Make a Pen without a Lathe
1
I wanted a pen for myself and as I am a woodworker I thought it would be wise to make a wooden pen. Unfortunately, this led me to the new problem of not owning a lathe. Thankfully, I have made a point of never allowing a lack of tools to stop me from making something. I am going to make a pen without a lathe. I start by ripping down some White Oak to 3/4” by 3/4” pen blanks. After some experimentation to find the correct drill bit for the end kit shaft to fit into, I was able to bore the holes through the pen blanks.
2
I wanted to shaft to be a hexagon so I found a nut with the appropriate size and used it as a pattern to trace on one end of the pen blank. This gave me a point to which I can plane it down without going over that line. I found that if I put the nut on a bolt and then put the bolt in the hole it would center it, giving me equal distances from the sides of the hexagon to the center of the pen blank.
3
Next, I put the pen blank into the vice and start planing it down to the lines that I marked with the nut. This took about 16 minutes per blank but went fairly quickly as it was an enjoyable task.
4
After shaping them, I needed to round the end slightly so that they would join the pen pieces smoothly. I did this with a file counting how many strokes I made on each side so that there would be an equal amount of rounding on each side.
5
The finish on the pen is wipe on poly. I lightly sanded in between each coat with 400 grit sandpaper, and then finished off with a light coat of poly.
6
To press the pen together I used my bench vise.You have to be careful to make sure everything is perfectly lined up before pressing it, but with a little care, it works very well.
In the end, I am extremely happy with how this came out. A lot of joy to make, and a great pen I will enjoy for years to come. If you want to see more here is a link to the video showing the whole process.