My New Pen Mill

[Penpal]

Many years ago I bought a Clisby Miniature Metal Lathe To use at Demos making Pens.Always felt it a bit of a toy.I had the bed anodised which strengthens the soft aluminium and it resided in a box waiting for the day I would make a conversation piece out of it by fitting it to a highly figured and polished base in a beautiful box.
Felt the urge recently to build a pen mill and cast around amongst those items I have in constant use then settled on the Clisby lathe when modified to hold a blank under a top quality router I bought 14 yrs ago at a builders garage sale.
A mate using his home made C and C Mill ie a conventional Metal Mill fitted withj servo motors and a Computer he programmed to cut out the two holes in the aluminium yoke to clamp the router to the quill body of my large drill Mill.
Pic 1 Overall view.
Pic2 The yoke with Router clamped on left the milling cutter fitted to show the relationship,it takes 30 seconds to remove the milling chuck and fit the drilling chuck,very versatile unit.
Pic 3Shows the Clisby Lathe stripped and modified fitted to a 2 inch bar of aluminium and clamped using T Nuts to the X andY axis bed of the drill mill.
Pic 4 shows the indexind wheel,a geared wheel bolted to the drive pulley on the main shaft held in position and easlily held and shifted around 360 degrees.
To do,make the mandrel spacers and fit an electronic caliper to control exact height of the router above the blank.

A huge labour of love.

Peter

[Simomatra]

Wow! Peter now you are getting really serious

No stopping you now

[Ligget]

Now that is a great tool..

[PenTurner]

Peter, thank God you posted photos because I really didn't fully understand what you were saying, that is because i am not conversant with all the thingabobs and jigs. You have an inventive mind. Amos

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

No more "handcrafted" pens from you, eh Peter?

[weisyboy]

My New Pen Mill
Many years ago I bought a Clisby Miniature Metal Lathe To use at Demos making Pens.Always felt it a bit of a toy.I had the bed anodised which strengthens the soft aluminium and it resided in a box waiting for the day I would make a conversation piece out of it by fitting it to a highly figured and polished base in a beautiful box.
Felt the urge recently to build a pen mill and cast around amongst those items I have in constant use then settled on the Clisby lathe when modified to hold a blank under a top quality router I bought 14 yrs ago at a builders garage sale.
A mate using his home made C and C Mill ie a conventional Metal Mill fitted withj servo motors and a Computer he programmed to cut out the two holes in the aluminium yoke to clamp the router to the quill body of my large drill Mill.
Pic 1 Overall view.
Pic2 The yoke with Router clamped on left the milling cutter fitted to show the relationship,it takes 30 seconds to remove the milling chuck and fit the drilling chuck,very versatile unit.
Pic 3Shows the Clisby Lathe stripped and modified fitted to a 2 inch bar of aluminium and clamped using T Nuts to the X andY axis bed of the drill mill.
Pic 4 shows the indexind wheel,a geared wheel bolted to the drive pulley on the main shaft held in position and easlily held and shifted around 360 degrees.
To do,make the mandrel spacers and fit an electronic caliper to control exact height of the router above the blank.

A huge labour of love.

Peter

and now i know that can someone please tell me what the hell it is?

[Penpal]

Just spent a half hour explaining it dropped out on transfer the short answer is the thing on the top called a router is lowered to the blank.The wheel on the lathe indexes to the next flat and so on.
There are raise,lower,side to side and back to front controls.

Skew these hands do all this moving fairly hand made,there will be turning involved,love it when a plan comes together.

Bought some bone handled knives today,more pens to come and so on.

Now I have been showing you mine show me yours.

Take care Peter