{"id":2864,"date":"2020-04-15T20:00:57","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T00:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/?p=2864"},"modified":"2020-04-15T20:00:57","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T00:00:57","slug":"bubinga-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/bubinga-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubinga Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since I had three fairly large Bubinga platter blanks from the great guys at Got Wood? in South Carolina I used that as a springboard to turn all of the Bubinga I had on hand, not including pen blanks.  I did a similar project<\/a> with Padauk<\/a>.  I made six additional bowls and two pens.  I know, I said I didn’t use all the pen blanks, and I didn’t, but sometimes the best thing to do with a piece of material is to turn it into pen blanks.<\/p>\n

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Six Bubinga Bowls and Two Bubinga Pens<\/p><\/div>\n

The two bowls on the upper left were from the same piece of lumber which my Dad and I bought practically next door to my sister’s house in Chico, California<\/a> at Hughes Hardwoods<\/a>.  The pieces turned fine but they are just not as wildly beautiful as the pieces sold specifically as turning blanks.  Compared to most any other blank these timber blanks are incredible but the range of Bubinga goes so far toward the amazing that it is easy to get overlooked in the crowd.<\/p>\n

I don’t know for certain where the other blanks came from but they all turned out quite nice and showed a good deal of figure which isn’t always to see in photographs.<\/p>\n

The making of the bowls was simple and straightforward.  All cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool<\/a> system.  Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck with Cole Jaws,<\/a> while reverse chucking was done using the Big Easy Jaws from Easy Wood Tools on the larger three pieces and with Cole Jaws in a Nova Chuck<\/a> for the smaller pieces.  Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworks<\/a>.  Final finish is Shellawax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The real story here is about the pens, both of which are Atlas Ballpoint from Woodcraft<\/a>.  To be honest, there were supposed to be six pens, three Atlas and three Panache<\/a>, the later being from Craft Supplies USA<\/a>.  oh, and there was a funny story with a bowl too. So, what happened?<\/p>\n

The bowl is the shorter of the stories.  I thought I had 12 additional pieces of Bubinga, one I made into pen blanks, leaving 11, so why do I only have 10 total pieces?  I was cutting round that last three of the, I thought, Bubinga bowl blanks and on the last one the saw dust was bright yellow.  What?  Bubinga isn’t yellow but it’s sapwood can be yellowish.  Perhaps I just had a lot of sapwood.  Now, I know a lot of turners don’t like sapwood but I really enjoy the contrast sharply different sap and heartwoods.  When I drilled it for the face plate it was all yellow dust, so perhaps this piece was all sapwood?  It was labelled Bubinga after all.  Finally, when I turned it down, I realized that the pale reddish pink exterior had to be combination of wax and dust because underneath what looked Bubinga-like on the surface was clearly Yellowheart<\/a>.  I thought it was funny that the blank was labelled Bubinga being in fact Yellowheart and I don’t know if someone sold it to me as Bubinga or if I just guessed when organizing my woods after moving to California.  And, I happen to really like Yellowheart so I was fine with the misidentification no matter how it came about.<\/p>\n

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Yellowheart Bowl and Mystery Pen<\/p><\/div>\n

The last block of Bubinga that I was going to turn into a very small dish was only about 4″ x 1.75.  It was a cut off from a piece of lumber.  The more I thought about it the more it didn’t make as much sense to make such a small dish and I have lots of pen kits to use up, so I thought that was the way to go.  I split the block in half and then into thirds, so I had six pieces.  Problem was that they were pretty short and for a lot of pen designs not thick enough either.  I decided I would make three Atlas pens from Woodcraft and three Panache from Craft Supplies USA.  The sizing on the Atlas pens worked out just fine but I got the sizing all wrong on the Panache.  I made sure that the blanks were large enough to accommodate the drills but failed to considered the final size as determined by the bushings.  By the time I discovered this error, the blanks were already drilled and glued up and couldn’t be salvaged.  As it turned out I had one more Atlas pen kit than I had wood for so I took what most closely resembled Bubinga from my extensive stock of pen blanks but having turned it I am pretty sure it isn’t Bubinga and I have no idea what it might be instead.  When I moved to California in 2017 my formerly very clearly labelled and organized pen blanks didn’t stay labelled and organized so I have a large box of unknowns.<\/p>\n

The pens were made using Easy Wood Tools Mini Rougher<\/a>.  They were sanded with pre-boxed sanding strips from Woodcraft<\/a>.  The finish is a cyanoacrylate from a kit sold by Craft Supply USA<\/a> that includes the sealing glue, finish glue, plastic polish, Abranet<\/a>, and wet sand microgrit papers.  The pens were turned on my Shop Fox W1704 Bench Top Lathe<\/a>.  If you are ever tempted to buy this Shop Fox machine for yourself think carefully several times over.<\/p>\n

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Shop Fox W1704 Bench Top Lathe<\/p><\/div>\n

https:\/\/www.woodcraft.com\/products\/woodriver-turners-sanding-pack-sand-paper<\/p>\n

I bought the Shop Fox machine on Amazon and it is predictably imported from China and not the best machine in the world.  If the Shop Fox was your introduction to turning you’d probably quit in frustration.  I bought it strictly for pen making.  As much as I love my Robust American Beauty lathe<\/a>, it is just too big to easily make pens with.  Even the smallest tool rests are too large to allow you to get close to a single blank and although I could use spacer blanks, I thought I would give a try to something small and dedicated.  It only cost me about $200 and maybe another $50 in accessories to make it usable for making pens.  It works but it is just cheap.  It doesn’t tighten well and the locks on the banjo and tail stock of gimcrack.  But, technically, it does work.  What I think I will try next is to make a spacer blank to use on the mandrel with the American Beauty.  Granted, a pen blank looks sort of funny on an American Beauty but I do miss the reliability with which the Robust machine just WORKS.<\/p>\n

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Robust American Beauty Lathe<\/p><\/div>\n

Next up, I am sticking to North American domestic woods for a while starting with Sycamore and a good amount of Claro Walnut among other species.  Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I was making three fairly large Bubinga platters, I decided to completely clear out my stocks of Bubinga. I thought I had twelve pieces, but oooops, one was not what I thought it was. It was a nice project working with mostly incredibly beautiful examples of a very fine, and now restricted, wood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":2865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,141,127,128,136,137,129,138,139,130],"tags":[144,154,168,171,176,181,186,188,200,214,221,239,240,241,249],"yoast_head":"\nBubinga Project - Wood Turning Pens ..<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since I was making three fairly large Bubinga platters, I decided to completely clear out my stocks of Bubinga. 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