Making a Custom Wood Pen

This is a pen made of Curly Maple on the top and Bocote on the bottom.

I drilled 1/4" holes and added Walnut dowels for accent.

To see more of my Pens goto http://putmanspens.wixsite.com/woodpens

1. Wood cut to 3/4" x 3/4" x 3" to 5"

2. Wood Lathe with Pen Mandrel -- Pennstateind, Rockler, Woodcraft, Woodturningz

3. Lathe Tool - I use one with a carbide replaceable tool.

4. Drill Press

5. Vice for Pen - Pennstateind

6. 12" Disc Sander

7. Bandsaw

8. Pen Press - Pennstateind

9. Bushings - Pen State, Woodturningz

10. CA Glue - Lowes

11. 2P-10 CA Activator

12. EEE Ultra Shine

13. HUT Wax 2 and 1

The first step in making a Pen is to choose the style and then the wood. I have 8 different pen styles and over 57 types of wood.

1. Mark the wood with the bushings

2. Cut the wood on the Bandsaw

3. For these bushings I have them marked F (Front) and B(Back)

The disc sander is required to sand the Pen Blank flat in order to glue the pieces together.

I use Gorilla Glue to glue the wood together

For small pieces, like the maple in the photo, I use a larger piece and push the small piece to the sander

Since I am just making one pen, I am using the vice to clamp the glued pieces. Normally I would use my parallel clamps and glue multiple pens at the same time.

For gluing I use Gorilla Glue as it is extremely strong and has not glue lines. Plus it is a lot easier to clean up.

As this pen has walnut dowel accents, I need to mark a pattern and drill. The dowels are 1/4" dia so I have drilled the blanks with the same size hole.

I used CA Glue to glue the dowels in place by first putting thin CA in the hole and then adding thick CA and hammering the dowels in place.

Once the dowels are in I allowed the glue to dry for 20 min and sanded the dowels flush

The next step is to drill the wood pen blank with the correct drill size to match the brass tube. Once the blank is drilled, I use 5 min epoxy to glue the bushing in place.

This needs to dry over night even though it is called 5 min...

Once dry, I use a barrel trimmer to assure the end of the blank is perpendicular to the brass tube glued in the bushing

This step I trim the pen blanks to make it easer to turn on the lathe

Now I turn the pen to the bushing diameters that match the pen parts

Start with 220 and work up to 400 grit.. sanding with the lathe turning then off with the grain

Now I put CA glue on a paper towel and apply to the blank at slow speed

Next I sand the CA coating again with 220 to 400 grit.