Pen Blank Drilling Jig Basic Homemade

Here is a basic homemade pen blank drilling jig I made. Its not fancy but it gets the job done.

I took two pieces of 1 1/2" X 1 1/2" wood 8" long. I joined them using a 1"X 1" hinge. To form a vise. I then marked two sets of vee notches in the wood. Using my bandsaw I cut out the notches.

The 1st vee notch is slightly smaller than 5/8" and the 2nd is slightly smaller than 3/4". These are the normal size for pen blanks. Using the notched to center and the vise like hinge to hold, I can drill a pen blank in no time at all and it will be straight and square. You can buy pen blanks and pen kits at woodcraft by clicking on the link to the right.

Please visit my web site for more information and tips on pen making, bowl turning and woodworking in general. http://nokeswoodworks.com

Carbara Pen Kit using a Rattlesnake Blank

Rattlesnake Pen
I used a rattlesnake pen blank and a Black Titanium Carbara Pen kit to build this rattlesnake pen. These blanks are more difficult to turn compared to wood or regular acrylic. Care must be taken because the acrylic can be easily lifted off the surface of the snakeskin because of the chemicals used to tan the snake hides. Sharp tools must be used.
The blanks come with the brass tube already inside the skin and acrylic. Therefore you do not need to drill and glue the brass tube.
You will however have to size the blank and square the ends. The sides of the blanks are also removed during the sanding process. See the drawing that came with the blank for this detail.

The edges were sanded and the blank was placed on the lathe. I used a spindlemaster lathe tool to turn the blank down to size. The lathe tools must be extremely sharp. I stopped 4 times to hone the tool while cutting the blank to size. I stopped cutting short of the bushing size. Sandpaper was used to complete the projects. I used micro mesh and an acrylic finish to complete the blank. The blank was assembled using a pen press. More ideas can be seen at my web site:
http://nokeswoodworks.com/

The rattlesnake blank and pen kit came from: Arizona Silhouette at http://ArizonaSilhouette.com .