Thread: Hard Bushings

Originally Posted by Tornatus

Do any of you wise old - sorry, experienced - penturners know if it's possible to obtain stainless steel pen bushings, or at least ones that are hard enough to minimize the effects of sanding?

It is possible to get them made (a slightly different thing) at your local machine shop. Either give them accurate measurements or a set of good bushings to copy. It also helps if you take a mandrel with a couple of blanks mounted on it so that they can see for themselves how they are used and which measurements are crtitical and which they can take some liberty with.

I am fed up with the standard steel bushings, which seem to wear down faster than some of the tough desert woods I use, and make it difficult to achieve a good match between the wooden barrels and the metal fittings. I try not to sand the bushings, but it's damn near impossible to miss them when you're trying to get the ends just right.

The primary reason for the soft steel bushes is to protect your tools!

Personally I've put my good bushes aside and use them as templates for turning my own out of RedGum, Corian or other scraps at hand. (Brass is a good compromise, but I find my brass scraps are at a premium and tend to get used up in other projects.) Easy to replace and good practice at fine copy turning.

(BTW, I'm only concerned with the standard 1A type bushings for Slimlines, of which I am committed to making quite a number.)

If you go down my path and make yer own, you'll find that you'll end up making your own custom bushes too. Come across some esoteric kit in a bargain bin that is too good to pass up? Only to discover that the bushes were discontinued 20 years ago? Out with the vernier calipers to measure the kit parts, and invent your own bushes...

Modifying a pen in such a way that no bushes exist? Out with the vernier...

Thanks, Skewch

I take your point about protecting the tools - I hadn't thought about it in those terms. I had thought about turning my own bushings, as I have some Corian and, for that matter, some Lignum Vitae, but I was focusing on the sanding problem, rather than the primary sizing purpose of the bushings. Following your advice, I could just use good steel bushings for the initial turning, then swap them for easily replaceable home-made ones for the rest of the process, which (it dawns on me) would also help with the EEE problem on metal.

That's one of the great things about this forum - bouncing things off other people helps you sort out your own muddled thinking!

Thanks again for taking the time to steer me in the right direction.

Marching girls used a baton that dammit is almost the perfect hole size and outside size and about two feet plus long unfortunately they changed to a solid aluminium replacement,while visiting a mate recently who used to make them by the hundred for calisthenics in Melbourne the outside was hard chromed,since I will see you on Wednesday night I will have a yarn about it then. Regards Peter