Den's Pens Pen Making Update 32: The Problem With Switches

[Security-Man2k]

* Workshop

As you can see by the above image it has not been a good week for me. I had been putting off working on the lathe until Thursday as family duties called. So when I got in there thursday morning I pressed the on button and the bleeding switch broke off. I got onto Warco and I will be receiving a new switch in the post hopefully tomorrow.

In the meantime I have bodged it, this is something I am very good at. Improvising with tools is a strong point of mine. I got some tweezers and hooked the switch box towards the hole and grabbed it duct taping it to the casing. I didn’t want to open it up just in case it voided the warranty. While it was taped there I found I could operate it with a pencil. I didn’t want to use anything metal as I am not fond of electricity. When I spoke to the guy from Warco he said I should open it up to replace the switch anyway so I opened it up when I got home from work today and opened the bugger up. I pulled it through and used the fixing ring to stop it falling back into the control box. This is working now until the new switch comes.

Oh and I have a friend in the workshop who I had to evict. Click here if you are not scared of arachnids, maybe help identify it.

* Pen making

With the above problems in mind the pen making has a bit shallow on the ground this week. Which is unfortunate. I posted earlier in the week about the orange pen I made. I am super proud of that one so here it is again. The tapers are made quite easily, find where the end of where you have drilled is and ensure that the taper you are going to make doesn’t hit this. I didn’t do that and so I ended up with a hole I had to fill at the end of my cap. As it was for me I didn’t mind but it meant I learned something along the way so that is always good. Anyway once you have marked the taper use something to cut it, either a hack saw or a rotary tool with a cutting disk. It will be a very rough cut and it will look very ugly. Use a file to get rid of any unsightly bumps and to clean the edges. From then it is ready for sanding.

I was working on an Omas blank on the old lathe a while ago and I had made a section and barrel for it but I realised I had drilled it out wrong. When I went to re drill it the blank shattered a bit. Well good news everyone, I managed to rescue it. However I ended up breaking the section when I was shaping it. Luckily I have enough of the blank to finish the pen.

* Personal

Depression has been kicking my ass big time. Work has been (bleep).

[SoulSamurai]

That's a strange issue. I've had my share of annoying technical issues on my CNC mill; had to replace several wires and stuff. I guess this kind of thing just comes with the territory.