Thread: A pleasant Tuesday

Hi Chris,

Don't mean to rain on ya parade, but the first set of pens you have shown are in fact the Polaris not the Sierras.

I agree with you, I don't like this kit either.

But oh man those other ones:eek: , they have come up a treat . I am sure that your sis will be very happy to receive this pair

good thinking on the ear plugs nice pens even if not a sierra there. but still you have done a top job
bye Toni

Originally Posted by chrisb691

Didn't know what to do, but suddenly realised that I had bought some RL101 fountain kits, along with RL101G roller ball kits, from GPW at the show (pic 2 & 3).

Made these up with brown Mallee burl, and finished with EEE and shellawax. Very happy with these, and proud to give them away as my own work.

Nicely done. I've a couple of RL10x sets and you're dead right: much nicer than [ugh!] Sierras.

I was going to make up the RL's a couple of weeks ago, but ran into difficulty with drilling the blanks. With the extra length of the 10mm drill, they wouldn't fit into my bench drill. So I shoved one in the lathe, in the Nova Midi, and started drilling. It promptly disappeared across the other side of the shed. The next try, the blank stayed in the chuck, but the drill blew out the bottom of the blank as it came through.:mad:

I prevent the ends from blowing out when drilling on the lathe, by inserting an old offcut from another blank of about the same size into the chuck first. (You know the offcuts... the li'l 1/2" to 1" bits left over after cutting a blank to length for top'n'bottom barrels.) Then the blank goes into the chuck, centred with the tailstock same as you, and then tighten everything up.

Today I tried a different approach, and it worked a treat. Left the blank over long, and marked the approx centre of each end. Then used a centre punch to pop the centres. Then fitted the drive centre in the lathe, Jet Mini, and installed the chuck. Now stick the blank in, and bring up the tailstock centre, so that it's held between centres. Now pull up the chuck really tightly, and the irregular shape of the blank doesn't matter, because it's being held between the centres. It'll just crush the wood, where it's irregular.

I think you'll find that if the blank is really irregular, it'll actually move it on the drive centre, leaving a short gouge or "ovalled" centre mark. Drilling from this will give you a dog's leg in the middle of your bore.

But when the blank is reasonably regular, well... it'll work.

like the idea of ear-plugs, too! But I'd end up wearing 'em first... wonder if anyone'd complain about earwax inside their pens? :confused:

Originally Posted by djstimber

Hi Chris,

Don't mean to rain on ya parade, but the first set of pens you have shown are in fact the Polaris not the Sierras.

You are so right, of course. I meant Polaris, the ugly baskets. Don't know where Sierra popped up from....maybe there's some deep phychological significance there.

Originally Posted by chrisb691

You are so right, of course. I meant Polaris, the ugly baskets. Don't know where Sierra popped up from....maybe there's some deep phychological significance there.

Whatever it is, 'tis obviously contagious.

perhaps brain is telling you need to do a sierra
Toni

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

Whatever it is, 'tis obviously contagious.

I reckon both JC, and Froggie, attended Hogwarts.