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No bushes? No problem ...

Jimjam66

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I've noticed a number of posts recently regarding not having the correct bushes to hand in order to make a certain pen. I thought I would post up some step-by-step pics of the process for making a pen without bushings. Not only is it relatively easy, it also usually produces a better pen as the bushes are sometimes not 100% and so introduce errors into your pen-making. Try it sometime - you'll like it!

First you should get yourself a digital caliper. Wilko has them for £7.50 at the moment, so why not get yourself two? Once you've used them you'll wonder how you ever got along without them. Unless you're an engineer you shouldn't bother with vernier calipers - they are too difficult to read and adjust.

The first thing you will want to do is to check the diameter of the fitting at each end of the section you are about to turn. The bushes simply make this measurement easier to establish:

photo.JPG

In this case I was lucky - both fittings were identical in diameter. This is my target for turning the ends. Because I am a belt-and-braces kind of guy I open the caliper jaws by about 0.5mm. Then I lock them in place with the little screw on top. Now I start turning the section I'm working on between a dead centre (headstock end) and a live centre (tailstock end) with gentle pressure on the brass tube. You can always tighten the tailstock a bit as you go, but if you overtighten you will be starting again! I check each end regularly:

photo 2.JPG

Once i have one end at the diameter I'm looking for, I switch to the other end (adjusting the caliper setting if necessary):

photo 4.JPG

Because I have added that 0.5mm I needn't panic if I turn off just a wee bit too much. The CA will also add slightly to the diameter. Once I have both ends at the desired diameter I can go ahead and shape the rest of the section. Then I sand and apply CA as normal. One thing you need to remember with this method is that CA will run over the edges and down the sides. So when you have finished with the CA you should turn your skew upside down and use the point to square the ends of the tube again:

photo 5.JPG

That's it! Not hard at all, it's just a matter of confidence. As I learned this weekend with Woody, you can do all sorts of things if you just work up the courage to have a go.
 

Jim

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Thanks for adding David, it is great to see picture tutorials, they can help us so much ... :bwink:
 

rowdyyates115

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Thanks David, Love the step by step, I will give this a go on my next pen. Your way has the advantage that no longer are the bushes stuck fast with CA. Brilliant :love_it:
 

edlea

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Very informative ,David. It certainly opens a new door for me... I already have the digital calipers ,so I'm half way there already...AS IF
 

Woody

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That was something we done as a matter of course because most kits never had bushes and a dead center was a must when they did there was a lot of confusion with 7 and 8mm mandrels and bushes my first mandrel you could only turn 1/2 of a pen at a time also there was very few kits available and Craft supplies in millers dale was the biggest seller for turners now they don't really exist any more and pen kite were more expensive then than they are now an example the comfort pen was about £6 to £7 now they are only a few quid I think pen turners today are very lucky in one respect but this post shows some of the skills are disappearing also we didn't have digital calipers well they weren't on the open market there is no challenge now there you go from an old codger Happy turning
 

Jimjam66

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By the way you couldn't make a mistake with using that lathe could you !!!! LOL:ciggrin::ciggrin::ciggrin:

I wondered if you would recognise it, mate! :winking:

Woody, you'll have us all driving our lathes with foot pedals next! :tongue: I have a pair of Verniers which I used to use a lot, but to be honest the fractions of a mm were guesswork - and that was before my eyes went! Digital calipers are so cheap these days that it seems a shame NOT to use them! I have three pairs in the workshop and I couldn't survive with out them.
 

rowdyyates115

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That was something we done as a matter of course because most kits never had bushes and a dead center was a must when they did there was a lot of confusion with 7 and 8mm mandrels and bushes my first mandrel you could only turn 1/2 of a pen at a time also there was very few kits available and Craft supplies in millers dale was the biggest seller for turners now they don't really exist any more and pen kite were more expensive then than they are now an example the comfort pen was about £6 to £7 now they are only a few quid I think pen turners today are very lucky in one respect but this post shows some of the skills are disappearing also we didn't have digital calipers well they weren't on the open market there is no challenge now there you go from an old codger Happy turning

Yeah! Yeah! You will be saying all the blanks were made of stone next .....:funny::funny::funny:
 

Woody

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I wondered if you would recognise it, mate! :winking:

Woody, you'll have us all driving our lathes with foot pedals next! :tongue: I have a pair of Verniers which I used to use a lot, but to be honest the fractions of a mm were guesswork - and that was before my eyes went! Digital calipers are so cheap these days that it seems a shame NOT to use them! I have three pairs in the workshop and I couldn't survive with out them.

David I'm in full agreement with you but I think we should try to keep some of the old skills alive by just revisiting them now and then like you have in this post which I commend you for
 

Grump

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Exactly right There Woody here is a great mixture of both old techniques with modern tools.
I too would be lost without my digital calipers I would need a magnifying glass to see my old verniers.
But have never been lost for a bush and hardly ever use a mandrel in fact I wouldn't know where it is.
Well done David for posting I am sure it will help some members imensly, and show a bit more respect to your elders. There don't nuffink wrong wiv pedals young fella.
 

silver

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That was something we done as a matter of course because most kits never had bushes and a dead center was a must when they did there was a lot of confusion with 7 and 8mm mandrels and bushes my first mandrel you could only turn 1/2 of a pen at a time also there was very few kits available and Craft supplies in millers dale was the biggest seller for turners now they don't really exist any more and pen kite were more expensive then than they are now an example the comfort pen was about £6 to £7 now they are only a few quid I think pen turners today are very lucky in one respect but this post shows some of the skills are disappearing also we didn't have digital calipers well they weren't on the open market there is no challenge now there you go from an old codger Happy turning
I agree, I always measure the fittings and the bushings as I always did it because the old ones were never that accurate and we could never always get the bushings to fit the pen we were turning.

And I have a digital set now as my eyes are not as good as they used to be..

Even now I measure the pen kits and match up the bushings with the correct ones, even though I have all kept bushing labeled up so mistakes should be limited.

Measure twice, cut once.. :-)
 

Grump

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Your all doing it again. SPEEK ENGRISH PLEESE. BUSHES NOT BUSHINGS. BURR NOT BURL. SHEDULE NOT SKEDULE.
Leave the ignorance of our language for the foreigners.
 

Maurice

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Thanks for a great tutorial. Can I ask you to excuse my ignorance but could you explain the use of a dead centre in the head stock. I have only ever hammered a 2/4 prong drive centre into the end of a spindle blank at the headstock end and my revolving tail centre has a point surrounded by a ring which bites into the wood. If I need to buy something different what would I go for?
I am glad that I am not the only one who can no longer read the fine detail on a vernier scale.

Happy turning
 

Woody

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Thanks for a great tutorial. Can I ask you to excuse my ignorance but could you explain the use of a dead centre in the head stock. I have only ever hammered a 2/4 prong drive centre into the end of a spindle blank at the headstock end and my revolving tail centre has a point surrounded by a ring which bites into the wood. If I need to buy something different what would I go for?
I am glad that I am not the only one who can no longer read the fine detail on a vernier scale.

Happy turning

You hammer them in why all you need to do is put them in and when you tighten up the tailstock on your bit of wood and that will drive them home for you and you run the risk of damaging your bearings
 

Jimjam66

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Maurice, the first entry in Alex's link above will show you what a dead centre looks like. Also about halfway down the page you will see Light Duty Revolving Centres (live centres for the less posh among us). The principle is that the pointy end goes inside the brass tube and makes a full-contact friction fit with the inside lip of the tube, which ensures that the tube is axially central. It's not much, but unless you're working with ironwood it's enough! The tube I took the photo of is a piece of elm - hard as blazes - but it turned without problems.
 
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