Okay I glued up some oak wood pieces that I had to about 6 or 7 inches in length.  I used my cole jaws to clamp down on the wood and drill out an 8 MM hole all the way through the piece.  Worked absolutely great.  Wasn't expecting that I was expecting more or less a complete and utter catastrophe.  This will be the first experiment with trying a small goblet using the Pen Mandril on the lathe.  How ever I will need to figure out HOW to plug up the holes on both ends unless I find some solid brass rod and use epoxy on that and that might work okay.  I am a bit at odds on how this will turn out.  Glad I ordered long drill bits for this.  How ever if it does work I'll need to source out a longer pen mandrill for bigger projects.  Id assume you could do small vases with something like this.  I have seen some youtube videos on making your own morse tapper out of wood how ever that is a bit on the concerning side.  I would rather have a metal mandril and longer piece of round bar.  for that but I could probably make my own length for that as will just have to find 7mm round bar and get a good tap and die set.  The hole I drilled out was exactly 8 millimeters.

 

I think you are going to find it a bit frustrating getting started. Pen mandrels do not hold the materials with a of grip. Starting with that square blank, you're going to experience a bunch of catches until the blank is rounded. Try to device a method of knocking off the corners of the blank (or rounding the blank) before you start turning.

 

You said you had a small bandsaw. Could you round each piece of your blank, before gluing? That would save a lot of time/catches during turning. Not to mention the wear and tear on your arms!

Yep I'm already 20 minutes into it been turning already on it.  A TON of catches.  But I've almost got it round I'm about halfway through it I've been recording it so I have to stop every 15 minutes to 20 minutes or so to up load video to the PC and throw it into the video editor.  How ever its not too frustrating at this point.  Just more of a minor annoyance.  At this point it may wind up being turned into a candlestick holder if the round comes out too small.  I do actually have a small band saw how ever I just didn't cut the corners off skipped that step.

Okay, WOW!!!  This is not a good idea with the way you have this set up.  Your pen mandrel rides into a live center.  On that mandrel you have a LARGE chunk of wood.  Then we have the knurled nut that is working really hard to hold this together.  This blank is one I would have p0ut in a chuck and turned, not a pen mandrel.  Think small, not a vase.

 

So lets look at how this can be done safely and without all this catching stuff.  First get the mandrel I suggested on another post.  This puts pressure where it is needed and eliminates the knurled nut and provides much better support for the pen mandrel.

 

You are making a goblet.  Base can be anywhere from 2 3/4 inches to 4 inches.  I use 3 1/4 generally.  Stem can start with 1 1/2 inches square.  You don't need all that extra wood you glued up made into sawdust.  What you want is a good yield of your wood, and less time on the lathe cutting and wasted wood.

 

Take a 3 inch square board, this is the base.  Now cut to length a piece 1 1/2 - 2 inches square.  Drill holes in center of both.  Put glue on the bottom of the stem and then press them together on the mandrel.  Now you have a goblet 1/2 cut down to size without all that extra work.  No big chunk of wood putting all that pressure on the mandrel.  

 

Look closely at the pictures below.  Observe the orientation of the wood.  You don't have to use different species / colors just focus on the shape. These are some of the 1st ones I made using this method.  Stick with simple, fancy comes later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey either way it worked how ever I probably wont be trying that one again LOL....

 

Glad to hear you are staying away future forays into pen mandrel turning. Also glad to hear no mishap.

      For one not the intended use of a pen mandrel.

      As Gunny said only that small nut holding it.

      The rod in a mandrel is much too thin to hold a turning.

      And it will probably lead to having to buy a new pen mandrel.

I do salute you on your inventiveness , But for safeties sake try not to reinvent the wheel unless you use safe engineering principles.

Yea nope I definately wont be trying that one again LOL.  Either way no I was fortunate not to have a miss half I took my time with it.  It was just something I wanted to test out to see if it was even a possibility.  Fortunately the nut did hold quite well.  I also don't like the gaping hole that drilling out leaves behind either way.  Lessons were learned lol.  So I will be trying it again with out the mandrel and see where it takes me.