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            Wood-N-Whimsies Newsletter 

September 2012
What's On Sale This Month

For our Newsletter Subscribers Only:

20% off our 24 Pen Portfolio.  Use "CASE20" in the Coupon Code Box at Checkout.
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We are still closing out the Dymondwood.  Many colors are already gone and several others are in short supply.
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Poly Pearl Pen Blank of the Month:
"Autumn Harvest"
1-49 $2.36 each
50+ $1.99 each
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Inlay Blank of the Month:
"Dominos"
$17.50 each
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6" Digital Caliper
$19.95 each
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Replacement Shaft for Maxi Mandrel
$5.75 each
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Coffee Bean Blanks Either Color
$7.25 each
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Citrus Acrylic Blank
1-9 $3.30 each
10+ $3.20 each


 
     Next week, September 6th, I go in for surgery on the back
Dink says Woo Hoo I just found that I get to spend TWO weeks in bed making sure my Daddy doesn't get up.  Tough job but someone has to do it!
of my left heel/Achilles's tendon. I have a spur that has been giving me some problems and it must be taken care of. I will be out of the office for at least a week and then back for a while on a very limited basis. I hope to be back in the office at about 60% capacity in two weeks. The total recovery time is 10 to 12 weeks before I can be back to dancing a jig and standing at the metal lathe for hours.
     In the mean time we will have to rely on Ryan to drill and assemble the rifle kits. I will check them all out to ensure that the quality is maintained. This is the only aspect of the business that I can think of that we may have to curtail production just a bit and it will be a few extra days to get sent out.
     I should be back to full health before hunting season or at least enough to keep up with the high demand we have for these kits during this period of the year.
 TECH TALK

   Ryan, our video tech is on vacation so unfortunately we do not have a video this month to share.
   We have had some confusion about the Monet/Gatsby/Sierra kit assembly lately and I think that would be a great video to cover the idiosyncrasies of those kits. This information also applies to other kits which are the same kits with other names. We sell the Monet and Gatsby varieties and get the same comments/complaints all the time.
     With this style, folks are having a problem with the refill not retracting up inside the tip when the pen is completed. There are two causes for this problem but the main cause is because the clearance between the inside of the twist mechanism and the outside diameter of the refill is a very close tolerance and the refill catches on the lower rim of the twist mechanism.
     If you start the assembly process with the twist mechanism in the retracted position and the inside of the mechanism pushed in, it will greatly help the final assembly process. When you install the refill, be sure that you wiggle the refill around and press it slightly further in so that it drops properly into the inside of the mechanism. Once seated properly inside the mechanism the pen will work properly.
     The second reason in the case of the kits where the cap pulls off of the twist mechanism is caused by the tube being trimmed to short during the blank preparation phase.
     Like I said, Next month I will have a video which will make everything clear and hopefully eliminate any future problems with this kit's assembly. It will be posted right on the site next to the Monet kits as a link. We have two different inner working styles of the kits and we will cover the proper assembly of both.



WHAT'S NEW

    Someone asked for Dominoes , we've got dominoes. Tracey has put together another amazing inlay blank that features a little stack of dominoes.   With this blank you can make yourself a pen to be the envy of the domino tournament.
      We have lots of left over pieces of Dymondwood which are the cut-off ends of the pieces we cut to sell. We have paired the pieces up in sets of enough blanks to make ten two barrel pens from. Each bag is a mixture of both 3/4 and 5/8 inch square pieces with enough length to make any two barrel pen you may wish to make. Some bags, such as the one pictured, have several blanks which are almost 5 inches long but not quite long enough to sell as full size. The price on each bag is $16.95. We will not separate the bags to make custom color requests. They are sold as is and all sales are final. This is a close out item that is priced to move quickly so don't wait or you will lose out.
       We have two new Polypearl colors, We have Autum Harvest, which is a mixture of brown, orange and gold. The other color is a blend of green and bright sunny gold. Both have been selling very well and have proven to be a hit.
     We have purchased an industrial type vacuum chamber and have come out with a few stabilized blanks that we can sustain in quantity. As we grow in this venture, we will continually be coming up with more and more stabilized blanks to choose from.  Mother Nature can create some beautiful wood. Unfortunately before it becomes show quality stuff, it gets too soft and punky to turn. So we are going to stabilize it and make it a breeze to turn and finish.


 
  FEEDBACK

I noticed that you have some turning accessories section on your website. I thought I would pass this site along to you to take a look at:  

 

http://www.thingswestern.com/3.html 

 

 

Joe Rollings is in New Mexico in a tiny town near the New Mexico and Arizona state line. I found him on the web when I was searching for Lathe tools. I wanted a carbide tip on them because as I told you, my sharpening skills are almost non-existent. Any way I bought his round and square tipped lathe tools. They look a little funny because he puts golf club handles on the his tools. Don't let this fool you, they are very nice to use. He claims to make the tools but I have not verified that fact. The carbide he purchases. The most important part is these tools are amazing. Comfortable to hold and weighted enough to take very little pressure to keep them on the tool rest. I took a chance on them and I am very pleased. The part I liked most was his standard carbide tools are $59.00 each. He also has some shorter tools for Pen turning at $44.00 each and all have carbide tips. He also stocks the replacement carbide parts as well. I liked him right off because he says the tools have a life time warranty. But he is careful to point out that it is his lifetime not yours. He says he is around 65 so you should have a few years of warranty left. Anyway Maybe you might like to stock some of the tools, or point people towards him if you have someone ask for turning tools. The best part is they are carbide, they are very well made, and they are "not" $100 to $200 bucks a piece.  Bob

 

I have passed this information along from one of our customers. I am not a proponent of Carbide tools because I like to customize my own grind to suit my personal needs and the needs of the job at hand. Carbide cannot be resharpened without a very specialized and very expensive green stone. But, if that is what you prefer then here is the information. 

    

 

Hi,

 

I thought I'd share a fix with you from a problem I was having.

 

I was turning some Slimline pen blanks made from solid surface (like Corian).

 

I was having some problems with the blanks cracking when pressing the hardware into place--about 20% of them. But yet, 80% of them worked just fine.

 

So, my conclusion was that the inside diameter of the tubes were not exactly the same from one tube to another.

 

I took one of my blanks to NAPA and found a small slightly tapered round bastard file that the tubes would fit part way onto the file.

 

When I got home, I chucked the file into my drill and gauged how far the file needs to be inserted into the tube by using one of the tubes that worked without reaming it out.

 

I marked the perfect stopping place with some White-out on the round file so any and all tubes could be reamed to that point after I am finished turning the blanks.

 

I now do this on all my turned Slimline blanks just prior to pressing the hardware in, and now I have 99.9% success with the Corian blanks not cracking.

 

Paul

When I use Corian, I always press in the parts and then knock them back out before gluing in the tube. This stretches the brass tube to accept the parts again later without expanding the tube inside the non-forgiving Corian. Apply a little CA glue to the parts before pressing them in again to ensure that they will come come out.

Thank you for reading and we will see you again next month.


Tim Nicholas
Wood-N-Whimsies