Michael Mocho Demonstration 2009 Symposium of the AAW The ...

gallery. They were in cases andunder glass. Because of the glareon the glass I was not able to getany descent pictures of them. Theycan be viewed at http://www.penmakersguild.comas soon as theyare uploaded to the website. I don’tknow when that will be but by thetime this issue is published the displaypen pictures may be posted. Ifnot, check back periodically and youwill see some well done pens.That’s about the extent of penturningactivity at the 2009 AAWSymposium. I had a great time. I satin on several excellent demonstrationsand hopefully learned a fewnew things I can use in my shop.SnakewoodI mentioned purchasing snakewoodblanks earlier. Snakewood isprone to cracking and for this reasonmany penturners, both the casualand the serious, shy away from usingsnakewood. Snakewood is oneof my favorite woods and makesa stricking and beautiful pen. Ofcourse, the blanks need to have lotsof those dark snakewood blotches.I very seldom purchase snakewoodunseen, except from vendors I knowwho only sell the best of blanks.Snakewood cannot be stabilized.Figure 7 is a picture of three snakewoodpens. The pens were not madeby me but I did repair the cracks.Figure 7. This is a picture ofthree snakewood pensHere’s the snakewood penstory about the pens in Figure 7.I received an email from a gentlemanin California who had threesnakewood pens. He love all three...and they cracked. He contacted themaker and was told that snakewoodalways cracked and there was nothinghe could do. They could not berepaired. I do know of several snakewoodpens that have not cracked andthe discussion to keep snakewoodfrom cracking will not fit here, evenif Mr. Holder allowed me to use theentire issue space for the discussion.Anyway, I was contacted about thesnakewood delima and I told the fellowto send them to me and I wouldrepair them. He sent the pens to meand I repaired them Now I have anew pen customer who owns severalof my snakewood pens.How did I repair them, youask? Well, if I told you I would haveto ..... Just kidding! Here is how Ihandle snakewood pens. I want theblanks to crack so I can repair them.I have not had a snakewood pencrack again after making repairs.Knock on snakewood. A crackedand repaired snakewood pen isnicer than most any other pen. Therepaired crack is often not noticeable.Follow along.First I drill the blanks and setthem on a shop shelf and forgetabout them. I check them in a fewweeks and see if the tubes will slideinto the drilled holes. If not, I reamthem with the proper drill bits andplace them back on the shelf. I dothis for several iterations...maybethree or four. Then, I insert the tubesbut I do not glue them. I trim andsquare the ends and rough turn thepens. Yes, you can turn a pen blankwithout the tubes glued inside. Justinsert the tubes and bushings andplace the blank on the mandrel.The bushings will hold pressureagainst the ends of the blanks andallow them to be turned. I turn themto about 1/32 inch larger than thebushings and to the final shape. I setthem on the shelf one more time andcheck them if two or three weeks. Iream them if needed. At this pointI glue in the tubes. Now comes thepart that takes even more patience. Iplace the blanks with the tubes gluedinside back on the shelf and wait. Iwait for the blanks to crack. Sometimesit happens quickly and othertimes not so quickly. When they docrack I move to the next step.The next step is the repair. Iplace the blanks back on the latheand do my final turning to the desireddiameter and final shape. NowI sand the blanks starting at 220 andpausing after 320 to collect sandingdust on the surface of the sandpaper.The dust is then mixed with CA glueto make a CA/dust slurry. Usingslow speed on the lathe I place the[Continued on Next Page.]More Woodturning August 2009 Page 21