I made a complete pen turning demo video

[Alex Franke]

A friend of mine who's not at all familiar with woodworking wanted to know how I go about making these pens, so I set up a video camera and recorded the whole process, start to finish. I was making three in the video, but I edited out all but one. I sped up the video a bit and it ended up just under 20 minutes.

In case anyone is interested in making pens and wants to see the whole process start-to-finish (actually wood-selection-to-assembly), then here it is. I take constructive criticism well, so you're welcome to comment on my technique if you want.

I put the video up on my site here: http://www.thefrankes.com/wp/?p=2222

[tpikaart]

cool!

That's great! My son and I just started making some pens--got our first lathe just before Christmas. Didn't know you could use CA glue for the finish.
Thanks for the vid.
tp

[Bill in Buena Park]

Very nice video Alex. I noticed you didn't use the BLO with the CA - is that so you don't change the wood's tone?

[Alex Franke]

Thanks, guys!

tp, there are a number of approaches to using the CA finish, and some of them are actually a lot quicker than the way I did it in the video. Some people don't like it at all, actually. Personally, I think it's a pretty good choice overall.

Very nice video Alex. I noticed you didn't use the BLO with the CA - is that so you don't change the wood's tone?

Yeah, basically. This aways seems to happen to me: I end up really liking the look of the wood by itself, and so that's how I often end up wanting to finish it off.

[chopnhack]

Very nice Alex, great step by step for someone who has never turned!

[Whaler]

Well done, Alex.

[Shep]

Could just be me, but the video freezes at 4:18 in. I've tried replaying it and it still gets stuck. Good video so far though.

[coupeowner 2002]

As a newby to turning, and somebody who hasn't tried pens yet, you have really piqued my interest. I enjoyed watching the video last night. I will show it to my daughter tonight as she was excited to do pens (we took a beginning turning class together a couple of weekends ago). Well done and thank you!

An opening shot w/ all the tools and their names would be cool, but a quick trip to the internets and I figured out what you were using (and how much this new aspect of turning would cost me!). I like the blank/drill setup you used - cheap and effective.

Thanks again.

[Alex Franke]

Thanks for all the great comments!

Could just be me, but the video freezes at 4:18 in. I've tried replaying it and it still gets stuck. Good video so far though.

Weird -- it's the first I've heard of that problem and I got past that mark. Maybe there was a glitch in the matrix or something. Did you try again later?

An opening shot w/ all the tools and their names would be cool, but a quick trip to the internets and I figured out what you were using (and how much this new aspect of turning would cost me!). I like the blank/drill setup you used - cheap and effective.

Thanks a great idea! At least I can add it to the blog post. I'm glad you liked it!