Thread: Problems With Making my own stylus on the Lathe

Hi Rhysm ! welcome to the slippery slope You don't say whether you glued a tube into your creation or are trying to do a pen without support ? Without a tube you will be almost doomed to failure as you only have a thin veneer of material when finished ,and the wood is just not strong enough under load to hold together usually. You can certainly do it on a mandrel with suitable bushes in the bore to true up to for turning, or a more advanced way is between centres, which uses your bore as a register for truing up, again without a tube in the wood most likely unable to get enough pressure on the centres without breaking the timber .
As to materials its mostly try and see, I tell my customers " if I can drill a hole in it, I can make a pen from it " but you can get some pretty bland looking pens from some timbers and some spectacular ones from others ,good luck in your quest cheers ~ John

Thanks for the response John. I was thinking I may have to tube it. Now to find a tube with an 8.5 mm ID. Then workout how I can get it to sit centered on a 1/4 inch mandrel.

The problem with turning without a tube & the walls being only a mm or two thin is, the slightest catch or excess pressure will cause cracking. Worst case it'll fly apart, best case you need to break out the CA, usually it means chips missing.

Originally Posted by RhysM

Thanks for the response John. I was thinking I may have to tube it. Now to find a tube with an 8.5 mm ID. Then workout how I can get it to sit centered on a 1/4 inch mandrel.

Are you turning a closed end pen? Or are you intending to add a finial in one end?

'Cos if you're turning an open-ended blank all you need to do is drill a 1/4" hole thru a shortish offcut, mount it on the mandrel and turn a V-groove in the middle until it seperates into two. Et voila! Two tapered bushes to cater for almost any size on a 1/4" mandrel.

I wouldn't rely on these for a production run, but for a one-off they should be fine.

Thanks for the ideas guys. Much appreciated.

Try and find a 9mm tube thin walled should be about 8.5mm ID Some hobby shops sell brass tubes . As said a couple of cone shaped bushes with a 1/4" hole to fit the mandrel ,and the tube locates central on the 2 cones . You will get there cheers ~ John

its all about having fun trying new things u can buy a stylus kit from timberbits from $2.00

"I'm also wanting to know if anybody has used some more unusual wood for turning, such as the wood of a rose bush or from an orange tree. If so, how did they turn out."

I've turned both of these, they turn OK, but the timber is pretty bland. Both timbers are whitish-yellow.
The Rosebush was from a bush of special significance. As M.T. says it's the fun of trying new things.
Kryn