Well, the pen project is back on, for now. So as not to get caught short, I prepared all of the cut blanks for gluing in the brass tubes.

I started using the jig I made from an article by Mr. David Smith. The jig sets in a lathe chuck and holds the pen blanks for drilling on the lathe.

I'm not sure what happened to the jig, but the first couple of pieces were not drill straight. Everything looked good and the blanks seated squarely but the exit hole was just too far off. I think I need to rebuild the jig and make it so it captures more of the blank.

Not to be deterred, I fell back on my old standby. Another jig built to be used with a drill press vice.

This actually turned out to be a faster setup than the lathe even though I had to mark the center of each piece prior to drilling.

A box of pen blanks-

I started with 99, 5" pieces but made about a dozen more to account for the crooked holes and some spares. Each blank was re-cut to length and taped together, marked to align the grain and numbered to keep the sets matched up. Now it's just a matter of waiting on the check for the pen kits so we can move on the the next step.

To the right of the box, you can see the jig I made to cut the blanks to length. It's just a right angle piece fastened to the miter gauge. The stop block, in the background (on the rip fence) set the correct length for the blanks. The clamp held everything securely so my fingers were safely out of the way.

Safe Turning!

---

Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!

Wow Lew that is a lot of pen turning. I'm sure while I was medicated I missed a post on this. I'm like you I would rather drill on the lathe, but sometimes I can use my drill press jig and do it just as fast.

---

John Moody
Site Administratorhttp://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com
“Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.†Shaker Saying

Great job on the jigs Lew. You are getting a reputation around here as "the why buy it if you can build it guy". I love that.

That's allot of pens! What kind of chuck is on that lathe?

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

Thanks, guys!

John- the chuck is a Nova Midi. Picked it up at Woodcraft many years ago.  

John Morris said:

Great job on the jigs Lew. You are getting a reputation around here as "the why buy it if you can build it guy". I love that.

That's allot of pens! What kind of chuck is on that lathe?

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

With the Nova Lew, do you have to occasionally re-tighten it throughout the turning?

Lewis Kauffman said:

Thanks, guys!

John- the chuck is a Nova Midi. Picked it up at Woodcraft many years ago.  

John Morris said:

---

Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

No, John. I have never had any piece come loose. For actual turning, I try to always create a "dovetail" type tenon or hole. This seems to help improve the contact between the jaws and the turning.

John Morris said:

With the Nova Lew, do you have to occasionally re-tighten it throughout the turning?

Lewis Kauffman said:

---

Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!

Thanks Lew for the info.

Lewis Kauffman said:

No, John. I have never had any piece come loose. For actual turning, I try to always create a "dovetail" type tenon or hole. This seems to help improve the contact between the jaws and the turning.

John Morris said:

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

---

Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker

Wow that's a lot of pens Even the manufactured chuck drills off center now and then. I think it has to do with either the wood has a soft area in it or perhaps the speed at which one drills that causes the bit to travel off.

---

Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nichollswoodworks

I think that was part of the problem, Charles. Also, because I was trying to maximize the number of blanks from a single beam, not all of the blanks were square. The lathe chuck seems to work best when the blanks have equal size sides. The other problem with the lathe holder- and it's my fault- it has grooves in the clamping area that tend to push the jig into a certain position.The grooves are from over tightening the chuck on the jig. My next version will have hard wood clamping pieces and I think I'll made those pieces circular instead of square.

Charles Nicholls said:

Wow that's a lot of pens Even the manufactured chuck drills off center now and then. I think it has to do with either the wood has a soft area in it or perhaps the speed at which one drills that causes the bit to travel off.

---

Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nichollswoodworks

Right, If the blank isn't square and sometimes even if the end you are trying to drill isn't squared off, it can cause the bit to travel. A blank I was trying to drill just a bit ago traveled off a bit when I tried to drill from that angled side.I had to do that because the bit was too short to drill all the way through (or so I thought), I wound up having to bring out the bit as far as I could from the chuck and tighten it as hard as I could to keep it from wobbling and drill from the flushed side again.

It was about 1/16" off over a 3" span

Lewis Kauffman said:

I think that was part of the problem, Charles. Also, because I was trying to maximize the number of blanks from a single beam, not all of the blanks were square. The lathe chuck seems to work best when the blanks have equal size sides. The other problem with the lathe holder- and it's my fault- it has grooves in the clamping area that tend to push the jig into a certain position.The grooves are from over tightening the chuck on the jig. My next version will have hard wood clamping pieces and I think I'll made those pieces circular instead of square.

Charles Nicholls said:

---

Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!