My First Woodturning Pen Project on the HF Lathe

New tools in the basement usually require new accessories. My new/old Harbor Freight wood lathe is no exception. Just setting up for pen turning required $56 worth of stuff: metric drill bits (yes, I've gone 60+ years without a set of metric drill bits), pen mill barrel trimmer, cyanoacrylate (CA) glue (so-called super glue), and glue activator. And then there's the pen kit. That was another $22 but I opted for a better quality pen.

I'd picked up some hardwood scraps from a woodworker's garage sale several years ago and in amongst the pile was a chunk of Lacewood, which I thought would make a very nice pen body. The below photo shows the wood being marked off slightly longer than the pen tube. The wood blank is about 3/4" square.

I used the CA glue to adhere the brass tube into the wood blank after drilling an 8mm hole through it. The pen mill was then used to square up the two ends and get the wood blank to match the length of the brass tube.

Several days ago I made two TBC (turn between centers) adapters so I could turn the pen blank on the wood lathe. I could have bought a pen mandrel for around $30 but I'd still need to either buy or make bushings to adapt the pen blank ID to the mandrel.

I used dimensions from the pen kit to get the TBC's to the correct diameter.

After the barrel was turned and sanded, I applied six coats of CA glue finish. I then sanded it with 400 grit sandpaper and applied some car wax. I didn't have any other wax at the moment. Maybe I need to invest in some...

The below photo is showing the parts being pressed onto the pen barrel. I used a small arbor press.

The below photo shows the finished product. The kit is a Penn State Industries PKEDCDBB DuraClick EDC Click Ballpoint Pen Kit in burnt bronze anodized aluminum.

After finishing the pen, I messed around with a chunk of firewood off the wood pile. I'd seen a guy on Youtube (Klondike Craftsman) make some of these dried flower vases and thought I'd try my hand at it. The wood is pretty soft so there are some tears here and there, but I was just experimenting.