The Renaissance Woodworker

I have written before about the beauty of taking a minute or two of shop time to unwind at the end of the day and how refreshing it can be. Last night I had about 30 minutes to play in my shop and still have my lathe set up on the workbench from turning Walnut legs on my Queen Anne side table. I decided to knock out a turning and I have some small scraps of curly maple laying about that. The scrap is not long enough for a pen, but would make a nice small tool handle.

I have a barrel trimmer that I use when squaring up the end of a pen blank with the brass tubes. I normally chuck it up in a cordless drill to remove the bulk of the wood. I tend to be a little liberal with the CA glue when inserting these tubes and I like to seal up the end grain to prevent chipping out the pen blank where it meets the bushings. This is the part that is usually the thinnest and most delicate. All of that hardened CA glue can be a problem when trying to slide the blank onto the mandrel so I have a second barrel trimmer with a threaded end that is intended to be fixed to a handle.

So now I have the perfect short project to get my woodworking fix and make something very functional.
I measured the threaded end using calipers and drilled a hole slightly deeper than the extent of the rod that was the inner diameter (between the threads) of the rod. From there it was a simple matter to chuck it up and turn a comfortable handle, sand it, and finish it to a high shine.

Now I have a handy little tool to help me crack out the glue stuck to the inside of the brass tube that makes my blanks stick to the mandrel. 30 minutes of bliss!!

Watch the new barrel trimmer in action: