So I want to make a pen. Has anyone done this? Any recs? Seems like it should be fairly easy.
Not yet - definitely on my to-do list. I turn pens on a lathe currently.
I’ve drawn a couple of styles out to ‘at some point’ put on the Vortex but have not pulled the trigger.
Hey Acruter,
I did made a pen using my longmill, but I did that more out of experimental curiosity if I could use material bigger than my machine using the feed through I kept open at front and back. I actualy unplugged my miter saw to keep me from quickly using it.
The pen turned out great and is still in use 4 years after it was erected, though the paint is starting to flake a wee.
So, you need to have a material feed through option on your machine and a way to fence it paralel to your Y axis. I designed features that my machine was capable of pulling off in one go, but if your pen needs continious features over the length of the material, knowing how to tile jobs is an essential skill to practise too.
I’m curious how your pen will turn out. What kind of chickens are you going to keep?
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@acruther I’ve turned hundreds on lathes. I’ve done 2 with my Vortex. Both turned out well. For unadorned barrels, the lathe is much quicker and simpler. I used the Vortex for more embellished pens. I drilled the barrels as I would for a lathe job, and glued in the tubes. I used the pen mandrel that I already had in the Vortex.
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Thanks for the replies guys! This is awesome. I was wondering how I would go about drilling the center and then spinning it and this explains it perfectly. Sounds like I need a mandrel. I’m gonna try to see if I can get away with not buying all the other tools. This is what I’m working on:
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Jesus you have to be careful homing anything on the Vortex. So easy to run into things. I’ve bent my mandrel twice and cracked the arm on my dust boot.
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