good turning day gone bad....

Dan Noren

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started out the day (last one off for 4 days) with the good intent of turning 6 celtic knot pens out of purpleheart and yellowheart.:D started out good, with enough blanks (8, as i cover all bases:thumb:), and inserts that were cut the other day. then it went downhill from there. i got all the first cuts done, the first insert broke off clean halfway in, and the glue set up before i could get it out. one blank down. the other inserts went in nicely. then after i cut the second blank's second cut, i noticed something wrong.:eek: i hadn't watched where i was cutting, and made the cut in the wrong place.:doh: another blank down.:doh: oh well says i, i still have 6 blanks.:thumb: the rest of the cuts and inserts went nicely. then it was time to drill. i marked dead center on the tops of the blanks, slapped them in the jig, and drilled them out, so far so good. glued the brass tubes in with no problems. i decided to turn the one that i thought might be a problem child of the bunch, and boy was i right.:mad: note to anyone else wanting to try a celtic knot pen, when it's spinning, and down to round, you can tell if you drilled straight by the image made by the inserts, found that out the hard way.:bang: then, as i was about to make the last pass, cutting the last blank, the one that looked like (and was) the best of the bunch, my dad hollered out to lock up the house before i left. needless to say, that distracted me just enough for a slight catch at the end of the barrell, and blew apart the end of the barrell.:bang: when i saw how perfect the knot was, and the busted end of the barrell, jesus wept. well, to make a long story bearable, of the 8 blanks i started out with, there were only 3 survivors.:( one bad cut, one broken insert, three ugly knots (if not drilled even a touch off, wide open on one side, bunched up on the other), and one blown apart on the lathe. of the three that survived, now that i am finishing them with a crystal clear poly, it looks like the purpleheart is bleeding into the yellowheart.:bang: what i think i'm going to do, is fall back to plan b (these pens are intended for a silent auction for the minnesota vikings, hence the purple and gold), is to make sets of the pens, one purpleheart, and one yellowheart. can't go wrong there. thank god i go back to work again tomorrow....:rofl::rofl::rofl:
 

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the rest of the pics....
 

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Always did find the drilling to be the hard part on a celtic knot for pens...

Sorry to hear about the troubles... I HATE it when days like that happen! :doh:
 
thanks brent! this is the only one of the 3 survivors good enough to make a pen out of. i'm going to give it to the friend of the family, and tell her about going for the purple and gold sets of pens.
 

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The only thing I'll say about the celtic knot, is that I like them with a little more of an obtuse angle.

Seems to stretch it out a bit more along the length of the pen...

What I'm curious about is your kerf looks pretty narrow? Did you use a table saw or band saw for that?

I screwed up a bunch of these when I was making them it wasn't even funny.

With all the practice you got on this bunch, You are bound to be an expert on your next batch... :thumb:
 
Are the Vikings trying to raise extra money to pay Favre to play? A little side money goes a long way.
Dennis
 
brent, i used my bandsaw to make the kerfs. i have a jig set up for when i cut them. these ones were cut with the table at a 25 degree tilt. the nice thing is that my little steel ruler is the same thickness as the kerf, and came in handy when making the jig for cutting the inserts. i think i'm going to stick to one at a time, and try to be as accurate as possible.
 
brent, i used my bandsaw to make the kerfs. i have a jig set up for when i cut them. these ones were cut with the table at a 25 degree tilt. the nice thing is that my little steel ruler is the same thickness as the kerf, and came in handy when making the jig for cutting the inserts. i think i'm going to stick to one at a time, and try to be as accurate as possible.

I'll have to give the bandsaw a shot on these someday. I actually took a digital caliper to the borg and got the thinnest blade I could find. Ended up being a 7 1/4 (?) circ saw blade. Put it on the table saw and used it, but it was always just a little too thick. Never though the kerf on my bandsaw was smooth enough. I'm thinking I need to get a better blade...

I really like the thin kerf you got...

Looks like you had most of the techniques nailed for those, but just 'Missed it by that much'! I'm sure you'll get em perfect next time...
 
Too bad about the blown blank. A fact of penturning life is, if you turn pens you will blow blanks. I have a nice collection of them.
I don't do celtic knots because I believe they will not bring enough extra money on sales to justify the extra time involved. They are neat to look at though.
 
Well Dan what a bummer. But as they say one learns by trying and making mistakes. I learnt from your experience that its way more tricky than it appears in pictures when other guys are doing it.:thumb:

If Mack sees this post , i know understand why he buys his knot blanks all done to add to his pens.

As to the Vikings .........GO Patriots GO. :D Brady rules.:thumb::rofl::rofl:
 
jim, the angle that looked best to me, for the sierra style of pen, was 25 degrees. you may want to make a sled type of jig to ride in your table saw's miter slot, with a stop block, so that you can repeat the cut. one thing before i forget, you don't have to cut all the way through, you can leave about a sixteenth of an inch.
 
Hey Dan,
I like your color combo... I did a pepper mill in purple heart and yellow heart with a Celtic knot... don't usually do pen blanks because too tedious... working that small ... but my PM turned out nice...
 

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Dan, the one that the insert broke off prematurely in, why can't you make a recut in the groove thus cutting the broken insert out and then the blank is saved.?.:dunno:
 
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