WHAT YOU NEED TO GET STARTED:
It's not hard to make pens, but it does require a lot of basic supplies. Here's a list of the things I could think of, that were worth writing about. You may not need everything, and you may eventually come up with items I don't have here, but at least it's a start. When you're finished looking at the list, you can go to the Demo Page, where I show step by step how to turn a pen.
Lathe - It doesn't have to be a big lathe. In theory, you can use pretty much any lathe to turn pens. A lot of people prefer small lathes, but I've seen people use monstrous lathes just as effectively. You can even use a drill press, but I've never tried it. You can buy a small, basic lathe for about $150, and it will work fine for pen making. However, if you plan to get into other types of turning, such as bowls, vases, or platters, you might want to think longer-term, and get something a little bigger. I use a Delta "Midi" lathe, which is a nice intermediate size. Make sure any lathe you get has adjustable speeds (preferably electronic variable speed), and has a way to add accessories to the head stock; ie., a spindle that accepts Morse Tapers. If in doubt, ask before you buy!
Drill press - you have to be able to drill a long, straight hole through the blank. Since most blanks are long and narrow, the hole has to be drilled accurately. You might be able to do this with a hand drill, but I wouldn't recommend it. You don't need a big, fancy drill press. An inexpensive, benchtop model will work just fine.
Bandsaw - Ok, you don't have to have a bandsaw, but I sure use mine a lot. At the least, you need to be able to cut long pen blanks in half, and trim them to length. Pretty much any saw can do that, but a bandsaw is also good for other things. I often cut my blanks from larger chunks of wood. This often involves ripping them down and cutting them to length. Again, this can be done on a lot of saws, but it's a lot safer doing it on a bandsaw and most others. This is yet another case where it doesn't have to be a big, fancy tool. An inexpensive, benchtop model will work just fine.
Pen Kits - Pen kits contain the manufactured parts of the pen. Without them, you can't make a pen. I've heard there are over 300 different types of pen kits available. Check out the resources link to see where to order them.
Blanks - These are the pieces the body of the pen are made from. They can be made from wood, plastic, deer antler, granite, corian, - etc. Most people use exotic hardwoods, but you can use scraps left over from old projects, pieces of firewood, tree branches, etc. Typically, you need 2 pieces approximately 3/4" square by 2.5" long. Ideally, they should be contiguous (ie, a 5" piece cut in half). But they don't have to be. Unbelievably beautiful pen blanks are available for purchase. See the resources link to see where to order them. NOTE: Before they're turned, they're called Blanks. Once they've been turned, they're typically called Barrels. For the most part, the two terms mean the same thing.
Drill Bits - Yeah, you can use your existing drill bits, provided you have the right sizes, and they're razor sharp. Unfortunately, most pen kits require unusual drill sizes, such as 7 mm, size "0", and 25/64. So you may as well buy a new bit when you order your pen kit. That way, you'll know it's sharp, and the right size. If you really get into making pens, you should give thought to a drillbit sharpener, such as Drill Doctor. They're not cheap, but they're worth every penny! Every carpenter I know has hundreds of dull drill bits. Instead of sharpening them, they constantly buy new bits. Since I got my Drill Doctor, my bits are always sharp, and it's dramatically cut down the number of drill bits I've had to buy!
Drilling Centering Vise - This sounds fancier than it really is. When you drill the blanks, you need a way to hold them perfectly vertical. You can clamp the blank to angle brackets, or use clamps. I use a wooden hand-screw clamp that I notched to hold the blank. Someday, I'll take a picture and include it here.
Glue - The heart of any pen kit is the brass tubes that get glued inside the holes you drill in the blanks. These tubes must be firmly adhered to the blank, so it's imperative to use good glue. Most pen makers use Cyano Acrylate (CA) - aka, Super Glue. But you don't want to use the kind you buy at the supermarket. Pen makers buy it in 2 oz bottles (about 100 times as much as you get out of the tiny supermarket tubes, for about the same price!). You can also use polyurethane glue, or epoxy. By far, CA is the easiest to use, and it cures the fastest. Make sure when you buy it, that you get debonder, too. I've quit counting the number of times I've accidentally glued things together I didn't mean to!
Latex Gloves - No matter how experienced you get, you'll get glue on things you didn't intend to. Your fingers are the most likely thing to glue, since they're holding the tube and blank when they're being glued together. I buy boxes of 100 pair of Latex gloves at Home Depot, for about $7. It's a great investment. I can typically use a pair of gloves several times before having to throw them away. I gave up using the vinyl gloves. They're too flimsy, and the glue will eat right through them.
Pen Tube Insertion Tool - I have one, but I rarely use it. The concept is, you put the brass tube on the long, tapered, chrome shaft of the insertion tool, then use it to insert the tube into the blank. Since your fingers are not in contact with the tube, you don't need gloves. Yeah, that's the concept. I find it cumbersome, and less reliable than using your fingers. So I rarely use mine. But, if you have $10 burning a hole in your pocket, you might want to order one of these gadgets.
Pen Mill - aka Barrel Trimmer. After you've glued the tube in the blank and it's dried, you need to trim the ends of the blanks to make them perfectly flush with the end of the brass tubes. You also need to clean out any dried glue that got inside the brass tube. A pen mill is a special drill shaft, which cleans out the tube, with a cutter head attached that trims the blank. The problem is, every time you get a pen kit that uses a different drill size, you need a new pen mil to fit that sized tube. At about $20 each, that gets expensive quickly. They do sell kits, for about $35, where you get several sized cutter shafts, and a single, oversized cutter head. So, you can move the head to which ever shaft size you need. It's annoying, but cheaper than buying a bunch of separate pen mills. You can also used a stationary disk sander. Just be careful to sand the ends square to the brass tube.
Milling Vise - You don't need anything special for this, but you do need something to hold the blank when you're using the pen mill to mill the ends. Don't even think about holding it by hand. It's a sure way to get hurt. You can use pliers, a bench vise, your drilling vise, whatever.
Mandrel - A mandrel is a 7 mm shaft, about 10" long. On one end, there's a means of attaching it to the headstock of the lathe. On the other end, there's a dimple, that the tailstock snugs up against, to hold it securely. Most pen mandrels come with a Morse taper on the head end. This fits into the hole in the headstock. Make sure you know what mounting system your lathe uses before ordering a Mandrel! Most cost between $15 - $25, and there are a lot of varieties available. My recommendation is to buy a starter kit, which comes with most of the items listed on this page. Read more about this near the bottom of this list.
Bushings - each pen kit will use specific sized bushings. These bushings serve several purposes: they are gauges to indicate the finished diameter of the pen barrels, they make it possible to mount brass tubes larger than 7 mm onto a 7 mm mandrel, and they act as spacers for the blanks when they're mounted on the mandrel. Pay close attention when you order pen kits, to make sure you have the right bushings. If not, look into a starter kit for that pen kit. A pen kit starter kit will come with the drill bits, bushings, and a couple of pen kits, at a very reasonable price.
Chisels - The most important part of turning, chisels do the cutting when you're turning something on a lathe. There are so many different types of lathe chisels - gouges, skews, scrapers, etc. To be totally, honest, you can turn an entire pen using a single chisel, if you have to. Most pen makers use several different chisels in the course of making each pen, but it's more because they HAVE that many chisels, and they tend to use one for one thing, and another one for something else. In general, there are 3 main tasks you need the chisel to do:
roughing - taking the blank from its initial, rectangular shape down to a cylinder
smoothing and sizing - making the surface of the barrel as smooth as possible, and reducing it to the final size
shaping - not all barrels are perfect cylinders. Occasionally, you might want fancy bumps and curves. You may want special chisels for that.
Sharpening - For woodworkers just getting into turning, I have terrible news for you - you're finally going to have to learn to sharpen your tools! Most wood workers never sharpen anything. When chisels or sawblades get dull, they buy new ones. They can get away with it, because the edges on those tools rarely get used. In wood turning, however, the edge of a chisel will surface thousands of times more wood in a few seconds than your other tools will in a year. You don't have to have expensive chisels. You don't even have to have good chisels. But you DO have to have SHARP chisels. There are a couple of choices on how to achieve this:
dry grinders - quick and efficient, dry grinders can put a razor sharp edge on a chunk of metal in a matter of seconds. But they generate heat, and heat can ruin the temper of the chisel. So they must be used with caution.
wet grinders - the grinding wheel turns slowly, with half the wheel submerged in water. This keeps the heat to a minimum, so they're safer to use, but also take a lot longer. I use a dry grinder to get the general shape I want, then use a wet sander to finish.
Sharpening stones - even after putting an edge on with grinders, it's a good idea to hone them on a quality sharpening stone. But if you thought a wet grinder was slow, don't even think about using stones to put an edge on turning chisels!
Diamond sharpeners - These modern day, man-made version of stones are amazing. They can fine tune an edge in seconds, are very inexpensive, and last forever. They even come in credit-card sizes, and many turners keep one in their wallet, just in case.
strops - nothing hones an edge like leather. You can get strops that mount in a drill press, or on a grinder, and you can hone the edge very quickly. As important as sharp edges are, I've never needed my turning tools to be so sharp that I have to spend the time using a strop. You make your own decision.
Face shield - Lathes turn at thousands of RPMs. Occasionally, pieces of the item you're turning break off, and fly out at high rates of speed. Murphy's law says they will always fly directly at your face. Any good wood turner wears a full face mask. You can easily spot the ones who don't. They're the ones with the big scars across their cheeks.
Dust masks - turning wood produces mountains of wood chips and saw dust. If you're not wearing a dust mask, a good percentage of that mountain will end up in your lungs. Remember, more carpenters have died from "Black Lung" than all the coal miners put together. Wear a dust mask. It can save your life.
Dust collection - Even better, invest in a good dust collection system. It may even save you time in clean up, too. Wear the dust mask, too. No dust collection system is perfect.
Sand Paper - Once you've turned the pen barrels to shape, you need to make them perfectly smooth. Most pen makers start with 150 grit, then move to 220, then 320, then 400. These grits are available at most wood stores (like Home Depot or Lowes). You can also get higher grits, like 600, 1200, even 2400, through the suppliers mentioned on the resources link. Personally, I've never found a need to go higher than 600 grit for wood. For plastics, you can get grits as high as 25,000. Since plastics don't have grain, it's imperative to get them as smooth as possible, and remove all the scratches. Thus, you need to work through several different grits, and end with very high numbered grits. I use automotive polishing compound as my last step. It works great. It removes the tiny little scratches, and puts a great shine on the barrel. I often then follow this with Nu Finish Car wax. It puts a very durable, hard shine on the pen.
NOTES ON SANDPAPER:
Most pen makers cut the sand paper into strips about 4" x 1". You can buy the paper in rolls that are already that width, or buy sheets and cut them yourselves. I cut my own.
you can get wet/dry sandpaper at autoparts stores, that go into 600, 1200 etc grits. Be very careful about using them! These sand papers are very dark colors, and bleed into light colored woods. You're much better off paying the extra $$ and getting sandpaper made for working with wood!
I often use 0000 steelwool for the final step in sanding wooden barrels. Many turners caution against that. Steelwool tends to catch, and will pull out of your hand, and wrap around the barrel, possibly drawing your fingers in with it. You must be very careful using steelwool. Always fold it over, and use the mid-section, not the loose ends, and exercise even more caution near the joints between the barrel and the bushings, as the steelwool is even more susceptible to catch there. Another problem with steelwool is if you're using latex finishes, any tiny particles of steel left on the barrel will rust later. Since they will be embedded in the finish at that time, it will look ugly, and you won't be able to fix it easily. Most turners recommend using synthetic steel wool instead.
Paper Towels - I go through a lot of paper towels. I use them for wiping off excess superglue, sawdust between sandpaper grits, applying finishes, and sometimes buffing the finished pieces. Paper towels are inexpensive, and disposable. But most important, they tear easily. I tear the towels into tiny swatches, so that I don't waste a lot. But even more important, if the paper towel catches on the blank or bushings, it will rip apart. Cloth rags won't. So paper towels are a safer choice, too.
Pre-Finishes - You can only get so smooth with sandpaper. To get any smoother, you need to use a polishing compound, which is a paste with an abrasive in it. Think toothpaste, for wood. EEE-Ultra Shine Paste Wax claims to enhance a 240 grit sanding step to 1200 grit or more, and enhances a 400 grit finish to 2000 grit. In other words, sand as smooth as you can, then apply Ultra Shine to 5 times smoother. More importantly, it also acts as a sealing agent. My only objection to Ultra Shine is it also tends to take the finish off of your bushings, so extreme care has to be used near the edges of the barrel. To make matters even worse, the finish it takes off of the bushings tends to transfer to your barrels - which is then nearly impossible to get off. I only use Ultra Sheen on dark colored woods that really need help developing a good shine.
Finishes - I think I will spend the rest of my life searching for the perfect finish. The ideal situation is to apply the finish while the pen barrels are still on the lathe, buff it a little, and have it dried to the touch within seconds. Sound impossible? It's not. There are several finished like that available. The challenge is, finding a finish like that that will hold up over time. Here's a list of a few of them, along with the advantages, and disadvantages of each:
Friction polish - this is probably the best choice for pen turners. Sold in liquid and paste forms, friction polishes are a mixture of oils, shellac, and waxes, that are applied while the item being finished is turning on the lathe. The oils soak into the wood, then the heat from the friction developed while applying the finish causes the shellac and waxes to melt, then harden instantly, and buff up to a hard, lustrous shine. Unfortunately, these finishes don't hold that shine indefinitely. oils from your fingers will eat into the wax and shellac, dulling the finish quickly on pens that are used frequently. Still the speed and ease of use makes this the top choice of most pen makers.
Waxes - there are so many waxes available. Beeswax, Butchers-block wax, bowling-alley wax, and carnauba wax are just a few. By far, carnauba is the most frequently used. This is the wax used to make candies, like M&Ms shiny. It's very easy to apply - just press the bar against the item while still spinning on the lathe. The heat melts the wax, but it hardens almost instantly. Using a soft cloth, you can quickly buff the wax to an incredible shine in just seconds. Like Friction polishes, the wax doesn't hold up well with frequent use.
oils - tung oil, danish oil, walnut oil, even vegetable oils make great finishes. They can be applied with a rag while the item is still on the lathe. The oils soak into the wood, then harden, which draws out the richness and color of the wood. Additional coats can be applied to build up to a thick finish. Unfortunately, the oils dry slowly, so you can't produce a finish quickly this way, which is why most pen turners don't use them.
Polyurethane and varnish - these are tremendous, durable finishes - but most take days, or at least hours, to dry. They also have a tendency to run and drip while try dry, which isn't desirable on small, round items like pen barrels.
latex polyurethane - a water based finish, it dries quickly - within an hour or so, making it more suitable than oil based polys. But it's still too slow for pens, and it's typically thin consistency makes it run and streak, making it eve less desirable.
lacquers - lacquers can be applied by brush or as a spray on finish. Lacquer finishes dry pretty quickly, and are worth considering for pens. However, they can be tricky to apply, and may not be suitable for beginners. Also, since they are alcohol based, they are extremely flammable, and shouldn't be applied in areas that aren't well ventilated, or near open fires or flames (ie, in basements, where most workshops are!)
Cyano Acrylate (CA) - aka, Super Glue. That's right. Probably the most durable finish available is superglue. Use the thinnest version you can find, and put it on while the lathe is spinning at its slowest speed. If you can get the hang of it, and manage to put it on evenly, without the tube getting stuck to the barrel of the pen, you'll get an incredible finish, that will last forever. Trust me, this is for the experts! I can't recommend it for beginners.
Epoxy - a little more forgiving than superglue, this is another finish I recommend leaving to the experts.
Micro-crystalline wax - The only one of these waxes that I'm familiar with is Renaissance wax. Micro waxes are ph neutral waxes, which produce a hard, durable finish that is impervious to the oils and acids in your fingers, making it resist fingerprints, and protects the finish for a long time. Micro waxes can be applied over other finishes, acting as a final protective coat. It's so versatile, it can be applied over the entire pen - including the metal parts - after the pen has been assembled.
For a good review of many different finishes, check out these articles by master turner, Stephen Russell:
http://www.arbortech.com.au/articles/036.html
http://www.arbortech.com.au/articles/037.html
Assembly Press - For the most part, pens are assembled with friction only. Very few pens use glue in the assembly process. Thus, you need a vice of sorts to press the parts together. They sell special vices for this, but you don't have to spend a lot of money on one. I use a standard quick-grip clamp, like the type sold by vice grip. They work well, and are inexpensive. You can also use a standard bench vise, or even a drill press, if you're creative.
Starter Kits - Starter kits come with most of the accessories you need to get started: a mandrel, barrel trimmer (pen mil), drill bit, super glue, bushings, chisels, friction polish, and a couple of pen kits. A kit like this can run you from $50 - $150, but it's cheaper than buying the pieces individually. Before buying one, make sure it has everything you need, and nothing you don't need. Otherwise, a starter kit would be a waste of money.
As mentioned earlier, the purpose of this list is just to give you an idea of what you may need. As you can see, the list is long. What you can't see is, the list can also be very expensive. The good part is, you don't have to get everything at once. You can start small, and build slowly. I hope this list helps you figure out what you need, and what you don't.
Proceed to the Step By Step demo.