Acrylic Cigar

[rcflyer23]

I made this for a friend of the family. She has trouble with her hands so a larger pen was called for. I think it turned out pretty well.

 

[TracyP]

Very nice pen and an even better gesture.:thumbs_up:thumbs_up

 

[CaptnA]

Good work. Looks like the fit is nice.
I'm not a big fan of acrylics, preferring wood; but since you didn't make it for me - that's not an issue :gar-La;
I know my mom likes her cigar because its size is easier on her hands with a bit of arthritis in them. A lot of turners shy away from bigger pens for ladies, but at least half of the ladies I've asked have preferred the larger pens. Many like the carbara/atlas I think being a bit shorter but still prefer the beefier versions I've made as opposed to the thinner or tapered ones.

 

[MrAudio815]

Wow, That is pretty darn awesome!!!

So you turned an acrylic pen???

Very nice work!!!

 

[rcflyer23]

Yeah most of the off the shelf acrylics I am not a huge fan of. This one is okay. Yeah my wife, mother, sister all love the cigar because of the size. there is only one place that I would have turned thinner but I wasn't sure how far my bushings had been turned down and just forgot to grab my calipers. Oh well. No biggie she will never know.

 

[woodArtz]

Nice pen Kevin! Great job!! :icon_thum:icon_thum:icon_thum

 

[Skye]

Very nice looking blank and kit finish combination. It looks like you're a HAIR underturned at the nib, but it's hardly noticeable.

Good job matching the figure in the acrylic.

 

[rcflyer23]

Hey Skye welcome to the site. I didn't realize you were in Rock Hill..... I've seen you on penturners.org alot and I guess I didn't pay attention to your location. Yeah I was worried that my bushings had been sanded down so I left things a little proud on the Nib and at the center band on the lower barrel. I am giving serious consideration to taking that piece apart and turning it down just a bit more to get a better fit.

It was an interesting blank, I had to make a couple of cuts to get the brass in a position that would look good. There was a lot more plain red than smoke.

 

[Skye]

Yeah, I'm down South. I've even started attending the meetings in Charlotte. Pretty cool stuff.

I know just what you mean about the bushings. It's always a risk if you decide to rely on them, but I'm not proficient at using calipers, so I just try to keep the bushings fresh and make sure I order them from the same place I get the kits.

Getting a perfect fit is a pain, but it's my pet peeve, which you may have noticed on IAP, lol. It causes me some grief from time to time but my theory is, there's design preferences and there are flaws. They're not really interchangeable. I'm glad to see you take the criticism with a healthy attitude, it's better than a surprising number of others who didnt.

:argue:

 

[rcflyer23]

Yeah I am like you I am not comfortable with the calipers yet. I have only been turning since Sept 08 so I am still somewhat of a newb. I think some of the issue with the bushings now that I looked at them again is some CA build up. I need to clean them and check them with the calipers agains the kit to see how close they are.

As far as criticisim, keep it coming, it only makes me better.

I thought I was okay with the underturn last night but the more I look at the pen and the pictures, the more I want to fix it. I mean we are only talking about 15 mins or so. I am pretty picky like that too I want to get a perfect/near perfect fit for the pens, now if I could just get a consistent CA finish I would be a heck of a lot happier. In time.

 

[Skye]

I'm supposed to be doing a CA demo in April at the Charlotte meet. There's going to be a few demos going on at the same time and I've got he CA finish one. It's not hard, just have to not overthink it.