Bil, There is a lot to learn for sure.
I use a drill press for drilling the blanks and also for assembling the pens. I just glued a piece of osage orange to the end of a bolt with the head ground flat and I use this to press the pen parts together.
Some woods require finer sanding than others for the highest gloss. Maple can polish well with just 600 or even 320. Cocobolo I sand out to 12000. Some open grain woods I sand with sanding sealer and even CA glue to fill the grain. I always pop the grain on maple with BLO followed by sanding sealer (shellac based) so the CA has something to stick to. Some woods you can wet sand, others NEVER. I almost always use a CA finish. I do this with a capillary type end on the CA bottle so I can dispense small amounts of glue. I use a half sheet of bounty folded up to around 1" x 2". I rub this on the bottom of the sanded pen turnings back and forth as I apply the glue. I look for a haze to develop. Keep the paper moving and smooth the glue continuously at a slow lathe speed. After 5-12 coats I will go back and sand 1500, 2400, then 4000 MM
(Micro Mesh) then polish with Novus polish. I inspect the pen barrels and look for scratches or dull spots. If I find something I go back to adding glue and then through the process.
Resin blanks are harder to turn because they can shatter easy. I rough them on a belt sander till round and then rough them with a sharp 60 degree pointed scraper. Next I use a skew to get them smooth and I alternate between using the skew "knife way" to using it as a scraper. After final sanding, usually 1500 Micro mesh (all wet sanding), I polish with Novus plastic polish/fine scratch remover.
You can turn between centers, but it will be a little harder because there is essentially less room around the ends because the centers are closer to the bushings. You can add spacer bushings to a mandrel to allow more room.
If you want I can get it done and in the mail.
but I wouldn't want to deprive you of the fun nor the character building and possible blistered paint. By the way I would recommend that you stick to platinum, rhodium, chrome, or titanium gold or black titanium. None of the other finishes hold up in the long term and some won't last but a few weeks of regular use. If you have more questions I can pm you my phone #