Problems with Woodpeckers Ultra-Shear Pen Mill Ci

[Bryce Andersen]

Greetings all,
I am a hobbyist woodturner, and to date i have made mostly pens, with a couple of artistic firewood pieces. I have always had a hard time squaring up my pen blanks. I started with the Peach Tree Pen Mill (ptreeusa.com/turn_projects_pen_reamer.html) and that worked OK, but in order to get it to drill I really had to lean into the drill, and would routinely get the brass tube protruding past the wood. I was doing standard slimline pen kits. So I decided at one point that I wanted to buy my way out of the problem, and bought the WoodPecker's Ultra-Shear Pen Mill Ci (https://www.woodpeck.com/ultra-shear...l-inserts.html). I tried it on a piece of figured wood, and it immediately ripped a huge chunk off and exposed half the brass tube. I figured it wasn't good for figured wood, and tried it on a piece of orange tree branch, and with very mild pressure on the tool, it immediately digs, giving me a very uneven blank end. Part of the reason I went with the Woodpecker's kit was because they have 13 different reamer sizes so I could do everything I could to eliminate slop.

I'm at a loss for what to do. This seems like the most basic part of pen turning, and for the life of me I can't figure out what I am doing wrong. Any thoughts? Does anybody have the Woodpecker's Pen Mill, do you like it or hate it?

Thanks all and happy 4th!

[Peter White]

Don't use a pen mill made a jig to hold blank in brass tube and sand on disc sander no tear out,if you have a sander that is. Tried pen mills now they are never used.

[Dave Fritz]

https://www.penturners.org/threads/c...ssories.92501/

If you scroll down you'll find his Sanding Jig. I sometimes remove some wood with a pen mill if I have a lot to remove but always finish with this jig. It's slow, but you can get very accurate gently.

[Gary Petersen]

I have the Ultra-Shear Pen Mill and it can be very aggressive. I found better results using it in my drill press with a drill press vice. That lets me much better control the pressure being applied to the blank.

Having said that, I bought a disk/belt sander that I recently got working. I plan to switch to it once I get a miter gauge that will work with it or build a jig for it. That seems like a lot less risky way to square a pen blank, based on everything I've read.

[Robert Hayward]

Have not made a pen in a couple years but I own the Ultra-Shear Pen Mill. Do not recall ever ruining a blank because of the Pen Mill. Higher RPM lessens the chance of the cutters grabbing, for me.

As others said, a disc or belt sander does an excellent job. I like the Pen Mill because it cleans the inside of the pen tube while squaring the ends.

[Edward Weber]

I prefer a pen mill over a sander. I use the Whiteside pen mill, never an issue.

[Bill Howatt]

I use a pen mill that I got from Lee Valley years ago. Agree with Robert about it cleaning the inside of the tube and the design of a mill makes it do the one important step without any fooling around - make the end of the blank absolutely perpendicular to the tube.

[Bryce Andersen]

Thanks Dave, I ended up ordering a bunch of stuff from him, and thanks all for your suggestions. I may have to try giving the drill press a go with the woodpecker's pen mill, otherwise you might see it up on the classified's section before too long!

Thanks all!

[tom lucas]

I use a disk sander. Mostly because I have it. It works good enough for me. However, it does nothing for cleaning out the barrel like the mills do. Someday I'll probably get a limited mill set, but no hurry. I don't make many pens. Just too boring and unchallenging for my taste. But then I don't sell stuff either.

Drill press is probably the best way to use a mill. You can more easily control the pressure and keep a square angle.

[Randy Heinemann]

Call Woodpeckers for advice. Based on years of experience with this company, the products they develop and sell are high quality, well thought out, and work very well for the purpose they are made. Also, their customer support is excellent and I would guess they would have some advice for you if you describe your problems in detail. While I do own the WP pen turning mandrel system, I never bought the pen mill. I don't turn a lot of pens and felt that buying all the reamers, etc. was a little much so I've done without all of that. The pen mandrel system, however, is a huge upgrade from the original maddreal and bushings I bougth from Woodcraft. It works much better. Again, I'd contact Woodpeckers Support. They are always responsive and helpful and would not want one of their products to cause the kind of problems you describe.