Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Table Saw Sled

I have been looking at pen blank designs on the internet and have been a lot of designs that use pieces cut at different angels.  I would like to the to create some of these designs in the future.  I'm a little nervous about using the Compound Miter Saw to cut the angels because the pieces are so small, so I try to avoid it.  I've been using the band saw to free hand the angled cuts I've been making so far, and even though they're pretty good, they still need sanding afterwards and I have made some sub-par cuts in the past.  And using just the miter gauge on the table saw also makes me nervous.  So I decided to make a sled for the table saw to use.  The one thing I think I'll always like more about using the band saw over the table saw is the thickness of the blade.  The band saw produces less direct waste from cutting than the table saw does.  But if I need to sand the piece after I cut it on the band saw then there's probably not much different in the end.  I did some research online and built the sled in the pictures below from extra pieces around the shop.  I also made angles guide pieces from thin plywood to use in the sled.  I made 45, 60, 30 and 15 degree guides.  The guides have a pieces of wood glued to the top so that it can be clamped to the back fence.  The sled works pretty well, and I can cut pieces at certain angels at consistent widths.  I incorporated a stop-block on the right side so that I could control how wide the piece would be.  But I quickly found out that having the blank up against the angled guide and also pressed against the stop-block violated the "Don't use a miter gauge and fence together" rule.  I almost had the saw shoot the thin piece of would I was cutting out of the sled.  So I moved the stop-block a few inches to the right and clamped it to the fence.  Then I found another piece of wood that I could place to the left of the stop-block to butt the blank up against, then remove before I made the cut.  So the piece isn't being pinched between anything.  After the cut the loose stop-block can be placed back in, the blank slid down until it touches, the loose piece removed and another cut made.  But once I get down to a little over an inch of blank left, my fingers are too close to the blade for comfort.  But I don't want to waste material.  So i want to get a toggle clamp to somehow mount on the sled so the smaller pieces of the blank can be held on place so less wood is wasted.  There's still some other things I want to tweak on the sled, but overall it works well.

Table Saw Sled

Underside of the sled

Sled with the angled guides

Sled with guides and stop-block clamped down and pieces that have been cut

New Material Part 5

I also found on eBay people selling wood veneer, which is great because I like incorporating veneer lines in my pens.  I found someone who sells a variety of veneer in packs, so I bought one of those.  The woods included in the pack are: Zebra Wood, Teak, Eucalyptus, Sapele, Makore, Bubinga, Fig. Makore, Monique, Cypress Rosewood, Ebony, Birdseye Maple, Brazilwood.  The seller packed a lot of veneer into a small package.  I'm excited to incorporate some of these veneers in future pens.


New Material Part 4

These are the last of the wood blanks I ordered from eBay. 

Ambrosia Maple

Cocobolo Rosewood

East Indian Rosewood

Morado

Movingui

Makore

New Material Part 3

Here is another batch of pen blanks I ordered.  They came from the same person as part 2.  I'm really excited to work with the Purple Heart and Movingui.

Bubinga

Cocbolo Rosewod

Limba

Makore

Morado

Movingui

Purple Heart

Red Heart

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

New Material Part 2

   Here are some pictures of more pen blanks I ordered through eBay.  I decided that I'm going to make two pens that are plain and just showcase the wood and then use the remaining blanks of each wood the make different designs.  These blanks came from two lots by one vendor on eBay.

Ambrosia Maple

Cocobolo Rosewood

Cocobolo Rosewood

East Indian Rosewood

Leopard Wood

Makore

Morado

Redheart

Wamara

New Material Part 1

   I recently discovered on eBay that people sell lots of exotic wood pen blanks or boards of exotic woods.  This is a good and bad thing.  Good because I can start doing some different designs with the pens and bad for my wallet.  But I can deal with that later.  Here are some pictures of the first shipment of new pen blanks.

Buckeye Burl

Hawaiian Milo

Hawaiian Sugi

Pomelle Bubinga

Sixteenth Pen

    This pen is made of Cherry with Pine veneer going through.  This pen was made in the same way that the previous pen was.  The curves I cut were a little steeper than the previous pen which gave it a neat look.  Because the veneer was closer to the edge of the blank, when it was being turned down the veneer was divided into sections.  Some of the curves come close together but don't quite touch.  This actually happened by accident.  The only thing I don't like about this pen is that I wanted the contrast between the wood and the veneer to be more noticeable. 



Monday, October 22, 2012

Fifteenth Pen

    The pen is the outcome of a couple of accidents.  The original intention was to make two pens, but one half of each pen broke on the lathe so I combined the other two halves into one pen.  The wood I used was some remaining blanks from my dads variety box.  I made a template out of paper the length and width of the blanks and cut a curve out length ways.  I then traced the curve onto the blanks, and cut the blanks on the band saw. I then matched up two different woods I thought looked good together.  A little bit of sanding was required on the side I made the cut.  Then I took a piece of Pine veneer my dad had and cut it a little wide and longer than the blank and soaked it in water until I could bend it without breaking it.  I dried it off enough so that it wasn't dripping and glued it between the two wood I had chosen.  The glue joints turned out pretty well.
    But as I said one of the tube of each of the two pens I was trying to make broke on the lathe, so I'm wondering if the joints weren't as good as I thought.  After I was finished turning I combined the two remaining blanks into the pen.  Even thought the woods are different I think the pen looks pretty nice.




Sunday, October 21, 2012

Fourteenth Pen

    This is another pen made from Cherry and Maple.  I particularly like this pen as well.  This was a little tricky to put together.  To start I made a single Cherry blank and a single Maple blank 2 1/4 inches long.  Then I cut each blank in half length ways and glued each Cherry half to a Maple half.  After they dried I rotated the blanks and cut them in half length ways again.  Then I glued them back together so that if you looked at it from the end grain it would look like a checkerboard, or like my Twelfth pen.  Then I set up a stop block on the band saw so that I could make a cross cut on the blanks.  I cut both blanks into quarter inch sections.  Then I took all of the sections and rotated them and glued them together so they are like you see in the pictures.  I glued the sections together two at a time to have better control over how they set.  I took great care to keep the pieces lined up so that all of the corners would come together nice.  I took extra care with the gluing process over the entire course of putting this pen together, because there are so many places that the pen could come apart on the lathe.  I gave ample time for the glue to dry during all glue ups. 



Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Thirteenth Pen

     The next pen is also made from Maple and Cherry.  This design is still one of my favorites.  I think it turned out very well.
     To begin I made a Cherry and Maple blank.  Then I cut each blank in half along the length, matched up a Cherry half with a Maple half and glued the blanks back together.  After they had dried I made two more cuts in each.  The cuts form a V shape in the blank.  I don't remember the exact measurements I used for the cuts, but I believe it was something close to a half inch in from the edges at the top of the V and an inch in from the edges at the bottom of the V.  Then connect the lines of the V.  Then I made the cuts on with the band saw and cleaned up the edges on the disk sander.  Then I took the middle section out of each blank, spun it 180 degrees and put it back in, so you have the color pattern you see in the picture.  Gluing is tricky with this design as well because of the angles.  The pieces want to slide when pressure is applied.  After the glue dries, go through the usual steps to make the pen.



Monday, October 8, 2012

Twelfth Pen

     This pen is made from Cherry and Maple.  This pen, although it seems pretty simple can actually be a bit of a pain.  The level of creativeness is a little low for this one, but it was one I wanted to do.  Similar to my second pen, where I took two blanks, cut them in half down the length, switched the colors and glued them back together, for this pen I wanted to divide it into quarters.  My first step was to create a blank of Cherry and Maple.  On the band saw I cut those blanks in half, and glued a Cherry half to a Maple half and vise versa.  After the glue had dried I cut them in half again, and repeat the last step.  I then had two blanks that each had two strips of Cherry and two strips of Maple. I had considered cutting four small strips of Cherry and four small strips of Maple and gluing them together to make the quartered blank, but the seemed more difficult that way.
     Next came drilling the holes for the tubes.  I had remember my lesson from my second pen, where if the hole is even a little off center, the wood on one side of the pen will appear wider.  Or if you start out in the center of the blank when come out the other side off center, after you turn your pen down you will have one side on one end off the pen that looks wider.  Keeping this in mind I was extra cautious when drilling the holes.  I don't have a proper fixture to hold the blanks during drilling.  I had cut a piece of scrap wood so that it square on all sides.  I cut two 2 inch pieces off the scrap piece, glued them together in an L shape so I could hold the blank on the inside of the angle with my hand while drilling. This is not safe or a good way to keep the blank steady.  I should make a fixture or order one from Rockler but I haven't taken the time.  But anyway, the holes in the blanks were very close to being dead center and you don't notice any of the strips being wider than the others.  When I assembled the pen I did so that when the tip is retracted the Cherry strips on one side line up with the Maple strips on the other side.  And then when the pen tip is exposed the Cherry strips would all line up, same with the Maple ones..  But the pen twists open just slightly past where they would line up perfectly.  This isn't something I can control, but still a bummer.



Eleventh Pen

      My next pen is made from Cherry and Maple.  In fact, my next few pens are made from Cherry and Maple because that was the wood I had the most of.  For this design I took the idea of cutting two blanks at an angle along the length and took it a step farther. First I made a Cherry blank and a Maple blank.  Then I cut those two down the middle and glued a Cherry half to a Maple half and vise versa.  After they had dried I cut them at an angle from top left to bottom right, the same way I did in pen number five, using the same measurements.  I then matched the halves back up so that the woods mirrored each other on opposite sides of the pen.  The woods form an X intersection where they meet.  You can kind of see this in the picture, but it is bury and not at the best angle.  I should have taken another one. 
    I discovered when you go to clamp the halves together after the angled cut, they tend to slide apart.  This didn't matter too much during pen number five, but since I was going for that nice X intersection I had to be careful.  The intersections still aren't as nice as I'd like them to be.  You also get the neat curve going around the pen where the edges meet.



Friday, October 5, 2012

Reflections on some Failures

      As I mentioned in my Welcome post, the number of pens I've tried to make is a larger figure than the number of pens that have been successful. 
      A couple of times I have had a pen splinter apart while it was being turned on the lathe.  I'm not completely sure what causes this.  It has happened while using both the gouge and the skew.  I'm not sure if it was a defection within the wood, applying too much pressure while turning, some combination of both, or another factor I haven't considered yet.  Regardless, whenever one of the blanks splinters on the lath you are left with a choice.  Do you leave the tube in the other blank and try to use it later in another pen, or do you turn the other blank all the way down until you see the tube and then pull the tube out?  It can be a tough decision. 
     Early on I tried to make a pen by cutting a piece of poplar and cherry that were both half inch wide by half inch thick by six or seven inches long, into eighth inch long pieces.  I did that by clamping down a stop block on the band saw table and eighth of an inch away from the blade. I took these pieces and glued them together alternately, so it went cherry, maple, cherry, maple, cherry and so on, until I reached two blanks that were two and a quarter inches long.  This was a long process. While I was turning the blanks on the lathe, one of them splintered apart.  I decided to move to the other blank and see if I could a least get it turned down to size, but it too splintered apart.  I'm not sure what the exact reason was for them breaking.  I initially thought that because poplar was a softer wood that perhaps it wasn't good for turning on the lathe.  Then I thought maybe I didn't glue it well enough.  Since each blank had around twenty pieces of wood glued together, it's possible my mind wandered and a few of the joints didn't get the maximum amount of glue it needed.  I have though of using super glue to hold the pieces together instead of wood glue and see if that helps, but I haven't tried it as of yet.  Another thought I had was that perhaps at only an eighth of an inch long, the individual pieces of wood didn't have the strength to resist the forces of being turned on the lathe.  Maybe one day I will examine this further.

Cherry Pen

This was my first all Cherry wood pen.  We have plenty of cherry wood scraps because of a Cherry tree that fell in our back yard a few years ago that my dad had taken to the mill to be cut into boards.  But up until now I was busy experimenting with the different woods in my dads variety pack.  But when most of that was used up I turned to the Cherry boards.  I really like Cherry.  But for some reason I think that in a pen it's not as red as I would like.  Maybe it's because it doesn't have the natural clear stain finish that I've seen used.  But regardless, you will see in the next few pen uploads that since I have a good amount of Cherry and Maple to play with I use those the experiment with different designs.



Ninth Pen

Once again, another nameless blank taken from my dads variety pack.  By now this was one of the few blank pairs left in the box.  This wood is pretty much a lighter red version of the seventh pen.  It turned a nice color after it was polished.