Bob Gibson
Member
- Messages
- 11,481
- Location
- Merrimack, New Hampshire
Long story short........My son is a great guy and I'm really proud of him. He has been living with us for the past 4 months or so. He has PTSD and is on Veterans disability. His marriage dissolved and he was feeling pretty worthless. (he was married to a pretty nasty and crazy woman. She probably gave him the PTSD and not the Taliban )
Anyway, I got him interested in pen turning a few months back. I didn't really expect him to take to it but he has jumped in to it whole hog
He wanted to try his hand at making acrylic blanks and did quite a bit of research on it. The end result was he bought a paint pot from HF and I helped him fit it out to maintain about 60-70 psi. He bought a bunch of dye, pearlizing stuff, and little jars of different color flakes of some kind and several quarts of clear 2 part acrylic. He has spent most of his time down in my shop trying different mixtures and colors. Some have turned out fantastic and some not so well but it is a learning experience.
So, it looks like the pen and wine stopper therapy is working. He is going back to college in a few weeks to get his degree in electrical engineering (all paid for by the VA) and his spirits are at an all time high. He has joined a pen turning forum, IAP maybe ?, and is learning some pretty neat tricks. If any of you pen guys see him on there I would sure appreciate it if you said hello. His name is easy to remember, it's the same as mine
The only down side is I have to learn to live with someone else in my shop using my tools I'm pretty anal when it come to keeping things clean and organized. He is not. (he's getting much better though)
Small price to pay for the results
Anyway, I got him interested in pen turning a few months back. I didn't really expect him to take to it but he has jumped in to it whole hog
He wanted to try his hand at making acrylic blanks and did quite a bit of research on it. The end result was he bought a paint pot from HF and I helped him fit it out to maintain about 60-70 psi. He bought a bunch of dye, pearlizing stuff, and little jars of different color flakes of some kind and several quarts of clear 2 part acrylic. He has spent most of his time down in my shop trying different mixtures and colors. Some have turned out fantastic and some not so well but it is a learning experience.
So, it looks like the pen and wine stopper therapy is working. He is going back to college in a few weeks to get his degree in electrical engineering (all paid for by the VA) and his spirits are at an all time high. He has joined a pen turning forum, IAP maybe ?, and is learning some pretty neat tricks. If any of you pen guys see him on there I would sure appreciate it if you said hello. His name is easy to remember, it's the same as mine
The only down side is I have to learn to live with someone else in my shop using my tools I'm pretty anal when it come to keeping things clean and organized. He is not. (he's getting much better though)
Small price to pay for the results