I got it from Ainsworth Dental Company see here
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I got it from Ainsworth Dental Company see here
I only use poly glue. To get residue out of tube I use a 5mm drill in my Drill press and carefully remove it. To ensure I only take glue out I use a spare mandrel rod to check.
Hi Islander,
I use PVC for my pen tubes... at least that's what I think it is... had some stuff given to me, the pvc is in an unlabelled bottle.
I started turning pens about 18 months ago, no one has complained! Actually, I receive a really good rap from someone in the UK! So I'll keep turning pens and other stuff.
If anyone has had any bad experiences with pvc not holding tubes in the pen blanks, please let me know. :)
Cheers,
BB
I use GPW 15 min epoxy for all pens, the only failures I had (early on) were me rushing and not making sure there was plenty of glue in and on the barrel, I now use a cotton bud to coat the inside of the blank and put more on the tube twisting as it goes in, and use blue tac in the end of the tubes and pick it out when dry. Even though I use 15 min epoxy I never turn till the next day to make sure of full cure, and I have not lost one blank since using this method. I also sand & wipe clean the tubes prior to glue up.
Hey Everyone,
A very wise man from the GC wood-turners showed me a great way to clean out the brass tubes after glue has dried, with the 7mm slimline pens any way, he has a 1/4 inch drill bit with a steel rod welded to make a "t" shape handle and you just twist it by hand to help "drill" the glue out, I'm sure you could find a drill bit that fits as snugly as the 1/4 does in the other sized brass tubes,
Hope that helps
Cheers Ben
A word of caution here ! the bore size of a 7mm pen is not a 1/4 " if you ream it to a 1/4 " chances are your fittings will not be tight enough causing problems down the track ,the rod that is used for turning these is also not a 1/4 " but a couple of thousandths of an inch less than a 1/4" . I would think the drill in question is a well worn one and therefore reams the whole without making it oversize ,easily checked by trying a fairly new 1/4 drill in a 7 mm tube :) cheers ~ John
Good point
I have an older slightly used 1/4" and it seems to fit ok. I am buying a brand new one on the w/e. I think if it is done by hand and slowly that should help stop the shaving off the inside of the tube, I would never use a drill for this job though,
I am fairly new to turning pens so what I say might be wrong, that's why we are all here I guess, to learn from one another
Hi Ben. Amongst my little armory is a 6.3mm chainsaw file. Cost about $8 at Bunnies and they come in a range of diameters. I don't use it too vigorously as it can do more damage than good if you aren't thinking. But it is useful for clearing a path if you've totally blocked a tube and flicking off not-so-stuck bits.
Better still is stopping glue from entering tubes in the first place.
(btw I think we met at GC Woodturners on Monday nights.)
I'm not a high end pen turner but I have made a lot of std 7mm slimline pens, tried CA for a very short while, too brittle & not happy, now always use 24hr Araldite epoxy. I have used polyurethane on a lot of my laminated bowl & spin top blanks but find it is very abrasive on tools, not that much of an issue on pens unless you do celtic knot blanks etc.
No fails with 24hr epoxy. Its very easy to clean up excess epoxy in the barrels if you use cheap cotton buds & metholated spirits.
this is just me, I use ca both thin but manly gel sand the tube first push it about 5mm into a potatoe and beak it out any xtra glue dosnt go into the tube and the spud pushes out easy the main thing you may be having trouble with is the way you drill and the size of the bit i use a 6.9 hsp drill bitt
Chears Ian
Hello everyone, newie here so please be kind lol I did turn a few pens many years ago but life got busy and havnt done it for many years. We are now retired and I am hoping to get some time to get back doing pens in the next few weeks. From memory the way I used to do it was glueing the tubes with super glue but I used to stick the tubes in a potato so the glue wouldn't get inside the tubes. What are your thoughts?