Whats everyone up to?

[MikesPenTurningZ]

I am just trying to learn how to inlay as you all know. Whats up in all of your shops?

[Former_Member]

trying to line up some large antler purchases, antlers are dropping this time of year and i'm trying to get my hand on some nice fresh browns

[Former_Member]

How 'bout a thread to help all of us make a better product, to help each other and reveal some of our secrets in technique, marketing,tools you find especially useful. When I joined this group,that what I thought I would find.

[MikesPenTurningZ]

He Bert start one, I am looking for more conversation too that is why I started this thread. I don't know about giving up all my secrets though... ;>)

The antler thing sounds great, I have not used any antler but have seen some really beautiful pens turned from it.

Lately my big thing has been inlay but I have not done a really good one yet. The ones I have made are nice but not really good by a long shot.

I am going to start turning some Gatsby pens tomorrow. I glued up the blanks tonight...

[Former_Member]

I've been on vacation for about 3 weeks (and delivering toys to kids in tsunami-struck parts of Japan, see http://www.omochaexpress.org).

Now that I'm back, I'm working on another pen with sterling parts. This time, I'm making it a closed end with a "hidden clip" (clip attachment can't be seen). I'm also in the midst of a push to improve my studio - just ordered some new tools I can't wait to play with next week!

Oh, one more thing... I also just ordered some full-size Gents and Statesmans, so I'll soon be making some larger pens.

[Former_Member]

What am I up to?

I am up to 5'11" and 255 pounds.

Thanks for asking

[MikesPenTurningZ]

Hey we could be twins.... Can I be the better looking one?

[Former_Member]

Yes,we were separated at birth

[Former_Member]

Bert, i'd love to help with your journey to improve your skill set , but honestly , your more of the teacher to me, Im one of the guys that this is new to this , so im trying to suck info up.

And by the way , 5'11" 265 lbs, I WIN.

[MikesPenTurningZ]

Hey it's triplets...

[Former_Member]

Since I have been turning only since June 2010 This is like the blind leading the blind. Although, until I am translated to Glory I will still be turning in my grave!

[Former_Member]

Yeah I have been turning since , feb or march of last year , my brother got me the rockler pen starter kit for Christmas. I didn't even own a lathe. But managed to get one a couple months later. I also spend alot of time doing other woodworking stuff like frames n tables n such, so I'm not soley a turner , but I do enjoy it when I get to do it.

[Former_Member]

Now we have all these big guys making these itsy bitsy pens!

[MikesPenTurningZ]

That is about it Bert. I got some really nice blanks in the mail the other day. I will start putting out some really nice Rhinehart pens soon....

[Former_Member]

How is the new chuck working for you mike? Try any bowls or anything else yet?

[MikesPenTurningZ]

I haven't tried any bowls yet but the chuck makes drilling blanks so easy it isn't funny. Much better. I am on the rollerball kick right now and making those. I have some really cool blanks that I am going to be turning next week too. I will probably put out 2 more rollerballs this weekend and then some for my church too. Not much else going on here. There is an IPA meeting at the Woodcraft store in Springfield Mass Sunday I am going to try to make it down to that. I have been really suffering with a bad cold this week so not sure if I will be up to it or not?

[Former_Member]

Well let me know when you do, I really want to take a class soon , at least during this summer. I'd really like to take one on steam bending but there isn't anything around me that i would be able to make it too, I'm sure something will pop up.
The other week i went to a free demo, it was pretty bad, the class was called " Steam bending" it actually consisted of a guy with a piece small pipe jammed into a steamer and he took 45 mins of the class cutting a leaf out of the side of a bowl with what is basically a dental drill, the next 30 minutes was him trying to get his clothing steamer to work right. Not that the info he gave was bad, and had very cool results , but it was basically 5 minutes worth of info JAM-Packed into an hour and a half.

i wish we were allowed to post pics on message boards, thats when we could really be able to critique and advise each other on stuff , instead of just referencing listing or trying to describe stuff.

[MikesPenTurningZ]

I have steam bent guitar sides. I started taking a guitar building class but it was just too much to try to do. I decided to stop and just concentrate on my pens. Traffic is still slow maybe 50 or so per day but sales are even worse. I think I have sold 13 pens since December. I am looking at the pen shop now as a bank of pens that once the economy loosens up may bring me a return? Heres hoping it works out.

[Former_Member]

wow i wish i had 50 views a day, but i only have about 20 availible , my average views are about 8 a day, very very slow in sales. hopefully will be picking up soon.

[MikesPenTurningZ]

I have been very slow today and yesterday. I am home with a really bad cold so I am just kind of in and out of the forums. I just found a great site to purchase pens kits from. They had some very inexpensive kits for rollerball that I needed for a bulk order that I am getting. They want the pens as inexpensive as possible but also as nice as possible. http://www.woodpenpro.com Check them out and tell me what you think? I was looking for a reasonable kit that takes the same drills and stuff as the sedona, they have one in the rollerball section that was very reasonable.

[MikesPenTurningZ]

I also do a lot of promoting my pens. My listings are down now because I have been ill for a few days and not doing much of anyting.

[Former_Member]

Where and how do you promote ? Now that I think of it I think the most views I had in a single day was around 60. Got 2 sold yesterday and another custom request, but still a little slower than id like, I need to re-up my supplies , I haven't made anything really new in a little bit.

[MikesPenTurningZ]

Well I may be getting more visits but I am making no sales at all.

[Former_Member]

Perhaps they think your cold can be transmitted thru the interwebs

[MikesPenTurningZ]

I am going to start to use better woods maybe more interesting woods. Also I need to add a higher end pen so I am going to start that is a few weeks. I have lots of blanks made up for Sedona style pens so I will work on those for a bit. I was thinking about making the blanks up then not putting a kit to them until I need to? There are 5 pens that can be made from those same style blank so I can make up as many as I want then fit the best to better kits and the others to less expensive kits and price accordingly.