# Squaring up Your Pen Blanks



## Julie (May 2, 2004)

How do you square up your pen blanks once they are ready tp tbe turned?
Do you use the Pen Mill or do you use a sander?  Just trying to figure out the most efficient way to square up pen blanks.  

Thanks


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## Daniel (May 2, 2004)

I have always used a pen Mill. it has it's pluses and minuses though. no pilots for all the pen tubes. which I fixed through a friend/ machinest.
I have torn up a few blanks but very few. and it is easy to cut into the brass barrel. the sanding disk method I have never used, I woudl think it woudl be pretty hard to damage a blank with it though. the cutting woudl be slower so laess risk of getting to far into the brass. but the set up would have to be fairly accurate and kept that way.


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## Julie (May 2, 2004)

How do you sharpen your pen mill?  I have ruined one and just bought a new one from pens of color, so I'd like to keep this one in better shape..

Thanks


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## Scott (May 2, 2004)

Hi Julie,

I use a pen mill to square blanks.  I mount the pen mill in my drill press, hold the blank with some chanel locks (pliars), and gently bring the mill down to square the blank.  I find I have a lot of control this way.

If you were doing lots of pens, I would think that the sander method would end up being more efficient in the long run.  You would need to make a jig that indexed the blank from the tube rather than from the blank, so that the face would be square to the tube.  Once you get a good jig made and set up, then squaring blanks with the sander would be much quicker and easier.

I sharpen my pen mill with a light touch on the grinder, and follow with the diamond hone.  Remove the pilot shaft, check to see that all four cutting surfaces are even, then try to match the angle that is already on the cutter by touching lightly on the grinder.  I use the diamond hone to touch up the cutting edge in case a burr was formed.

Is your new pen mill the one made by PSI, that has the multiple shafts?  That's the one I have, and I like it!

Scott.


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## jeff (May 2, 2004)

Another vote for the pen mill.  I chuck the mill in my drill press, then hold the blank with the wooden block drilling jig you can buy everywhere. Half way down this page you can see it.  I don't clamp it when I use the pen mill because I like it to be able to float a little since the tube is never exactly parallel to the outside of the blank. As soon as I see the end of the tube start to shine a bit, I stop.  I have the mill with interchangeable pilots, but for the really big tubes, I turned some long bushings out of walnut that adapt the 7mm pilot to the large tubes.


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## Julie (May 2, 2004)

Yes Scott it is.  I needed to replace just the cutter head and Sheila was able to get it for me.


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## PensofColor (May 6, 2004)

We use a pen mill on softer woods, but on the harder, more dense woods we use our sander.  We have a squaring jig that sits against your miter fence on the disc sander.  You just slide the blank already tubed onto the rod of the jig, and then scoot the blank into the sander.  The rod keeps the blank square, and the miter track keeps the jig square.

Perfectly square blanks every time!


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## leenollie (May 7, 2004)

I was having some real trouble squaring my blanks until recently. After drilling, I would use my belt sander and a miter guide to square up the ends. But I started noticing that it wasn't truing up the ends. I used a Carpenter's Square to make sure everything was perpendicular, but I was still having problems. Then I realized, I was truing the blanks to the OUTSIDE edge of the blank, not to the orientation of the tube INSIDE the blank. When I came to that realization, I took an old mandrel and chopped it down to about 3-inches and chucked it up in another drill chuck that I mounted to the Morse Taper on the live center side and used my disk sander to true up the ends. It worked wonderfully. I notice that PSI sells a jig that does the same thing. Lucky for me I had the materials to make my own.

Lee Biggers
The ever curious pen turner []


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## Evan (May 14, 2004)

I clamp the blank on a bench and use a pen mill on a hand drill.  May not be the most efficient way, but I only turn the odd pen right now.

For other sized holes, I use an adapter made from plastic.


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