Pen Making, Start to Finish (Part 2)

Step 3, cutting the wood to size.

This pen has two sections, each with different size brass tubes. The extra piece (left) will be kept for future projects.

 #pen #handcrafted

Step 4, drilling.

Next the pieces are drilled out to accommodate the brass tubes. The brass tubes are the hard structure the metal pen parts of the kit such as the mechanism, nib and clip will fit into. Using these brass bases keeps the pens uniform and the beautiful wood unstressed.

Here I'm using my new toy, a drill chuck and jaws that fit on the lathe. This new system ensures the wood is drilled in the exact center. I'm hoping this will help ensure my Celtic knots are more evenly spaced. We'll see. Regardless, it's a much better system than using a drill press. A little slower, but I'll sacrifice a little time for accuracy.

You can see that it spins the wood (left) while the drill bit stays still. This is how it ensures the hole is drilled in the exact center. Even if the wood isn't perfectly square, it will rotate around its center, which happens to be online with the drill bit.

Step 5, placing the tubes.

Once the wood has been drilled, the tubes are set in place using medium-thickness cyanoacrylate (super glue). I'll let that set a little, then reinforce the bond by slowly adding thin cyanoacrylate around the edges and letting it seep in. I usually let these set overnight.

Here's a link to Part 3.