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Turning a pen on a shopsmith

video Turning a pen on a shopsmith

A simple step by step video I made for the shopsmith 10er group on yahoo. Certainly not the only way to turn a pen but this has worked for me, since making the video i've turned about 50 pens in various styles with different materials and inlays. One of the most interesting is one turned from aluminum hex stock so keep your eyes peeled for a full instructable on that.

4 comments

Jan 11, 2012. 1:55 PMGeArGuY says:

What is it that you used to buff? It looked like butter almost.

Jul 3, 2011. 4:39 PMThe Bike Guy says:

what camera do you have?

Jul 3, 2011. 6:25 PMJor2daje (author) says:

I was using the casio fs10, I use it mainly for high speed but it's hd is ok too.

210

Jul 3, 2011. 4:31 AM

Phil B says:

Thank you for posting this. I have a wood lathe with a straight (not threaded) 5/8 inch shaft. I did not know about the pen mandrel for a 5/8 inch shaft. I also did not know about using super glue for a finish. I learned two worthwhile things from your video. It does not show up in the related Instructables to the right of your Instructable, but you might be interested in how I adapted to make a 10mm mandrel from a 3/8 inch rod and then turned a Lucite pen from a kit. I used a drill press on that.

The nice black oxide on the bushings sure disappears fast when you start turning a pen!

My pen in the Instructable I linked uses Parker-type refills rather than the Cross ball point type you have. I use Parker gel pen refills in this pen and it is very nice for writing, especially on electronic heat transfer cash register tape when I sign for a credit card charge.