Pencils, I'm now a pencil turner...Oh boy

As you may or may not know (you will now) I have had a love affair with lathe since sometime in October in 9th grade. Woodturning, metalturning, ornamental work, threadcutting etc. it's all cool. I've read, tried, jigged and watched a lot about lathes, I even have plans to cast a small treadle lathe and offer kits in various stages of completion, (long term project, don't hold your breath). The one thing I'd never had an inkling to try my hand at was pen/pencil turning, that is until one fateful day in Buffalo. Now I'm hooked. Not because pen turning is a fad (maybe it is I don't know) or that I need a pen (they have stores for that). It's that they are so tricky to do.

While waiting for a barrel trimmer (tool used to trim the ends of pen blanks flush to the brass tubes, Jeff) I ordered, I was getting antsy. I wanted to make a wooden writing implement, I wanted to use CA as a finish and practicing on scrap wasn't cutting it. I found Don Ward's Pentel Conversion Article and decided to make the tools/mandrel/jamb chucks needed and give it a shot.

I figured out you don't just give a tiny-thin-walled-wooden-tube-with-three-different-concentric-holes a "shot". You give it, much breakage, deliberation, assessment, coupla' colorful words, and three shots. Then you figure it out.

The only thing I did substantially different from the article above was to use a blank about 1" longer than needed and glue it to the jamb chuck I made earlier. I also reverse the setup from the article, using the Morse taper mandrel in the tailstock, and the other mandrel in a chuck (or second Morse taper I guess) in the headstock. That means I drive the blank from the butt end and instead of a live center I use a waxed steel mandrel (acts like a dead center, without splitting the thin wall) on the tailstock side. The steel part is the rest of the 5/32" drill bit as described in the article. Enough talking though time for pictures, if memory serves this is a piece of Cocobolo.