304 Days/21 weeks

Anyone who knows Jon knows how much he loves working on his cars back home. He has a 1964 Ford Falcon that he built from the ground up as well as a roadster project that he's been working on for about a year and a half (he would have it finished if we we ever home long enough for him to dedicate time to it). Unfortunately, as much as he would love to, we really don't have the space to bring any of those projects out here. So it was time to find something else to occupy his downtime and I think it's safe to say that he's found that something: turning pens!

(Go back to this post from November for a little bit of background on how Jon got into turning pens.)

Originally, we were going to wait until we got into our new house before he started buying all of the machinery and tools to make the pens. The first thing he needed was a lathe. He already knew which one he wanted and we ended up finding it on sale at Sears online with free shipping so he went ahead and got it over the 4th of July weekend.

After the lathe arrived, he went back to Sears and got an electric saw and a drill press as well as some other tools and supplies from his new favorite store, Woodcraft.

Jon is his new workshop!

Today before work, Jon turned a pen. I tried to document as much of the start-to-finish process as I could.

One of the pen turning blanks after being cut. Right now, the
burl wood is his favorite and I believe this one came from
this assorted set.

Using the drill press to drill the hole where the
tube and ink will go.








Superglue holds the tube in place


Getting ready to put the wood on the lathe


Turning the wood






Ready to be sanded!






Using a digital caliper to make sure that it's been sanded evenly


Polish gives the wood a smooth sheen and compliments
the natural beauty of the wood




After the first polish


After the second polish (a bit shinier)




The final polish


Nice and shiny!


The hardware that comes in a pen kit. The particular kit Jon used
for this project is a classic American style screw cap rollerball
kit.






The bottom half with the hardware attached


Three finished products. The one pictured above is on the far
right.


The red one on the left was made for Arianna.

Aren't they beautiful? Oh and the best thing about this hobby? It will eventually pay for itself! Jon has already sold one of his pens and has a couple more requests from a few of the men at our church. He's so excited about this and I'm happy that he's found something that he really enjoys doing.

So if anyone is looking for gift ideas for Jon: Woodcraft gift cards! I promise you they will be put to good use! Of course, if you can find it in your heart/budget to ship the Falcon out here I'm sure he'd love you for that too, but Woodcraft might be cheaper ;)