Thread: Berea Baron Kits & Pen Sizes

Dave

Not sure what to tell you but is it possible you have runout on your drill press or the bit has a wobble in it that caused the hole to be enlarged. I have learned from my very first pen to use calipers to check everything from now on. Too many different tubes and penkits from different companies. Bushings are even a pain in the neck with all their sizes. Good luck and let us know how you make out.

Thanks for your response.

I thought of runout too at first. Bit the calipers said the tube's 11.6, and the 11.5 drill bit *almost* got wedged in...

I thought that maybe I just got a dud batch of tubes, but then the pen wouldn't fit together.

Maybe I just stuffed up drilling that one hole somehow. Stranger things have happened

I might do some experimenting tonight - measuring the holes/bits/etc to see what comes up.

Cheers,
Dave

Because polyurethane expands to fill the gaps between wood and brass it probably is the best to use, I use a polyurethane glue and it comes out the ends as well hehe. But drills and wood do funny things ,sometimes the wood expands while drilling ,and later the same drill won't fit back in. I recently had trouble with a cambridge kit that using the right drills left .024 " wall thickness on the blank ! It broke when sanding. Next one I drilled size for size and pressed the brass sleeve in no glue at all , worked fine and gave me a bit more meat to play with.So by sanding with a dowel is not a bad idea to get a bit of clearance for glue . I figured with a fitting pressed into each end the tube would go no where ,but in the end its what you find to work for you, as with all of us

I know this isn't the answer you want, but really, any drill but under 1/2" in size, you should just bite the bullet and get an imperial version. They're easy to find, with Supercheap Auto being my cheapest source at an average $15 each.

Ove 1/2" is more difficult, instead of pen sizes, and the price doubles, but even then, in the long run, you should get them in the right sizes too (says he trying to substitute a 13mm bit for 33/64").

For glue, I always go with PU for wood, due to the gap filling properties, but epoxsy should work just as well for a close enough fit. I would say .3mm is just as bad as .4.

Russell.

Hi Russell,

I'm dead happy to buy the imperial kit - the right tool does twice as good a job in half the time... The only concern I had with it is that it's only 0.1mm smaller than the 12mm drill, and still 0.3mm bigger than the tubes, which makes me think there'll still be a decent gap. There's a half decent kit at Hare & Forbes which does 1/16 - 1/2 in 1/64 increments for about $45 or a nicer one for $80 (both HSS), which wouldn't be too bad for the use I'll give it.

So I'll grab the imperial drill and stick to the PU and see how that goes... It's only money

Thanks for your help,
Dave

I am pretty sure I got my 25/64 from Bunnings, if it wasn't then I got it from Fisher Discounts which is a specialty tool shop. Don't think I paid more than $20 for it.

Here are the promised photos of the pen. Not 100% happy with them (the focus on the second photo is off, but I like the reflection).

You can see the bit I stuffed when I dropped the pen just near the nib end of the handle in the open photo. I have also ended up with small black likes at the ends of the tubes - it is way more obvious in the photos than in real life, but I'm not sure what's caused them. Could it be sand paper hitting the bushings and putting metal filings into the wood???

The timber isn't a burl, but I quite like the look of the rosewood.
Anyway, my first effort of a Baron, and I'm reasonably happy with it...

Cheers,
Dave

The wood is a really nice colour. The focus is off in all the photo's I'm afraid, or I need new glasses worse than I thought. What camera are you using? I can't see the mistake you said you made either.

You got it with the black mark on the ends, it filings from sanding the bushings. I made some Polypropylene bushes to replace the metal ones when it comes time to sand. Others have other ways around it, but that's the simplest and best for me currently.

Not bad effort from what I can see.

Russell.

The pen looks pretty good to me. I can see why you love Rosewood, its a very attractive timber.

Like Russell, I don't seem to be able to find any fault in the pen.

What finish did you put on the pen?

Timberbits.

Hi Turner,

reporting with 12mm drill at Baron are wrong.
True is 11.8 mm.

Then it works out well

Just looked at the photos again, and you're right - they're all very soft... Just shows that the order of importance for items in photography is 1-photographer, 2-lense, 3-body. The Lense is a Sigma Pro Series lense on a Canon 350D. Photographer was rushed and didn't take time and didn't use a tripod... "there's a nut loose on the camera" might be more accurate

If you held the pen you'd notice the slight rough bit on the end of the center tube. Not a biggie, but I would like to replace it.

It was sanded to 1200 and then finished with several (I think 5) coats of Shellawax Glow.

I used to sand to 400, use Ultrashine and then shellawax but I found a post by Neil saying not to use the ultrashine on small, often handled objects. have to say that after trying his technique there has been an improvement in how well the shine looks straight away and lasts.

Cheers,
Dave

OK, to make me feel better, I've taken some more photos of the pen, this time actually focusing the camera. I noticed the photos softened a little on resizing but not too bad..

I need to work on a way of sanding without metal bushes, but I'll have a good search of the forums and then a play...

Cheers,
Dave

Originally Posted by Ozkaban

OK, to make me feel better, I've taken some more photos of the pen, this time actually focusing the camera. I noticed the photos softened a little on resizing but not too bad..

I need to work on a way of sanding without metal bushes, but I'll have a good search of the forums and then a play...

Cheers,
Dave

Beautiful shots mate, spot on That wood really is a nice colour. Beautiful wood too. None of my rosewood has such a mellow yet rich tone either.

I know I've said it lots of times, but really making copies of the bushes out of cut up cutting board have made it very simple for me. Others are turning between centres for finishing if they have a dead centre as well, which is probably a better way to go, but I haven't got that far in my turning career yet

Russell.