Having too much fun making pens

Wildman Rocketry
Advertise with us
The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
qquake2k

qquake2k

Captain Low-N-Slow
Joined
Jan 26, 2010
Messages
13,574
Reaction score
65
Can't launch rockets, so had to find something to occupy my time. The green and black one is for my son. The blue and chrome one is for my friend Hanna. The orange and black one is for my friend Stefanie. The blue and gold one is for my mother.

095.jpg

154.jpg

222.jpg

223.jpg

025.jpg

045.jpg

058.jpg

071.jpg
 
These are for my very good friend at work, Olga. She has been my nurse over the last few months, changing my dressings, draining my abscess, doing whatever she could to help me feel a little better. She's a very special person. She's Russian, and Russians like fountain pens for writing in Cyrillic.

215.jpg

216.jpg

218.jpg

219.jpg

029.jpg

030.jpg

031.jpg

032.jpg
 
The blank on this one is called "jailbird". I made it for my son, who is a cadet in the correctional officer academy. I couldn't resist!

010.jpg

034.jpg

035.jpg

036.jpg

021.jpg
 
These are mine. The blank on the first one shattered while I was turning it. It happens. So I used an old blank I had. It's a little subtle, but it's grown on me. Later, I turned another of the "Old Glory" blanks successfully. The finish on the first is chrome, and the second is gun metal.

087.jpg

088.jpg

089.jpg

028.jpg

029.jpg

030.jpg

052.jpg

053.jpg

054.jpg
 
Another one for Hanna. She is also a very good friend. She stayed with me at the hospital all day Thursday, all 10 hours. The blank on this one is called "Area 51", for some reason.

012.jpg

013.jpg

024.jpg

025.jpg

026.jpg
 
Jim,,
I am super glad that you have someone who cares about you
to hang out with you in the hospital...
I sure do know what that's like and it's really nice to have someone there with you..

The pens come out way too cool,,
Keep up the good work..
You sure are enjoying that new lathe huh,,, lol...

Teddy
 
Very nice turnings Jim. I was at Klingspore's today browsing at some turning tools and grabbing a bottle of CA when I saw the rack of blocks used to turn pens. They had a very nice selection. I am curious about something though. Once you get down to the final sanding, what grit are you using and what do you use to buff out the scratches?
 
Nice work Jim! Those are works of art. I would even dare to say Heirlooms! I still have the one you turned for me out of deer antler. Used it just this afternoon.
 
I have a couple of turned pens (that I purchase). I really like the black-on-black (Jailbird).
 
All very nice, Captain. I particularly like the black and chrome and black and orange one's from the first post.

I was given a pen made of Jerusalem olive wood similar to the one you made. It is my "meetings pen". When a meeting gets particularly trying I find it is a good reminder to conduct myself appropriately.

Glad you have good people around you to help you through this ordeal. Hopefully you'll get mended up and back to launching some rockets soon.

Take care, Captain.
 
If you're going to turn some for others I'd like to get in line for one :) If you can do it I'd like a real cheapie, straight wood or whatever you prefer. The first of whatever month you'd get one done 'cause that's when I have money (on SSI) If you have no plans to do something like that that's ok.

I got a little rocket kit I could send as part payment. It's one of my designs, might be worth a little in exchange :)
 
Very nice.

More importantly, I hope that you are mending well and will be "back on your feet" shortly.
 
Gary Byrum said:
Very nice turnings Jim. I was at Klingspore's today browsing at some turning tools and grabbing a bottle of CA when I saw the rack of blocks used to turn pens. They had a very nice selection. I am curious about something though. Once you get down to the final sanding, what grit are you using and what do you use to buff out the scratches?
Click to expand...

Wood blanks I dry sand with 320, 400, and 600 grit, then a 000 Scotch Brite pad. I finish them with triple thick clear glaze. For acrylic, I wet sand with 320, 400, and 600, then polish them with 9 grades of Micro Mesh.

micromesh.jpg
 
bill2654 said:
Nice work Jim! Those are works of art. I would even dare to say Heirlooms! I still have the one you turned for me out of deer antler. Used it just this afternoon.
Click to expand...

I don't think it was me. I've never turned antler. The closest (and it's not very close) was oosik, which is fossilized walrus penis bone. I made it for my urologist several years ago. I thought it was perfect for a urologist, but he wasn't impressed. My dentist at the time was, though. I mentioned it to him one time, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever. So the next time I went in, I took a leftover piece of oosik to show him. He took it around the office and showed it to everyone.

001.jpg

002.jpg

cigaroosik.jpg
 
qquake2k said:
Wood blanks I dry sand with 320, 400, and 600 grit, then a 000 Scotch Brite pad. I finish them with triple thick clear glaze. For acrylic, I wet sand with 320, 400, and 600, then polish them with 9 grades of Micro Mesh.
Click to expand...
You lost me on the "micro mesh" step. I've used buffing wheels on bench grinders in the past for plastics, and my thinking was along the lines of using one of those with a particular ointment/lube? for the buffer pad. Does that ring a bell?
 
Gary Byrum said:
You lost me on the "micro mesh" step. I've used buffing wheels on bench grinders in the past for plastics, and my thinking was along the lines of using one of those with a particular ointment/lube? for the buffer pad. Does that ring a bell?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know what you're talking about, and there are pen turners that use buffing wheels with various polishing compounds, jewelers rouge, etc. But I've found I get very good results with Micro Mesh pads. I used to use a liquid polishing compound as the last step, but found it wasn't necessary. I use the 2"x2" pads, but they also come in other sizes.

https://micro-surface.com/index.php.../micro-mesh-soft-touch-pad-variety-packs.html

https://micro-surface.com/index.php/products-by-type/sheets/micro-mesh-sheet-variety-packs.html
 
OK. Thanks for the links. But it doesn't address my question. WHAT GRIT? I'm sure I can find a polishing compound. Here's my project. I have scratches in my cheap sunglasses that I wanna get rid of. I saw a video on YouTube, but it lacked pertinent information. I know that tinted prescription sunglasses are tinted on the surface. Most all sunglasses made of plastic, are of tinted all the way through. I want to remove those scratches. Name brands you have used with success would be valuable information to me.
 
Last edited:
Outsider question:

How do you make the raw stock for turning? What even is it made of?
 
Gary Byrum said:
OK. Thanks for the links. But it doesn't address my question. WHAT GRIT? I'm sure I can find a polishing compound. Here's my project. I have scratches in my cheap sunglasses that I wanna get rid of. I saw a video on YouTube, but it lacked pertinent information. I know that tinted prescription sunglasses are tinted on the surface. Most all sunglasses made of plastic, are of tinted all the way through. I want to remove those scratches. Name brands you have used with success would be valuable information to me.
Click to expand...

Micromesh grades don't equate to sandpaper grit. My Micromesh pad set goes from 1,500 to 12,000. But looking at the chart, you can see that Micromesh 1500 equates to 400 grit. 12,000 is somewhere above 1500 grit, it doesn't specify. I know they use Micromesh to polish plastic headlight lenses, but I don't know about sunglasses. There are various polishing compounds available from Amazon, but I've never used them.

https://micro-surface.com/images/products/inst_41AviationCClit.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002UD0GIG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I live about a mile from a hardwood store with a lot of exotic woods. I know they sell blanks for pens. If there is something you are looking for I can pop over there and see what they have. I have been doing a few woodworking projects pairing zebrawood and padauk as an accent.

Living a mile from a hardwood store and going to a hobby shop once a week to build rockets, all I need is to get a job in a candy factory to complete the bad behavior trifecta!
 
qquake2k said:
I don't think it was me. I've never turned antler. The closest (and it's not very close) was oosik, which is fossilized walrus penis bone. I made it for my urologist several years ago. I thought it was perfect for a urologist, but he wasn't impressed. My dentist at the time was, though. I mentioned it to him one time, and he thought it was the coolest thing ever. So the next time I went in, I took a leftover piece of oosik to show him. He took it around the office and showed it to everyone.
Click to expand...
I would have sworn that was you. Oh well someone here on the forum made it. Keep up the good work Jim and get better soon.
 
Glad to see your on the mend ! As far as the pens are concerned, I'm officially impressed, just beautiful !--H
 
For those who like guns, I see that thre is a bolt action mechanism available now.
 
Woodcraft has a lot of stuff for pen turners; wood (exotic species stock and pre-cut blanks), mechanicals (insides), jigs, and sanding/polishing/finishing supplies. If you're lucky enough to have a local store, everyone I've talked to there has been friendly and helpful. If you don't have a local store, their phone and email support is great, too.

https://www.woodcraft.com
 
sooner.boomer said:
Woodcraft has a lot of stuff for pen turners; wood (exotic species stock and pre-cut blanks), mechanicals (insides), jigs, and sanding/polishing/finishing supplies. If you're lucky enough to have a local store, everyone I've talked to there has been friendly and helpful. If you don't have a local store, their phone and email support is great, too.

https://www.woodcraft.com
Click to expand...

I have a local Woodcraft near me. That's where I got my first kits and supplies. I have since outgrown their selection, however.
 

Similar threads

Starfire73
Cherokee-E with Mods
Replies
16
Views
501
Daddyisabar
Daddyisabar
B
experiment gluing to plastic
Replies
28
Views
771
Lee
L
G
The Bertha Family
2
Replies
44
Views
2K
DymondY2K
DymondY2K
Rocketholic
Leaping to the Past
Replies
1
Views
107
Blast it Tom!
Blast it Tom!
SCIGS30
Estes Starlight build
Replies
2
Views
342
SCIGS30
SCIGS30

Latest posts

Back
Top