A day in the shop with my son

[TracyP]

I had the pleasure of spending the day in the shop with my son and we made several things, the most time consuming was a segmented Wall Street pen. We started out by gluing four 1/2 x 1/2 pieces of wood together, Cherry, Cumala, Walnut, and Purple Heart.


We drilled and cut the glue ups into 17 1/8 inch pieces and then glued them up, staggering the species.


Then we sanded the segments,



during which time there was a lot of CA glue put on the blank.

Now to the fun part, turning the blank:icon_chee,
.

And now after many coats of CA and lots of polishing with micro mesh we have the finished product.



Thanks so much for looking, We had a great father and son weekend.:thumbs_up

Total pieces of wood= 68, pen kit=1, ca glue, medium and thin, BLO as a base finish, gorilla glue to glue the wood together, micromesh, and about 5 hours of fun, beer= too many:rotflm:, me only!

 

[PChristy]

Tracy that is one good looking pen - great job:icon_thum - the best thing was the father-son time - that is awesome

 

[Jon]

Thats a really nice pen and I'm sure it will be a treasure because you and your son did it together

 

[Bas]

That's a great looking pen Tracy. And if you managed to finish the weekend without gluing your hands together (you and/ or your son's), you done good!

 

[erasmussen]

WOW
A segmented pen, I like it:icon_thum

 

[woodArtz]

Amazing job! It's great that you're able to share the experience with your son. :icon_thum:eusa_clap:icon_thum:eusa_clap

 

[DaveO]

Tracy & 02Ranger, that is a great pen and the collaboration makes it even more special.
Keep it up y'all make a great team!

Dave

 

[LittleJohn_NC]

Great pen I really like it...LJ:gar-Bi

 

[flatheadfisher]

Great series of pictures. I wondered how those were made. The time with your son is priceless.

 

[Canuck]

What a cool idea, Tracy!!!:eusa_clap

Just 'shows to go ya'. There ain't no scraps in most shops!!!!

Betcha your son really enjoyed the adventure as well.:icon_chee:icon_chee

Wayne

 

[LeftyTom]

:eusa_clap:eusa_clap Spiffy work from the two of you, Tracy.

 

[bluewing92]

Great looking pen. Just goes to show that there is no such thing as scrap.

 

[JackLeg]

WOW, Tracy! You stick with Matt and you may learn some stuff!!

:rotflm:

Great looking pen, gents!! :eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap

 

[skeeter]

Nice looking pen. Thanks for the "how to" pix.

 

[Splinter]

Great job on the pen and the time spent with your son will remembered whenever you or he uses the pen.

 

[rcflyer23]

That pen is awesome... Now I know what I am going to use my scraps for. That is great.. I can't wait to try that out.

 

[02ranger]

Thanks everybody for all the kind words. This was a project I've wanted to try ever since I saw a picture of one. It was a lot of fun making the pen, and it was nice to have a day to work together like that. Thanks again.

 

[TracyP]

I will second the thanks for the kind words. There a couple of light mistakes that are hidden in the photography but I personally think it came out great for our first segmented attempt. Can't wait for the next one.

 

[rcflyer23]

I will second the thanks for the kind words. There a couple of light mistakes that are hidden in the photography but I personally think it came out great for our first segmented attempt. Can't wait for the next one.

Well I gave this a try tonight. Let's just say :BangHead: and :notworthy:

You did an awesome job. Mine turned out more like patchwork and I had a slight angle to all of mine. I am no good with the bandsaw. I think next time I will cut the tiles on the tablesaw.

You are the master. :gar-Bi

 

[TracyP]

Well I gave this a try tonight. Let's just say :BangHead: and :notworthy:

You did an awesome job. Mine turned out more like patchwork and I had a slight angle to all of mine. I am no good with the bandsaw. I think next time I will cut the tiles on the tablesaw.

You are the master. :gar-Bi

Most of ours were cut on a Ridgid table saw with a thin kerf blade, and with the Osborne EB3 miter gauge until the last three cuts. Those were cut on the band saw. Those three or was it four cuts actually came out a little crooked. We hid them in the photography and referenced them in the last couple of post as mistakes. Now my advise and the thing that Matt and I determined would fix this problem was to make the blank much longer than needed and do all of the cuts on the table saw with a stable miter gauge of your choice. The last couple of cuts were very scary on the table saw as MY fingers were way too close to the blade. So to sum this post up: Forget the band saw, make your blank way too long, at least double what you need, use a stable miter gauge, and keep them digits away from the table saw blade. Also I highly recommend that you use a 1/16 kerf blade. HTH EDIT, I was thinking about this reply and you could actually glue a handle (sacrificial piece of wood) so to speak on the end of your blank to put your fingers out of harms way.