The wifes first pen turn...

[David Sallee]

Hey all,

Well the wife decided to try her hand at pen turning. She done really good although she was nervous as heck, worried she was going to break something or ruin the blank.. LOL

She cut the blank to size on the tablesaw herself (first time user), she drilled it out on the lathe herself, set the inserts herself. She also milled it on the lathe herself, turned it from start to finish herself using a 3/4" roughing gouge only, sanded it herself starting with 150 going up to 600 then friction polish on the lathe.

She loved it and now we have a 2nd lathe planned in our near future...

This is a CSUSA Euro kit in Rhodium. She used a Tulipwood blank supplied by Dan Allemand from the forum (Thanks again Dan for the blanks!!)

Her pride and joy!


Here is the back side showing some nice grain contrast....



And this is one I turned to show her the steps of how to turn one... I would do a few steps, then she would do the step I showed her on hers. Worked out really well...



Dan... This also one of the blanks you sent me... Not really sure what it is, really soft wood and porous grain?


All comments and suggestions welcome!

Thanks for looking...
Dave & Dee

[Mitchell Cholewinski]

Dee
That is an excellent job on your first turned pen. The picture is well done too. Keep turnin. Mitch

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dee...Very nice first pen! I wished my first pen looked that good! Welcome to the Vortex!





Hey Andy......We got another one!

[Bruce Pennell]

Very nice Dee....Great Job!

[Chris Barnett]

Nice pen, but uh-oh.... a DW using the shop tools . Tried to get my DW interested in pen turning but failed so far....so the new Jet mini addition was cancelled . Just as well since the price went up by $130 before I pushed the order button, so the mini is now in the "ain't gonna happen" category unless I go Griz.

[John Yogus]

Dee,
Nice looking pen. Ditto Ken's remarks from above. You may want to think about retiring that 1st pen. I was always a believer that if I made it, I'm going to use it. However, I've become quite attached to my first pen even though it's far from my best attempt. I'd hate to loose it. Food for thought.

[Paul Douglass]

Very nice job and congratulations to her. This is a double edged sword. Get the wife into it and you can get more stuff, BUT, it is going to cost you twice as much!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Beautiful pen Dee for your first. Well done. Keep'em coming.

[Steve Schlumpf]

That's a beautiful pen Dee - whether it's your first or hundredth! Very nice work!

[David Sallee]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I really enjoyed making this pen, can't wait to turn my next one.

Dee

[David Drickhamer]

Great job...

About a year and a half ago my wife informed me she wanted to start making pens. So being the good husband I am off I go and get a new midi lathe, chisles etc. To date she has not touched the lathe. I do have a problem though. Every time the grand daughters come over I always know where they are. That's right, making shavings They've made a ton of stuff already and do a great job. The 12 year old just finished a lidded bowl out of spalted birch.

My oldest grand daughter just organized a turn-a-thon at her high school. They turned 167 pens in one day.

I had to go out a buy another lathe just for me to use, a Jet 14".
We'll see how long it takes for them to take over that one too.

Life is good.

Keep up the good work.

[Jon Lanier]

That looks really good. Tell welcome to the "Spinning Room."