Episode: 1954
Title: HPR1954: Grandpa Shows Us How to Turn Custom Pens
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1954/hpr1954.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 11:51:44

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This is HPR Episode 1954 entitled Brand Parts Show us how to turn custom pens.
It is hosted by John Kulp and is about 67 minutes long.
The summary is live action audio on my mad teaching us how to turn pens on a mini lane.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by An Honesthost.com.
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So we're recording this on December 23rd, a couple of days before Christmas.
My parents are visiting here from Tennessee for the Christmas holidays and maybe we just
got back from a massive breakfast at the diner, went to Tikkun's diner and got just
fat on food.
How do I pick this up?
Picking up a massive chop saw that we're storing in my office.
Of course as soon as I get that chop saw in my hand, mosquito flies lands on my face.
And these power tools weigh a ton.
Okay, so Dad, where do you want the chop saw?
Should just be on the ground.
Is that okay?
On the other side here?
Okay.
So what we're doing here is Dad, my dad, grandpa, wants to show the grandkids how to turn
custom pens with a lathe.
Of course, hopefully everyone's familiar enough with woodworking to know that a lathe is
something where you put a piece of wood on a thing that turns it really, really super
fast and you use different sizes, different gouges to shape it into a round thing.
You can, you know, shape it by gouging it while it's spinning super fast.
And I don't see my extension cord right now.
I wonder if I put it in a big white box out front.
And my dad has been doing these custom pens for a little while.
He's not as good at it as my cousin, Robert, who sells them professionally and it does
beautiful, beautiful pen and his nephew also makes them.
But anyway, my dad got this old pen lathe when my cousin upgraded his.
I guess he bought it from, my cousin got an upgrade and my dad bought the old one from
my cousin.
Well that's what he has now.
I think that's a story.
I found it.
I found it.
I hit it from myself by hanging it up in a different place than I was used to having it.
I need it to get a power strip or two.
Okay.
Something so I can have more than one outlet.
I understand.
Keep close.
I understand.
I don't think I have one.
We have stupid weather in Latvia right now.
It's really warm.
It's like 70, 75 degrees Fahrenheit and really humid.
That's pretty annoying.
Alright, so I'm going to take a picture of the chop saw and the lathe.
Oh, it looks like he's got a pen blank mounted in the lathe.
Okay, so first this is the lathe and here's the chop saw and there's my dad, dad's
smile for the camera.
So that I'm recording for Hacker Public Radio while we're doing this.
It'll be edited.
But have you got enough just space to...
Oh sure.
Man, I can record for like 70 hours right now.
So anyway, I was explaining what it is that we're doing, basically what a lay is.
I think most people on HPR wouldn't know what a lathe is.
This is a jet lathe, jet equipment and tools, jet mini lathe because it's for turning
very small pieces of wood and what else do we have over here.
My dad will have to explain the various steps involved in getting a piece of wood on there
and starting to turn it.
I see a thing here that looks like a chuck or something, I'm not sure what that is.
Oh, and he's got a whole box full of blanks.
Are these pieces that you've cut out of wood from like scraps in your workshop?
Yeah, most of this is popular, this is e-pay, which is Brazilian walnut.
Crazy.
Well, I think that is.
It makes a big plain walnut.
The short ones, see, yeah, that was e-pay, this here.
So these are all blanks of wood and so you turn them, but then you have to also have
hardware for the pins or pencils or whatever you're putting together and we ordered those
on a place called pin state industries and there's lots of places you could, I ordered
some for the family.
We're going to make, what are we going to make, oops, there we go.
Okay, dad has just done a tiny little test there.
We ordered blanks, sorry, hardware for some mechanical pencils for me and the kids and
maybe for a pen for my wife and I ordered what a blank, sorry, a hardware also for a really
giant pencil that's got a lead about a quarter inch thick.
So I think it's a six millimeter lead, it's very, very large, it's a lot of people like
to use them in workshops or to do sketching if they're an artist.
So I'm looking forward to that.
Dad has the chop saw here, I guess, to chop off the blanks at the right length.
Yeah, I don't really know, they might not be where we're doing this.
The kids have this default thing of going in and watching videos on their laptops.
So they might still be doing that at this point.
They might not realize it's time to get rolling with grandpa's awesome toys just yet.
So these custom pins, if not really, oh, by the way, kiddo, I'm recording for Hacker
Public Radio while we're doing this, of course, I assume so.
You assume so, when people make these kinds of pins, either they do it for pleasure for
themselves or they sell them, my cousin and his nephew both make quite a bit of money
selling these things and they cost different amounts depending on the material that is
being used.
Hmm, I'm going to make a video of the process here, don't you think that'd be cool?
Don't worry, grandpa, I'll show you.
Just keep your fingers well clear.
This is a little guard that, well, it spins this way and then you put the thing on here
so that when it's spinning, it presses the gouge down into this rather than shooting
it up in your face.
Yeah, it looks different, whoopsie, what did I do here?
It's got a motor down here and if you come around to this side and you look inside here,
come on on.
Monero?
See, it's got a pulley and different sizes down at the bottom, there's a pulley that's hooked
up to the motor, okay?
Now, is this the fastest or the slowest?
This is a little one at the top and a big one at the bottom, it's the fastest, right?
Because this motor is going to the constant speed and so the circumference of that one
is big and for this one to go around one time, this top one, this little may have to
go around three or four times, okay?
So the speed right here at the very top is 3,975 revolutions per minute, okay?
And at the very bottom here, 500 revolutions per minute, okay?
So that's how you change the speed, move the belt, okay?
Does every lathe change speeds this way or can you have it where you just slip
a switch?
Marshalling.
Robert's got one that's got fewer pulley positions and then has a re-estatic type control
for each of those pulley positions to change the speed in a range, okay?
Okay.
That's more specifically.
So he upgraded in order to get this capability of changing speeds quicker?
Yeah.
And what other features does his have that?
I don't know.
I know it costs more.
And he sold me this one for less than half the price or about half the price of what
it cost about new.
Good deal.
Okay.
And he gave me a set of replacement bearings, which were $35 pieces to them and were replaced
with bearings.
Yesterday we went or did before yesterday, we went over to the belt store and got a replacement
or like a spare belt for that thing.
All right.
You met like an actual belt?
No, not this kind of belt.
He showed it to me.
It's a box there.
He's going to be out of sleep.
There it is.
Out here.
This is the replacement belt.
Part number two, five, zero, J, three.
No, two S, zero.
I don't know.
I can't read her writing.
Okay.
Now, this is called a dead center, okay?
This has a, I've put an X on the end and show the middle of the sport.
And an X on the end there that showed where the middle was.
And this has a point in it and then some, some things sticking to the wood.
And this thing does not, you move this, it spins.
This is a live center because this is on a ball bearing.
This part doesn't move and this spins.
Okay.
All right.
And so when you turn it on, spin.
And then what you're trying to do is you have a two.
It's got a very sharp edge to it.
Okay.
And you're going to hold this on the, the bar here and.
I have a question.
Yeah.
Aren't, aren't you supposed to wear safety protection for your eyes when you do this?
Yes.
Okay.
Grandpa just started doing.
No.
No.
No.
This one, I wasn't taking much off.
Yeah.
This one, you can see how that square cross section now the edge is knocked off.
Mm-hmm.
And as you keep going, you're not more and more off until that's round.
Okay.
So you need it to be round before you start furthering out the detail too?
Yes.
Okay.
And we will, what we're going to do today is for the first part is you're each going to
get the practice so that you can use the tool to get it to be round.
Okay.
Then we will go to the actually making pens.
Yeah.
Let's put this inside.
There's just other things you have to do before you get to the lady.
Okay.
So who wants to be first?
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Everybody wants to be first.
All right.
Okay.
The boy is going to go first.
Here's your face protection.
And you, you may have a big head like your dad.
I think it's a pretty good size.
I have to push this in.
Oh my gosh.
See it?
All right.
That's good.
Now, what you want to do, you can do what you want to do with your left hand up here or
your right hand.
That's up to you.
But I put my finger right up against this here.
And I hold that thing.
And you control how it's going to move by the back.
Okay.
And so, you're going to just move it.
If you push it in too hard, it'll stop the thing.
Okay.
So, have at it.
Okay.
So my son is going to try it now.
He'll save the other end for her.
Stop the blade.
So he's working on making it round.
It looks round when it's spinning, but you can see it's not.
But you've rounded that off quite a bit.
He's got it where it's...
It's doing very well.
A little bit of flat on each side and it's getting rounder and rounder.
Good job, man.
Was that fun?
Keep on.
So, right now, I'm going to walk over here so that the sound is not so loud.
So right now, they've taken a square blank.
It's a piece of wood maybe 10 inches long or maybe about 20 centimeters, I suppose.
About 20 centimeters long and about three centimeters on the side.
And it's a long flock and he's turning it until it's the edges around it all.
They've taken a good bit off now.
Can you see that this side, I pushed in a lot more and this is...
You've taken off a lot more here and that's more nearly round.
You see, it's got a little bit of flat side.
Let's try to do it more even though.
But this one, you see.
Yeah, this is getting to be round.
Yeah.
This thing's round.
This simulation was called a doubt.
And...
See if you like that.
Now, one of the things is hard to do is take a lot of practice.
Okay.
Is to wherever you are here, have the same pressure.
Because what you're doing is you're getting deeper here and as you go to the left,
you're getting further back away.
So this side's bigger than that one.
And it just takes practice.
I mean, it's like when you were doing your blacksmithing,
it took practice to get at the same size all along the end.
But your teacher could, couldn't he?
So I have a question here.
Yeah.
Is it...
When you're putting the tool against this guy,
you're supposed to always keep the barrel of it even here or can you go up and down it?
But if you go too far like this, it's going to jam.
Drag that thing right in there.
Yeah, yeah.
And now, Robert has a real nice bar here that I would like to get.
And it's not flat.
It's perfectly round.
But anyway, you're doing pretty good, Kit.
Thank you.
I mean, really?
All right.
Okay.
So what we'll do is we'll move this over.
She's going to have a little harder job.
She's up for it.
I'm sure.
Because see, this wood's not as good as shape as that other.
So I'm not sure how it's going to turn.
Now, you may need to get your thing adjusted.
Yes, too big for you.
Oopsie.
The face protection is a little bit too large for my daughter.
You know.
You saw what he was doing.
I haven't liked this.
If you were to go real flat and jam it in there, it would catch.
You don't want to catch, but you want to take off that edge.
So ever so gently.
Come on back.
Let me show you something.
I put my finger in here.
This will groove this and hold it.
Because I can keep it against the bar better.
And I can control the distance in better.
Whereas my hands back here, I can't control it as much.
But this, see, it's not going to go any further in than I let it.
You see?
Okay.
Try that stance.
And you can, if you like to have your right hand forward,
you can do it with your right hand forward.
Whatever is comfortable for you.
Okay.
So we have to pull your thing back.
Pull it back before you start the machine.
Let's see if it's round.
It feels pretty round to me.
Ooh.
Good job, eh?
Was that fun?
Yeah.
This thing you got it all over your...
Let's try using this one a little.
Okay.
Okay.
I don't know.
I don't know if this is fun.
There's something going to walk away from the thing for a little bit.
I'm going to hear a lot of gouging and stuff.
Hey, Mr. Ed.
I'm going to do it over there.
Make a noise.
You'll make a noise?
Yeah.
My dad brought his mini-laid.
He turns custom pins.
Oh, that's what you're making?
Hey, Dad, show Mr. Ed your custom pin.
Do you have it in your pocket?
You make that with...
Oh, my God.
Yeah, I started with that.
I think a piece of history.
Pretty nice.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, I started with that.
I think a piece of history.
Pretty nice.
Oh, my God.
That's not a mill, sir.
They're going to make it today.
They're going to make you one like this.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're going to have to be something on John's.
Big pin.
Yeah.
And I'm going to show you how we're going to cut this thing in half.
Okay?
While it's spinning?
Yeah.
Isn't that dangerous?
David, could you step back a little bit?
Oh, my God.
I'm not sure I like this part right here.
It is.
Okay.
Well, he sure did cut it while it was on the lathe.
The lathe stops.
They can pop it apart and then you sand it off a little bit.
No, usually you can cut it all the way through.
But we're going to have to do that on yours.
Remember, at the top, you're supposed to cut it down to the tube for an eighth of an inch?
I don't remember that, no.
So it's about that thickness.
Okay.
Just take it right down to the tube.
All right.
So we're going to make a pinch for everybody.
It's going to get one.
It's going to make a pinch of pencils.
Oh, if you're going to make two of them, they're not going to look good.
Oh, they're going to be beautiful.
Yeah.
You said that, but they're going to look good.
Yeah, stop the video for now.
Okay.
Your grandpa is going to show you how to make a pretty one.
We're going to try.
Now, what you have to do to take these out, I feel that.
That's going to be hot, isn't it?
It's a little warm.
That ball bearing there.
It's been spinning pretty fast, right?
Okay.
To get that out, because that's called a Morse 2, a Morse taper number two.
And you have to unlock that.
Spin it back.
And this is going to push this thing out.
See, a cop, cop, then you just do that.
There it comes.
Crazy.
So this one, you can't do that.
Look in the box.
I have to take it out, put it in the box.
There's a little thin tube with a knob on the end.
This side.
Little rock.
And it goes right here.
Okay?
Because then you just take this thing and put it in this hole and knock it out.
Okay.
Nice.
All right.
Now we're going to put this on.
He's picked up a large chuck.
A little chuck.
This is a special one that's got two jaws that's made for pin blanks.
Okay.
And then we're going to take...
We're not going to do it yet, but this is going to show you how it goes.
Yeah, don't worry about sweeping up yet, man.
Yeah.
We'll do that later.
That's going to go in like this.
Then you tighten it down on there.
Tighten it down.
Okay.
You have to make sure it's perfectly straight.
And then we're going to put...
I'm going to have this in over here.
I'm going to put a drill bit in here.
Okay.
I'm going to use this as a hardware sound boring machine and drill right through it.
Okay.
You've got to drill the hole in for you to turn it.
Okay.
So what we have to do is get your pin kits.
They were on there.
By the...
We need to get...
Whichever one's going to do this first.
We need to figure out what you need to do with it, man.
Then we have to cut it.
I think we're right over here.
I moved them over here, I think.
Oh, yeah.
Here they are.
Not even sure who's this who's.
Well, they are.
Well, they're mine.
They have to get the catalog and have them look at the picture.
Ava, you had a slimline pin saw?
I don't remember.
I couldn't decide.
So I didn't say anything.
So I guess whatever's left of it.
Brush, satin, slimline.
I'm sure they got it in place.
Oh, sorry.
Ava bonked me.
Keep forgetting there's the huge thing.
Right here.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
And this uses a 7-millimeter...
Right.
Okay.
Are we still recording?
I'm coming inside to get some water.
Hmm.
Get some seltzer.
I should do an HPR episode about my seltzer maker sometime.
We've got this thing that does fizzy water.
It has carbonators in it and you push a button and it makes your water bubbly.
Ah, refreshing.
I didn't put too many of it because you need your tooth to your...
The real one.
And I don't have a bunch of extra tooth.
Yeah, but I really think quite...
We will get back.
Looking at the quality of this, I think I'm going to mess that up or like cut into it.
So that the hole is...
I doubt it.
But I can understand your concern.
And that is why I bought an extra one just in case we needed to do it.
No matter what, you're going to come out with a nice pan.
We hope so.
All right.
So what we're going to do...
Isn't this thing supposed to be clipped?
Oh, I see it.
So what Grandpa's doing right now is making an X on the end of this blank.
To find where the center is.
To stick it on the lathe.
And I think my girl is going to practice one more time, is that right?
Yep.
Okay.
I still haven't gotten to turn a single thing yet, which I think is kind of unfair.
It is unfair, but your daddy is allowed to be unfair to dad.
Yeah.
Being unfair to dad is kind of normal.
That's part of the game.
Yeah.
That's what you pay for being a dad.
Yep.
That's all right.
Yeah.
Here we go.
Let me get this.
Let's see how that spins.
That's why it's called lying.
But what if I don't do it right on the pretty colored one?
I have another one.
I've got one extra of each one.
And if worse comes to worse, I will do it for you.
Thank you.
And if I mess it up, I will then go order another one and make it and mail it to you.
Don't worry.
You'll get a nice pencil bag.
No pressure here.
What I'm expecting is that it's going to be fine.
And I will take the extra one that I bought and I make it for a lady in the line's club.
Because she likes purple.
No pressure, baby.
This is supposed to be fun.
It is fun.
Remember, as long as you don't get hurt,
if it messes up, it's just a few dollars.
There's not a whole lot right on this.
How many of your friends can say they've turned a pen on a lathe, huh?
A bit zero.
You can go to...
Backwards, that's upside down.
Oopsie.
Hold still.
There we go.
Okay, now.
Why don't you just do about it for here or something?
Ready?
Okay.
Now, you see this is a little better.
It got thin and then it's better than it's moving.
They're really fine work.
And I'm not very good with input.
We have...
Oh, the calipers.
And we can do it in inches and in a millimeter.
I have a pair of just like that.
The digital.
So we see we can come like this and point seven, four, three inches.
Yeah, I'm sure it's more dangerous.
Then you see it will fit here.
A lot of them just have calipers that have two points that come together on this.
And they set what they want.
And they just bring down safe potential.
Okay.
As you can see.
But I bet you could come along here.
And if you held it exactly the same distance from it and go all the way across, you see.
It would, it would look well without.
So this, this blank that we're practicing on right here.
Is that suitable material to make a real pen too?
Sure.
Okay.
That's really smooth.
That's a popular.
Yeah.
We have shelves made of poplar.
And poplar makes a pretty pen.
Poplar.
Also it's my...
I mess up every single blank I can make it.
That's right.
Got a little bit of a neck in here.
But this is pretty good.
Now remember, you're not going to make this thing perfectly straight.
Because this was not straight, is it?
It's a little fatter here.
And it comes down.
And what we're going to have is we're going to have bushings that slide up against this.
And you turn them down until it is exactly a level with the bushing.
You see.
Because that's how you tell how fat this is.
Okay.
You're going to be okay.
John, you want to do some turning?
Sure.
I've got to take her to get pottery here in a few minutes.
But I wouldn't mind trying that.
I'm probably terrible at this.
I feel like I got sawdust all right here.
You might push it down.
And then make it really big for me.
Yeah.
I got a big head.
These guys get to be directors of the school of music and they get big heads.
Of course, he started out with a big head.
Hey.
Okay.
So this way?
Yeah.
This is the top.
Got it.
Pull it.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh.
I think I was coming too much of an angle like that before.
That's not going to be round yet.
No.
Nothing close.
Hey.
It's coming to the coming line.
It's not quite round but you see that side is quite a bit bigger
and maybe the thing was not quite centered but it'll be centered when you finish turning around
it takes a while to get a feel of it then.
And when you're going this way you have the handle just a little bit more cost so that the point of the tool is going into the world.
It takes it off pretty fast then look at that.
It did that was pretty good.
Thank you. It's going fine. Look what I just did.
What kind of was that?
I did this. Good job. He's done a different one.
The wood feels different down here. It's all flat on this side too.
I'm going to make one more pass and then we should probably head out to do pottery.
Now it's coming around. I think I would probably spend a good bit of time with sandpaper.
Do you have a sandpaper tool that you can use while it's spinning?
You just hold the sandpaper on there.
That was yours, okay? Is that popular as well?
I think both pieces were popular.
I'm pretty pleased with myself. I just did my first turning.
Not great. They're using sandpaper on the thing now to smooth it off and check the mailbox.
Okay, so I'm going to have to take my girl over to get her pottery here in a few minutes.
I'll pick this back up in a little while I think.
So, pin turning part due.
Oh man, you've cut it in half.
With the chop saw?
Yeah, that's cute.
Next step is to drill the hole through the middle.
That's tightening the chuck.
What they've done is they've taken my daughter has chosen for her pin a block of acrylic that's purple with swirly bits in it.
Yeah, I'm recording for HPR.
They chopped it at the right length in the chop saw.
I now have to drill a hole through the center of it to receive the condenser of the pin.
The bushing thing is.
And the pin's ink thingy goes through there and all that.
That's a good idea.
Let's show crack it or something.
So, is this now going to turn?
Where's before it didn't turn?
That's going to turn.
Okay, yeah.
It's crazy.
Okay, so it's drilling the hole right through the center of that thing.
That's a little stinky.
You want a piece out?
No, we've seen acrylic do that before.
Nice.
Yeah, it's pretty.
This is coming off in a great big piece of plastic.
It's a little bit warm.
Looks like it's almost through.
I think it's just...
It's coming out like a little bigger.
Yeah, it's through.
It smells kind of like super glue or something.
It smells like super glue.
It might be.
Right.
I'm going to take this.
Got to undo the chuck to release the pin thingy.
Did you order the acrylic?
Yeah, we ordered this.
It's a pretty purple, isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
I like the ripples in it.
Well, I hope that this works out fine in the first one because then I will make...
And look at this other one, Caroline.
Who's that?
This is another one for Ava.
Oh, it's Ava.
Okay, I'm pretty.
She like the colors.
Yeah, beautiful marble, isn't it?
I mean, so he's using the same...
The lathe.
He's just putting a different attachment on it.
So not turning now, but...
Well, I was not turning the wood to...
to trim it, but rather...
It's spinning around and around and around and then he's pushing a stationary drill bit
right through the center of it while the...
Horizontal boring machine.
Horizontal boring machine.
But you use the lathe for it.
You don't have a separate drill.
No.
That's pretty cool.
Yeah.
Oh, I like this one.
It looks like it will center it perfectly every single time.
It's not exactly.
Because this one's off-line by just a tiny...
Oh, dear.
That's why I said get the three-quarter.
Yeah.
We case the tubes not exactly right?
Yeah.
Okay.
Now, we're done with this.
We're going to do yours because he's in there busy.
Okay?
That sound good?
All right.
And it's not hard to fix.
Okay?
Let's see if I can take this out.
These are tiny little pieces.
Mm-hmm.
But if you look at the completed pin,
you can tell that those are about the right length.
Because it's got, you know, each one will have a separate part
and they're going to be separate.
And there'll be a front and a back and something in the middle.
It is kind of surprising how small each piece is.
Okay.
And now this is one thing.
And now we'll go to the middle.
So they're putting these brass tubes through the hole
that they board through the middle of the block.
And this is like the lining of the pin pencil.
Yeah.
So that one's slid right there, didn't it?
Yeah.
I hope it's snug enough.
Oopsie.
Is it going to be snug enough?
Make it snug enough.
Well, so glue sets could be on it.
Oops, the tube came out.
Didn't it?
Yeah.
Why?
Come on, get in there.
Okay.
It's going to be more sanding on that other edge.
That's okay.
It needs to set up a little bit that one.
Yeah.
So on the first part of the block, the tube was nice and tight.
And the second one was a little bit loose.
But the glue oughta once it sets it oughta be okay.
And now removing the drilling chuck.
Oh, a sanding block.
Did you?
It looks like you made this bit right here yourself.
So the pencil has made a sanding, like a round sanding block,
and has applied a round piece of sandpaper to it.
Is this a sticky back sandpaper?
Yeah.
So it comes with an adhesive on it and you stick it right on there.
Okay.
Let me show you what I'm going to do.
We've got to get that block square relative to the sides of the flop.
But it may not be square relative to the length of the tube,
because the hole may not be perfectly parallel to the sides of the flop.
But we've got to have the end of the thing perfectly square to the tube,
not to the rest of the case.
This all makes sense.
I'm going to put this thing in here.
And it seems to be like moving around a little bit.
That'll be all right.
And we'll slide this thing up here very close.
Okay.
Lock it down.
Start it up.
And then sand it off.
That is cool.
There's nothing like a good jig.
Yeah.
That is cool.
So he's mounted the block on this rod that will carry it perfectly perpendicular to the sanding block
with respect to the tube.
And that will square off the end of the block with respect to the tube.
Nice.
Do you want to do it?
Okay.
Push it up there and let it do it.
It'll sound different when it gets to the metal.
Does she have to get all the way to the metal?
Yes.
It has just to disperse.
Oh.
My one finger finger.
We still got a second inch to go.
I'm going to take a picture of this.
It sounds a little different.
It's pretty handy.
It was funny that so I showed the guy at the car park store your text and I said I need
GDT polishing compound.
I said I'm not sure if this is a brand name or GDT is a brand name.
That's what happens when you try to text from that kind of phone.
I couldn't figure out how to backspace.
I get to.
Look, I understand.
That's a hard phone to do that on.
When I get my new phone in July, I'll have you help me set up the text by talking.
Let's see what we got.
Look at this.
They're almost there.
They're not quite.
If you'd have had a rougher sandpaper for this thing, I would have gotten that.
This is 80 grit, this is right in the head.
It has got harder than wood.
I'm going to show you what I talked about.
The thing about being perfectly clean is where you see right there, it's almost touching
the plastic and there, that side is high.
I can see.
Now these you've got it high in this thing up for you to see that.
That's the wobble that can now do it.
You have to wait at the plane for the name.
It's used to really clean.
That's done.
This one needs a little bit more of this.
Okay, this one.
Move this.
Hey, kid.
Finish watching your videos.
See what we'll do is loosen this up.
Yeah, I'm going to stretch it in the lake.
What?
Oh, yeah.
They're working on hers now.
Got this cut in half and it got the liner insert tube thingy stuck in there.
What they're doing right now is sanding off the ends to make them exactly perpendicular
to the board hole.
So if we're set up like this, we can drill his.
And do all that step before we do any turning.
Or we can just turn yours.
I don't think he got any wood.
I'm just going to use one of grandpa's blanks in here.
Oh, okay.
That's what I'm going to do also.
Nice poplar or something.
You want poplar or hickory or e-pen?
This is hardwood.
This is e-pen.
That is pretty.
This is hickory.
Hickory is a hard...
All these are pretty hard, aren't they?
This is hard.
These two are hard.
This is softer.
It's a hardwood but it's the softest of the hardwoods.
I like the red ones.
I bet it looks nice with a finish on it.
Oh, yeah.
That is hickory, I think.
This is really...
Well, you could do a wooden one.
You've got two sets.
So if you decide to, we could just save that red block for another time.
And you could do a wooden one.
Up to you.
We can cut this and make sure...
I think this might be sassafras.
That's... oh, that's fun to say.
The world is in your... oh, it's that.
There's a tie kind of thing in your head.
In that case, I like that jungle one.
Thank you.
The Brazilian one.
That's going to be really pretty big.
It's just a bullet.
Let me take it.
This, like...
This is set to cut the three corners of it.
You like that?
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
If it was a half inch picker.
All right?
And it was five and a half inches long.
Those boards cost five dollars for one foot.
Wow.
Yes.
Okay.
So, you've got...
What did he have in here?
That little one with the...
The rubber cushion one.
You use...
Looks to me like a seven millimeter.
It's what are y'all doing in here?
I'm trying to figure out the terms of things and things are going to go.
Oh, boy.
Wait until tomorrow, early or...
And the weather?
And the weather.
And the weather.
Weather looks fine right now.
It's windy, but...
There's a wind thing over us.
It's definitely windy out there.
So, are you still making your pens?
Well, right now, they're stopping on Ava's to do the drilling part of Isaacs.
Because they just finished the drilling part of Ava's.
And as long as the lathe is set up for that, he's going to go ahead and do...
I don't have to go back and forth as much.
Yeah.
What Ava did the sanding to...
To true up the ends of her blocks.
Got the brass tubes inserted and glued in there.
Awesome.
Those are...
Can sometimes be tricky.
Sometimes it's long.
It's just a matter of time for he's going to have to have a brand new one of those like Robert Gatt.
Because this is Robert's old one.
I understand.
I'm counting on that to get my own.
Oh, we're going to put that.
You know, I'm going to think it.
This is just my little tiny flash.
Yeah.
Maybe we should have a shed down by the garden area where the trampoline is now.
And you can just make a bigger shed so that you could actually work it.
Because it shouldn't be having...
No, you can't even get inside.
Oh dear.
Because of the stuff in there.
But you want a bigger shed.
I know that.
Okay.
You realize I'm recording this, right?
What?
Oh, no.
What's that?
I can't see.
No, I'm just saying this is like for the record.
I just want to be able to prove that you actually said this.
You're imitating my voice.
I'm actually a different wrong.
What's up?
Let me see.
Let me see what you said.
Oh.
It's a purple.
Oh, purple.
Yeah.
Let me see what you said.
Hmm.
It is about lunch time, isn't it?
See how's it going with Mr. Eye here?
Strongest one.
Okay.
All right.
So you can then...
You can see when the end of the bed goes through the end of the board.
Can you see it?
Right there.
Yeah.
It just went through.
That sounds like it probably just finished.
Yeah.
Hmm.
Let me see.
Get caught in there.
There you go.
All right.
So you got it on a really slow speed right now.
Yeah.
Is it the slowest speed?
The slowest.
Next to slowest.
So they've got a very slow speed to do the drilling so you don't crack the thing.
And see how it got off center a little?
Yeah.
That's why I did the three quarterings.
Uh-huh.
That's just the voice of experience here.
So you did a small one?
No, I did the bigger one.
No, I did the bigger one.
So that there's more wood.
Is five eighths the next size down?
Yeah.
I don't think anybody does a...
Some smaller than five eighths.
That would take very fine work.
Well, you can't turn enough off to make it round.
It makes sense?
It does make sense.
Okay, so I know this recording has already gone on quite a long time.
I've just been editing it and I believe they're not cut out about half of the audio.
But at the point where I stopped recording, we still had not created an entire pin yet.
So I thought I would make it just a brief follow-up recording to explain what happens next.
So where we left off was at the point where the hole has been bored in the blank.
The blank has been chopped into the component pieces.
Most of the pin designs have two pieces of wood that are then joined together by a little middle thing.
And then there's a cap on the one end and then the tip on the other.
And so the blocks have been cut in half for each of the kids pins and a hole has been bored through the center.
And my dad is glued in the brass tubes that go down the center of the hole.
What happens next is that a set of bushings are...
You put the two halves of the pin blank onto a spindle on the lathe, separated by bushings that are the exact diameter of the pieces of the pin
that you're going to be screwing and pressing into either end.
So that when you're turning it on the lathe, you keep turning it down until it's exactly even with those bushings.
Then when you take the pieces off and start putting it together with the pin hardware, it all matches up.
So the next step is to turn it round and to make it round and then shape it so that it goes from one bushing to the other in a pleasing way.
There's some flexibility here. You can have it bulged out or go more smooth or whatever. This is all according to taste.
Once you've got it shaped the way you want, you go through a process of sanding to smooth it out.
And my dad has these stacks of sanding board and they're not really boards.
They're like these thick pieces of sandpaper type stuff but they're not precisely sandpaper.
But anyway, he's got a stack of about 15 different grades of sandpaper stuff going from about 300 grit per inch all the way to 12,000 grit per inch, something really fine.
So you just systematically go from coarse to fine. And by the time you've gone through that whole stack, what you do, you have the blank that you've already turned spinning on the lathe the whole time.
And you just rub the sandpaper up against it gently on either side and it smooths it all out.
And you just go through your stack of different grades of sandpaper until you've gotten to the very finest one and then the sanding is done.
After that is time to put the finish on the pen and the finishing depends on what material you're using.
Like my daughter turned two pins out of, well, she did a pencil and a pin, but she did it out of acrylic, which is a synthetic plastic kind of thing.
And so we used a certain kind of finish on hers that you wouldn't use on a wood pin.
I did wood, everyone else did wood pins. I did a giant pencil.
And so what I did was put some wet linseed oil, I think, was the first thing and then what comes next, you kind of wipe it off to make sure any excess is gone and then put some, you alternate layers of glue and then this drying stuff.
I have some pictures of that process in the flicker slide show if you're curious, but you put a little bit of glue on a bit of paper towel and then just rub the paper towel back and forth across the thing while it's spinning on the lathe to put the layer of glue on there.
It seems strange to use glue as a finish, but that's what we do. And then after one layer of glue, you spray it with this stuff that makes it dry almost instantly, then you put another layer and dry it, another layer, dry it and just keep doing that.
And then you buff it out and then do one more coat, I think, for good measure.
I don't remember the exact sequence of steps, but in the end you have a pen that is nice and shiny with a good stiff finish on it that should protect it just fine.
So at that point, you're done preparing the wood parts and it's time for assembly. And for assembly, there are instructions that you probably heard at one point.
I think my dad was asking, where's the piece of paper that was in the hardware here, although I may have cut that piece out of the audio.
But each different pin hardware set comes with instructions on how to assemble it. And at least two or three of these pin kits that I had bought were missing the instructions.
But thankfully, on the Penn State Industries website, they have a button to click here to view a PDF of the assembly instructions.
So I did that for all of those and printed them out and we were fine.
I got to say, though, that the assembly was more problematic than I expected it would be. It seems like, I don't know, three out of the five or six items that we built while my parents were here had some kind of problem.
Like for my giant pencil, the problem was that the very last step was to attach the cap that holds a little sharpener for this very unusual pencil head.
My pencil head is 5.6 millimeters on this, what's they call it, chubby pencil.
And it calls for you to put a single drop of glue in there and then push it down in there and wait for it to dry.
Well, when my dad was putting the drop of glue, he couldn't see very well. And I think inadvertently squeezed a whole lot of glue on there.
And so we put it on there. And next thing you know, that thing is absolutely stuck in the shaft and you can't get the pencil head to move in or out.
And so the next day he went and got some kind of solution. I forget what it was, but it's the same stuff that's in nail polish remover.
And he soaked my pencil in that stuff and got it to unfreeze and now it works again.
But anyway, it seemed like each of the things we assembled had some kind of issue like that.
We actually ruined the first bit of hardware for my wife's pencil and had to use the hardware that I was going to use to make a pencil of the same style.
But I sacrificed mine so that she would have a good working pen. And anyway, that's fine.
I mean, we had a great time making these things and everyone's really proud of the writing instruments that they've created.
And it's fun to show them off. And it's a nice talking point when people see them.
I hope you have enjoyed that. There might be more episodes about pins on HBR. I did see that Dave Morris had recorded a show about fountain pins.
And that's something that Trumpet guy loves. In fact, my cousin, Robert, made a pin for Trumpet guy out of a block of cedar.
And when Trumpet guy found out that my cousin made pins, my cousin's really, really good at this. He sells them on a Facebook page or something.
But he makes absolutely gorgeous pins. And Trumpet guy sent him a block of cedar from a tree that had fallen down in his backyard way back in 2002 when a hurricane blew through Lafayette.
And Robert took this bit of cedar and made him a gorgeous fountain pin out of it. And so that's a nice little memento for Paul, Paulist Trumpet guy.
Anyway, it's all fun. And I hope you guys enjoyed that. Sorry, it was long, but I don't know. Hopefully it was kind of fun to hear the whole process anyway.
That's it. I've talked long enough. Talk to you guys later. Bye-bye.
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