Turning multiple pens at one time

[Scott Brandstetter]

Has anyone tried this before. I was thinking, why not chuck up multiple pens and then turn and finish, all at once. Would certainly increase productivity

[Roger Chandler]

I think you would likely get some whip from the mandrel.......multiple pens.......how many are you referring to? A longer mandrel that would accommodate several pen blanks would develop some whip in it without some type of spindle steady ......then you are just having to change setups and unless you are making many pens really often, it seems like a whole lot of trouble to do this type of setup.

[Bruce Pratt]

It would be a issue of how long a mandrel you can find/use. Also with a longer mandrel, the whip (runout in the middle) could get to be a problem. For some pens, like the slim line, you can turn both parts at the same time, so I suppose one could also turn 2 WSII's at the same time, but I wouldn't go much beyond that in number.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I don't think doing multiple pens at the same time will increase productivity, since the time spent putting the blanks on a mandrel is a couple seconds. All of the above problems will be in play if you attempt more than 2 blanks at a time. I can get flex and whip with just 2 blanks if I try.

[Steve Doerr]

Scott, I'm in the process of making 150 pens for one of my clients. They are all WSII style pens and for the reasons stated by others, two blanks is the most that I do at a time. My production process when I have large orders is 1) cut all of the blanks, 2) drill all of the blanks, 3) glue tubes in a large number of the blanks--usually 25 or so, 4) trim ends of the glued up blanks, 5) turn the 25 or so blanks to size, 6) sand the 25 or so blanks, and 7) apply CA, sand and wet sand with micro mesh and run thru buffer. Steps 5, 6 & 7 are done two at a time. I will go back periodically and glue up and trim more blanks as I'm working on steps 5 thru 7 so that I don't have as much down time waiting around for the glue to dry. This is what I have found to be the easiest for me. By doing it in chunks of 25 or so it helps keep me from going insane. HTH

[Paul Williams]

I have done a few large orders of identical pens. I find it most efficient to do one process at a time for all of the pens before going to the next process. So make a jig and drill all, then glue in all of the tubes. For turning I drilled a 60 degree bevel in the end of my bushings and use a dead center in the headstock to turn between centers. That way you don't have to fool around with mounting the blanks on a mandrel. To finish I use a long rod held in the headstock with a MT2 collect sand drilled a small hole in the other end for the live center in the tail stock. The rod holds 6 pens at a time on my Delta midi for sanding and spray lacquer finish. I wrapped the rod with tape to bring it to a snug fit on the inside of the tubes. Working this way I average 20 minutes a pen from cutting the blanks to assembled pen.

[Stan Calow]

Scott I am in the middle of making a batch of 75 slimline pens. With a regular no-bend mandrel, I can fit three blanks (one and a half pens) on at a time. Since I am turning all blanks to roughly the same shape, and not trying to match sections, I am going through each step doing all the blanks in one batch. Yes it is maddening. I am going to try a dowel rod with more sections to do the finishing.

[Dan Masshardt]

I typically turn between centers one barrel at a time.

There was a prototype in the past that was made specifically for the Sierra - ws2 styles that accommodated 3 barrels at once.

I believe the shaft was the brass tube if and this very rigid. Not in production though.

You would probably have a machinist make you a special thick mandrel and bushings for the task if you really wanted.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

for large orders - I turn between centers.

never shut off the lathe - just back off the tailstock and the barrel falls into your hand.

put new barrel in place, tighten tailstock and off you go again.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

never shut off the lathe - just back off the tailstock and the barrel falls into your hand.

Wow. That is a good idea.

[Steve Doerr]

Shawn, I tried turning between centers yesterday along with you "leave the lathe running" and found that it worked GREAT. Thanks for the advice.