• Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!

Barrel trimmer

AndyP

AndyP

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
14,161
Reaction score
1,699
Location
14860 Normandy, France
For too long I have trimming 8mm barrels/blanks with a 7mm trimmer wrapped with masking tape. 18 months ago:eek: I bought a set of handleless barrel trimmers and today I finally got round to fitting them into handle.
IMG_4919.jpeg
I could have and perhaps should have made a new handle but found a old broken screwdriver and repurposed the handle instead.

I much prefer the control that trimming barrels this way offers rather than using a sanding disk or any other mechanical methods.

I’ve an 8mm pen in prep at the moment so will be able to test soon.
 
I use the same sort of jobbie that I bought from Ax a coupla years ago; I use it at slow speed in my Festoll drill. Out of interest Andy, where do you purchase your pen kits? A certain individual who I no longer have any contact with recommended Beaufort but they're a bit spendy, however great if you only make (as I do) the odd pen now and again....and I still haven't used that pen blank you very kindly made me some time ago. It will get used when a 'special' project comes along - Rob
 
Most often Axminster Rob, Artisan click pens as they take the standard Parker type refil. I give a verbal lifetime repair or replace guarantee with every pen I've given and none have come back yet.
 
AndyP said:
Most often Axminster Rob, Artisan click pens as they take the standard Parker type refil. I give a verbal lifetime repair or replace guarantee with every pen I've given and none have come back yet.
Click to expand...

Thanks Andy. I used the Ax Artisan twist kits to make a few trial pens which were well received by those I gave them to, but the last two pens I made were using this kit from Penn State, all in solid stainless steel. My one has a barrel in ABW and SWIMBO's in Rosewood; they're our holiday pens and have each traveled many thousands of miles to Japan and back - Rob
 
Turners Retreat has been my other source of late for a few of these
www.turners-retreat.co.uk

Workshop Sketch Pencil

Project Kit You'll find numerous uses around the house and shop for this heavy duty, practical and attractive mechanical pencil. The 5.6mm (nearly 1/4" dia.) lead will never break. The pencil includes a precision, German-made mechanism and...
www.turners-retreat.co.uk www.turners-retreat.co.uk
 
Well! I have never heard of a barrel trimmer before. Was totally bemused. What does it actually do?
 
My interest has been piqued with this thread; I’d like to have a go at making pens and pencils.

Any recommendations for the basic tooling I would need, I guess a mandrel is an essential requirement, I have been looking at the AXI and TR options but not knowledgeable enough as to which of their offerings would be best, and also give me the scope to make different options.

I was given a Clarke 13” 1MT lathe a couple of years ago and to be honest its actually very good, for the “little” wood turning I do. I have a few in progress projects I am working on, more so now that I can pursue a more leisurely life, I have been looking at getting a chuck for it, and pen jaws, from AXI, to make the small pieces that I would like to make to complement the ongoing projects.
 
HOJ said:
My interest has been piqued with this thread; I’d like to have a go at making pens and pencils.

Any recommendations for the basic tooling I would need, I guess a mandrel is an essential requirement, I have been looking at the AXI and TR options but not knowledgeable enough as to which of their offerings would be best, and also give me the scope to make different options.

I was given a Clarke 13” 1MT lathe a couple of years ago and to be honest its actually very good, for the “little” wood turning I do. I have a few in progress projects I am working on, more so now that I can pursue a more leisurely life, I have been looking at getting a chuck for it, and pen jaws, from AXI, to make the small pieces that I would like to make to complement the ongoing projects.
Click to expand...
Axminster do a pretty comprehensive range of pen turning kit. The essentials as you mention are a mandrel and a device to squish all the components together to make the pen. Ax do an 'all singing, all dancing' version which is great, but there are less expensive options. A barrel trimmer is very handy as well and unless you opt for pens with an 8mm hole, you'll need a variety of different sized drills to make the 'oles in the blanks which is also a great way of using up oddments of precious or exotic timber - Rob
 
The barrel trimmer is worse than useless, wouldn’t cut melted butter. I reverted back to the 7mm with masking tape.

Any ideas on how to sharpen the arrowed bit?
IMG_4924.jpeg
 
I haven't used mine for a while Andy as I make few pens these days, still have probably a good 50 0r 60 made up but I sharpened my trimmers with a thin diamond file. I don't like the barrel trimmers much as they chew up soft and spalted wood so I rigged up a jig to do it on the disk sander.

My interest has been piqued with this thread; I’d like to have a go at making pens and pencils.
Any recommendations for the basic tooling I would need, I guess a mandrel
Click to expand...

A mandrel certainly makes it easier Paul but is not necessary to turn pens which you can do without too much difficulty between centres. I made many of my first pens that way and there are several prolific turners who prefer that method.
Have a look at https://penturners.co.uk/ if you're interested. There are some decent people on there and it's a friendly forum very much like TWH2
 
HOJ said:
Any recommendations for the basic tooling I would need,
Click to expand...
Rotur are a good brand for a mandrel Beaufort Ink are selling a morse taper 1 mandrel with hollow centre for a decent price, I’d always recommend a hollow centre as it prevents the mandrel from being bent when under pressure leading to discrepancies when assembling the pen.
There are a couple of ways of trimming the blank to the tube but I’ve always found a sharp barrel trimmer the easiest
There are quite a few kit suppliers out there & well worth shopping around as some are a lot cheaper than others such as

www.taylorsmirfield.co.uk

Taylors Mirfield

Taylors Mirfield
www.taylorsmirfield.co.uk www.taylorsmirfield.co.uk
www.oliverswoodturning.co.uk

Pen Kits - Olivers Woodturning

www.oliverswoodturning.co.uk www.oliverswoodturning.co.uk
www.turners-retreat.co.uk

Ballpoint Pen Kits - Pen Making - Turners Retreat

Ballpoint Pen Kits from Turners Retreat.
www.turners-retreat.co.uk www.turners-retreat.co.uk

Pen Kits Accessories & Sundries - prokraft

Description
www.prokraft.co.uk
www.beaufortink.co.uk

Pen Kits | Pen Making Kits | Pen Turning Kits

High-end pen kits designed in the UK for discerning pen makers. Original pen turning kits engineered for precision, reliability, and long-term performance.
www.beaufortink.co.uk www.beaufortink.co.uk

Pen Kits

Pen Kits - quality pen kits for creating your own unique pen, choose from a selection of styles and coloured finishes. We are a UK based company with all stock in the UK.
www.cscrafts.co.uk www.cscrafts.co.uk
www.pen-kits.co.uk

Pen-Kits

Pen-Kits.co.uk Best prices in UK, No ridiculous shipping costs, Cheapest bushings on the Planet, Biggest Selection of Acrylic Blanks, No minimum order
www.pen-kits.co.uk

It’s an enjoyable pastime which is ideal for using up off cuts that are too good to throw away
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top