Thread: Timber barrel splitting

paul
im thinking because its solomon ebony that its not dry yet and thats why its cracked i think all you can doo is diassemble the pen turn the timber off the tube or use another new tube drill a new piece of ebony and part turn it with the TUBE UNGLUED then let it dry out for a week or 2 before glueing and turning the blank again

im sure someone else will also throw a hand in to help you as well

It would be hard to save that piece of timber and probably not worth the effort to try. You can buy tubes separately for pen kits. They are very cheap. Have a look at Timberbits site.

Thanks for the suggestions.

I have plenty of spare tubes for that kit so that may be the go.

The timber should have been dry enough easily. However to darken the colour I suspended the barrel inside a sealed jar with a bit of cloudy ammonia for about a week. It probably absorbed quite a bit of moisture from that process. Next time I'll use a container that is open to vent and I'll allow the timber a week or two to dry before assembling.
Either that or I'll just let it darken naturally.
Might try a bit of both methods.

paul instead of using that method try the homebrew ebonising solution
steel wool disolved in vineager that will make it black quick or if it wont ebonise go to kitchen and get a cup put some water in it and jiggle a tea bag in it then apply it first then the ebonising solution as some timbers need it first
will putting up a post in the turning general soon showing ebonising on some mango

The advantage of using CA finish, it helps stabilise the timber if done properly, and the coating strengthens it too.

You can still save it. Disassemble the pen, sand it down saving the dust, then use the dust to fill the crack with a bit of thin CA. Then finish with CA to build back up to size.

Disassembling the pen, lightly sanding the crack smooth and refilling and sealing with CA has occurred to me. However I'm not sure how to go about disassembling it. Never done it before.

Apart from wrapping the pens or vice grips/pliers in a non-scratching material (thick cloth, neoprene etc) and twisting them apart, how else would I do it?

Any suggestions?

If you could find your way to Neils place on Saturday I am sure we could get it apart for you ,not really a problem ,but a set of transfer punches is a big plus for this kind of thing , depending on the pen type just holding the barrel in your hand and using the correct dia punch will get them apart with no damage , PM neil (dai-sensei) for his address at Nerang
Cheers ~ John

Thanks. I'll do that.

However it'll have to wait a few weeks now. My next 2 weeks onsite in central Queensland starts tomorrow (2 weeks on, 1 week off) so I'll be away till the 8th Aug at least.

That said, I'll still PM Neil and see if something can be organised for then.

Cheers all.

Welcome to come around some other time, you just need to ring before coming to ensure i am home, but not early PM me for number