!@#$ Pen Blank

[dale]

So....

With the end of the school year and other activities coming up, my daughter puts in an order for some pens. I'm thinking it's time to step up from the 7mm pens, especially since these are gifts for people we like and that have done a lot for our kids. I take my wife along with me to help pick out a new style, and after seeing some of the samples in the store she picks out the most expensive things they've got! So I've got two of these Tropical Navigator things from Woodcraft (http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=5981), the abalone and the brown coconut.

They blanks seem to be made the same way that snake skin blanks are made: the material is wrapped around the tube, the tube ends get capped, and then the whole thing gets encased in epoxy. There's no drilling involved; all I had to do was trim the excess epoxy from the ends and start turning. After taking the lightest passes I could until the square corners were about gone, I stopped to check my progress and discovered that the pen blank (as opposed to the one for the cap) has chunks missing from one end.

I've had to repair blow outs on wooden blanks before, but this is a whole different beast. Is a repair of any kind possible, or am I totally hosed on this thing? The awards ceremony is in three nights and now I'm afraid to even start on the other one.

[Uncle Cracker]

You probably won't get a satisfactory repair on those, unless you trim the damaged portion of the blank right down to the bare tube, and make an "oops ring" out of corian or some other complimentary material. Coincidentally, Russianwolf put up some photos just yesterday of a dragonhide pen he turned, and he had to use an oops ring also. That thread is here.

I, too, learned the hard way about working with a new material when under duress. Best to not have to learn on the fly when special occasions are looming. Those clear acrylic blanks can be a bear, and even with a sharp skew and nerves of steel you are usually just a millimeter from a catastrophe, so if ya gotta do it, have at least one spare blank handy.

Frankly, if it was me, I'd try to get the involved parties to give their blessings to some pens made with a material you are more comfortable with.

Just my $0.02...

[BigguyZ]

I agree that one of the most frustrating things can be turning on demand. Expecially if you only have one of a particular type of blank.

Personally, I'd scrap the blank and get a new one.

Also, remember to turn at a high speed and use SHARP chisels. I'm not big on using the skew, but I agree that for acrylics it's one of the best ways to get a blank in the round. After that, I usually go for my scraper.

[Russianwolf]

You won't be able to repair it in the timeframe you need.

If the base material is still there (meanig the blowout didn't go to the tube) than it is repairable, but it would involve turning it close to round and recasting it in more resin.

Some turners actually do this intentionally on other resin and wood pens too. They turn the pen smaller than the bushings, then cast it in resin and turn the resin to final size and polish the resin. It allows a very deep finish that some find appealing. But to me, it's just more work.

Like Uncle said, Oops bands will work, or another blank.

By the way, the Navigator is the same as the BAron available from http://www.arizonasilhouette.com/ and they usually have better prices. I think the Tropicals are usually on sell even.

[dale]

Good News! I'm An Idiot!

Thanks for the tips and information, guys. As it turns out (pardon the pun), the blank wasn't ruined. When I finally got around to taking the thing off the lathe, I still had the bushing in place and I could see that the missing chunks didn't go all the way down to the material and I still had enough there to finish turning. I did the 2nd one, too, at completed it without incident.

Now they're all boxed up and ready to go, all in time for tonight's awards ceremony. Yay!

By the way... I don't know if I can ever go back to 7mm pens again.

[Uncle Cracker]

They do look nice, Dale...

As far as giving up on the 7mm's, if you are doing art, the fatter styles hold an edge, but the most practical pens (in usefulness, size, and lack of loose parts) are still the slims, IMHO. They fit in any notebook, any pocket, and any hand.

[Russianwolf]

Way to go.

[mater]

Those look good. They will make nice gifts.