Pen turner question

[dartman]

I just cut and drilled pen blanks for a pen Woodcraft calls the Deco.Now afterwords I remember these kits us a shot and long tube.....Whoops. Now as far as I can tell this is just a fancy slimline which comes to the question.Can I just nip some off the tube that's too long? The kit uses the same trans,refill, and some fancy hardware.What do think?

[Arlin Eastman]

Alan

You have to remember if a lower tube is trimmed to much it will affect the twist mechanism and refill.

I am not familiar with the kit you are talking about to give you better advise.

I also do not know what you mean by "Shot"

Arlin

[JTTHECLOCKMAN]

Alan

I too am not familiar with that kit but if the kit calls for a long and short tube it is indeed needed. If you can not take the kit apart and reverse the two then you may need to scrap the blanks. Now if you are saying you used 2 long tubes instead then by all means you can shorten it to the length needed. Unless you provide with a little more info that is all I got.

Happy Turning

[dartman]

Sorry Arlin,it's my fat fingers.What I meant to say is "short" tube.

[dartman]

Thanks guys,looks like I will save them for slim lines.Dang,and I was on a roll.

[iclark]

According to the Woodcraft website, the Deco kit is one of their European kits. It uses the same diameter tubes as the slimline, but that is where the similarity ends.

As a general rule (at least until you get experienced enough to do major mods to kits), you should plan to use the tubes that come with each kit and use the bushings designed for the kit.

The Deco uses 2 different length tubes and 4 different diameters on the bushings.

[dartman]

Well I went ahead and tried it. The kits went together just like a slimline but you have to watch how far you press the transmission in.The Deco kits I have(142506)and say deco 7mm, use two 7mm bushings.They are like a regular slimeline but they played with the tube length.All is good.

[AHill]

dartman said:

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Well I went ahead and tried it. The kits went together just like a slimline but you have to watch how far you press the transmission in.The Deco kits I have(142506)and say deco 7mm, use two 7mm bushings.They are like a regular slimeline but they played with the tube length.All is good.

---

The good news is you fixed it and it works.

Your bushings are specific to your pen kit. 7mm is the inside diameter of the pen tubes, not the diameter of the bushings. The "A" size pen mandrel is also 7 mm diameter. Most bushings fit on a 7mm mandrel. When I get new pen kits, I always take a few minutes to read the instructions. Woodcraft has instructions you can download for every pen kit they sell. I also always pick up bushings specific to the new pen kit. There's a possibility they might be the same as the European bushings, but they are definitely not the same bushings as a classic slimline kit.

[crokett™]

My first segmented pen was done when I goofed like this. I added some contrasting wood to cover the part of the tube that was sticking out, then carefully turned down the other end to the tube and added matching contrast to that end.

[dartman]

That is a good idea but one I did not think of.I will have to store that in the memory for later use.After four plus years I should know enough to look at the tubes BEFORE I cut,drill and start to glue everything.