PSI's Shock Absorber Kits

Well, I finall got some time to work on the lathe, and thought this would be a great opportunity to try PSI's new Shock Absorber pen kits.

First off, these look more like either coil-overs or McPhearson struts to me. But that's neither here nor there. ;)

Fit and finish appear to be decent. Plating looks good. My only real complaint about the quality is the choice of refill. They used @#$%^ mini refills! That pen is pretty large, and there's no excuse for using the mini refills. They're crap, and I'm pretty bothered they made that choice.

The pens are very much a gimmick. They're not comfortable to write with, and don't have a pocket clip. This is something a mechanic or gearhead has laying around to look cool.

And they do look cool!

The barrels are my black/silver swirled poly resin.

No posts for a while...

We had an emergency move in October 2011. Sold most of my tools and such to facilitate the move from CO to CA.

I'm keeping this blog up, but won't be posting for a while until I get settled somewhere that I can start making stuff again.

Sorry!

By most I mean that I only kept:
Rikon lathe
Cman 10" bandsaw
Delta 12.5" planer
Cman grinder (to sharpen lathe tools)
Hand tools
Casting stuff

Everything else was sold, including my table saw, miter saw, compressor, etc etc etc...

Review: Rikon 70-050 Mini Lathe

I recently sold my Delta 46-701 lathe. Two primary reasons:

1. Too bloody big for my one car garage.
2. Needed the money (I've been out of work).

But I use a lathe a lot, so I needed to sell the Delta for enough $$ to buy a smaller replacement as well as have some cash.

Making a pen using a CYOC blank (Part 6)

Carefully press the furniture into the polished barrel.

And the end result, a beautiful pen!

As you can see, the red showed through the clear areas beautifully. And it influenced the black areas to create what I call "Red as Night".

I hope you enjoyed this little peek at my process for making pens. There are, of course, many steps I didn't discuss. You'll already know about most of them if you're a penturner. If not, feel free to ask!

Making a pen using a CYOC blank (Part 5)

 This is part four of the series, "Making a pen using a CYOC blank".

Now the blank is turned to size. You know about this stuff.

Like any other poly resin or acrylic blank, sand through the grits with your Micromesh, or use wet/dry sandpaper to at least 4000 grit. Then buff.