pen mill

[Bope]

So I was trying my first real pen. I have the starter kit from Rockler. After I glued in the brass tubes I tried milling the ends of the blank down to the tubes with the pen mill that came in the kit. I am using cherry. The end that had some hardened CA glue milled fine until I got past the CA glue. The other side that was just bare wood also would not mill. The mill seemed to have no bite in the wood. Any tips on milling the end of a pen blank before putting it on the lathe?

[AHill]

1. Press harder.
2. Sharpen the end mill. The HSS or high carbon steel ones are notoriously dull. A diamond card / paddle or sandpaper wrapped around a flat piece of scrap wood will work.
3. Upgrade to a higher quality pen mill. I use Whiteside's carbide pen mill. (If you do upgrade, you'll likely need to purchase new barrel trimmers to match your end mill.)

[SteveS]

I put my pen mill in the drill press and feed the blank by hand. So far there isn't a wood so hard that it wouldn't cut, including tough stuff like African blackwood and desert ironwood.

Like AHill said, you'll need to keep it sharpened with a diamond card or similar.

[greenacres2]

If I've got more than a millimeter or so, I trim carefully with my band saw, then finish the trim on my sander--using the appropriate center punch or drift pin in a v-jig mounted on my miter gauge. Takes longer to type than to do. I turn a lot of hybrids and acrylic, along with some antler--and the pen mill didn't always mix well, especially on the hybrids. Not ruining 2 worthless wood castings paid for the aluminum v-block.
earl

[DFJarvie]

I cut mine on my radial arm saw. The brass isn’t hard enough to hurt the blade and I get a nice square clean cut.

[Wildwood]

Like already said might need little more pressure. If dealing with a dull pen mill very easy to resharpen:

http://www.penmakersguild.com/articles/p...ening1.pdf

[Wildwood]

Years ago made jig to hold the pen blank to mill the wood jig using the pen mill in my drill press. Used a 2x4 about 12” long split down the middle, cut a V in each half. Turned the handles round on the lathe added a small hinge and came up Jig & Presses shown but no longer at this site.

http://www.hutproducts.com/departments.asp?dept=99

[Arlin Eastman]

1.  Press harder.
2.  Sharpen the end mill.  The HSS or high carbon steel ones are notoriously dull.  A diamond card / paddle or sandpaper wrapped around a flat piece of scrap wood will work.
3.  Upgrade to a higher quality pen mill.  I use Whiteside's carbide pen mill.  (If you do upgrade, you'll likely need to purchase new barrel trimmers to match your end mill.)

I also do all the above and have the Whiteside mill and sharpen it quite a bit and never have to worry about pushing harder anymore.  However, most of the time now I use the disc sander which does a much better and faster job.  You just have to make sure it is straight and does not go to far.  Also this way it will not splinter the wood if you push to hard either.

[chips ahoy]

I agree with Arlin,I use my disk sander.Just make sure the blank is presented 90* to the sanding disk.I find it works much better than the pen mill.

Mel

[Bope]

Thanks for the advice. I have run a diamond file across the flat edge of the mill and that does help briefly. I have taken to cutting close and using a belt sander to get even closer. Even though I work hard to make sure I drilled straight down the pen blank I am not sure that is always the case so I don't trust using a sander to get the end square. What has worked best for me is to make sure I have a freshly charged battery in the drill then support the blank on the floor and lean on the drill. Holding the blank in my hand I can't get enough pressure on it. Even then after doing a bubinga blank the mill was hot to the touch and the end of the blank was burnt.