Start time 6.45pm.
Our meeting this week is all about making pens on the lathe, it has been organized by Dave Line and he will have all 5 of the club lathes in operation, himself and 4 other club members will demonstrate the art of pen making.
When we say making pens on the lathe we would normally associate that to mean making them out of wood and that would be the main material for most peoples pen making, however there are other materials that can be used, Acrylic (a form of plastic) is another material that makes for very nice pens and is available in a multitude of colours and usually comes in prepared pieces cut to a size suitable for pen making. Another material that may surprise you to be worked on a wood lathe is Aluminium, this material works very well and can be polished to a very high and smooth sheen.
A troll through our archives has produced some pictures of pen making in the past, here are just a few of them.
Left, this is what we would usually associate pen making with, in this case a prepared blank made up from laminated timbers. Right, the blank now cut into the 2 pieces required to make a pen and mounted on the pen making mandrel.
Left, a blank made from a piece of Acrylic ready to make the barrel of a pen. Right, a piece of Aluminium being worked on a wood lathe using wood turning tools.
Left, a selection of pens and a key ring, made from Wood and Acrylics. Right, A selection of pens made from various hardwoods, these were all made by Jeff Buttress.
A few finished pens, Left, a pen made from laminated timbers. Centre, a pen made from Acrylic. Right, 3 pens made using Aluminium for the barrels.
As you can see the 7mm brass tubes used for pen making can also be used for making key rings, these can be purchased as a kit for making key rings.
We are looking for a good turnout as usual and hope you find the evening entertaining and informative. The usual raffles will be on sale, coffee will also be available for a 50p donation. Hope to see you all there.