aluminum pen - how to?

[mbeach]

anyone ever made a solid aluminum pen on a wood lathe?

A friend wants me to make him one.

Thanks

Michael

 

[PChristy]

anyone ever made a solid aluminum pen on a wood lathe?

A friend wants me to make him one.

Thanks

Michael

Mike I have never made one but my guess is that you would need carbide tooling to get the aluminum to cut smooth - If you can get 5/8-3/4 - I am sure someone on the site can give you more info

 

[Ken Massingale]

Brass and copper turn well with wood tools. Myself and others use them for ferrules on turning tools and chisels.
As a matter of fact, several of my pen bushings will attest that aluminum turns well also!
Brass and copper do require frequent sharpening, and I cringe some when turning soft metals so I use the HF tools.

 

[rcflyer23]

Here are a few links to another forum about turning aluminum

http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=51103&highlight=Turning+aluminum

Looks like you can use regular turning tools but you just have to sharpen alot.

You may want to also look at http://www.metalpenblanks.com/

They have some really neat blanks but again you have to keep things nice and sharp.

 

[PChristy]

Google searched and found this
http://penturnersproducts.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=8
http://www.joespens.com/projects/aluminum_pens/How I Made My Aluminum Pen.pdf

 

[Gotcha6]

I'd think a good sharp Oland tool would do it since it uses an HSS insert. It would still need to be sharp unless you wanted to do a lot of polishing. If it were me I'd rather use a metal lathe for roughing to get better control.

 

[mbeach]

Google searched and found this
http://penturnersproducts.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=8
http://www.joespens.com/projects/aluminum_pens/How I Made My Aluminum Pen.pdf

Thanks everyone for the information. The 'joespens' site has a nice PDF with a 'how to' make it.

I think I am going to give it a try. I will let everyone know how it goes.

Mike

 

[jimwill48]

You mean kind of like this:

:dontknow:I cheated and used my metal lathe! I did one with a wood lathe but had to grind my own turning tool in a graver style to really make it work and it was just not worth the trouble. Believe me its not like turning wood. For a Slimline style its very simple on the metal lathe.....

James