Learning is Fun

Saturday John and I attended a class on turning pens at the Rockler store in Phoenix. They sell woodworking supplies and equipment. There were 6 of us in the class and our instructor was Ed.

We chose which kind of wood we wanted to use. The store had pre-drilled both walnut and canary wood pen blanks for us. I chose the canary, John chose walnut. We each had a Manhattan pen kit. This is John's kit and his completed pen body.

Ed demonstrated each step. First we filled the ends of the pen tube with wax to block the open ends from getting glue inside, then glued the tube into the wooden pen blank. Ed demonstrated each step. Here he is cleaning the wax out of a tube that has been glued into the blank.

We turned the blanks on the lathe to the shape we liked then put on a finish oil.

We used this small vice to put the cap end on the pen.

These are the two pens we completed and brought home! Aren't they beautiful?

I already had some of the equipment we need to make pens, including the lathe I use to turn bowls.  But there were a few things we still needed.  We bought them before leaving Rockler.  I am sure they offer classes to bring in customers to buy supplies and equipment.  That is reasonable.  And our instructor Ed helped us choose what we needed.

It was a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.