all began and how far you have travelled in your pen crafting journey. I did just that and now I do regret it. If it wasn't for my Tasha there would not even be photos now, even though I grumble at her about taking them, I am glad she is holding that gun to my head to do it. :oo: Ow she hit me Vicki, lucky I don't bruise easily :U.
You have got talent Vicki, what you have shown so far, your machining experience is showing through. You have a good touch and I can say a very fine tool control. With the plain colours I like the pure form that they bring to simple straight lines for slimlines, like the Huon Pine pen I made.
Have you looked at what possibilities that you can come up with the milling machine that you have, could open up to some interresting experimenting.
Darren
Fox3 11th July 2007, 04:37 AM Vicki I would not pull apart your first pens, they will be a reminder of where it all began and how far you have travelled in your pen crafting journey. I did just that and now I do regret it. If it wasn't for my Tasha there would not even be photos now, even though I grumble at her about taking them, I am glad she is holding that gun to my head to do it. :oo: Ow she hit me Vicki, lucky I don't bruise easily :U.
Fortunately I still have a number of kits from the PSI starter kit and about a half dozen my roomie got for me, so it hasn't been a rush to disassemble them.
Between ScrollZilla's comment and yours, I won't be doing that. Gifts and marketing (I hate that word anymore, but I guess there are honest marketing strategies too (not that you see many of them commercially)). Those that don't go that way will remain as a reference to the path I have tread :).
I don't need anyone beating me up, I do that job quite well enough :D.
You have got talent Vicki, what you have shown so far, your machining experience is showing through. You have a good touch and I can say a very fine tool control. With the plain colours I like the pure form that they bring to simple straight lines for slimlines, like the Huon Pine pen I made.
Have you looked at what possibilities that you can come up with the milling machine that you have, could open up to some interresting experimenting.
DarrenThanks for the encouragement! Perhaps I do, just hard to think I am yet any good at this with 10 pens / pencils under my belt at this point and manually running the chisels. A lot different than cranking the dials on the metal lathe.
I've got a lot of ideas that I want to try but at this point I am suffering from lackatools and space, but that won't last forever :D. There are a lot of materials and tools I would like to have, but I will get them over time.
One thing I really want to do is CNC my little mill, LOTS of possibilities once that happens, but that is NOT going to be cheap.
On the pool cue traditional, I have some ideas for that which will take some time to get to. My roomie is into lapidary and some of her tools, like the facetor can be used for other purposes, I made up an adapter to a mandrel so I can use the faceting head as an indexer to do some interesting stuff in conjunction with the mill.
Gotta keep reminding myself that Rome wasn't built in a day :D!
Thanks & take care, Vikki.
soundman 11th July 2007, 10:28 AM It just occured to me that it would be handy to have a dummy assembly kit, for pen mechanisms I use regularly.
basicly a tip, and top that have been slightly relieved so that the just slip in and a slip fit dummy mandrel in place of the mech.
That way it would be possible to assemble a pen to see what it looked like without "commiting" a complete pen kit.
I've pulled a couple of pens apart & turned the timber off the tubes in the past & they are never the same.
Most of the serious pen suppliers have spare tubes that can be purchased quite reasonably.
Having a range of spare tubes is a very handy thing particularly with pen1's.
gett some longer ones of the same diameter too.
so you can then fiddle with the length & proportion of the pen or substitute tubes into key rings and other 7mm based stuff.
cheers
rodent 12th July 2007, 04:52 AM I've put two slits in the top of two different tube lengths so i can see how they look sound man. now Vikki you have a metal lathe why not mmm turn up your own center bands with matching bushes . Now as to the bands lets say you go too the scrap yard and get some pewter scraps .make a metal mold with a re moveable center pin to match the pen and cast your own bands .You can then trim them up on the wood lathe ( yes with sharp tool it will turn nicely on the wood lathe people .) just a thought .Ode for a metal lathe .
Fox3 12th July 2007, 05:17 AM It just occured to me that it would be handy to have a dummy assembly kit, for pen mechanisms I use regularly.
basicly a tip, and top that have been slightly relieved so that the just slip in and a slip fit dummy mandrel in place of the mech.
That way it would be possible to assemble a pen to see what it looked like without "commiting" a complete pen kit.
That makes a lot of sense! I made up a set of disassembly tools for the slimline pen and it takes some pounding to get it apart. It works but is less than optimal, good chance of shooting parts around the room unless you have a separate set of hands available.
I've pulled a couple of pens apart & turned the timber off the tubes in the past & they are never the same.
Most of the serious pen suppliers have spare tubes that can be purchased quite reasonably
Having a range of spare tubes is a very handy thing particularly with pen1's.
gett some longer ones of the same diameter too.
so you can then fiddle with the length & proportion of the pen or substitute tubes into key rings and other 7mm based stuff.
cheers
Did that once and after that spare tubes went on my list of stuff to get when $$$ free up for that very reason :).
Fox3 12th July 2007, 05:39 AM I've put two slits in the top of two different tube lengths so i can see how they look sound man. now Vikki you have a metal lathe why not mmm turn up your own center bands with matching bushes . Now as to the bands lets say you go too the scrap yard and get some pewter scraps .make a metal mold with a re moveable center pin to match the pen and cast your own bands .You can then trim them up on the wood lathe ( yes with sharp tool it will turn nicely on the wood lathe people .) just a thought .Ode for a metal lathe .
Working on stuff that small on the metal lathe will get you attention and make you VERY sure to be careful :)! I did another modified slimline and machined a cap out of ebony on the 7x12 and while it required some care to keep hands and tools out of the chuck it went well.
As for center bands, as long as I am living in a wooden apartment I am not going to get into casting. Started doing some brazing and that scared me off in very short order and didn't exactly make the der fuhrer, errr my landlord ecstatic either :rolleyes:.
Lots and lots of possibilities to explore here :2tsup:!
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