6 sided pen blank??

[John Terefenko]

I am looking to make a six sided pen plank and am having a brain malfunction. I know how to do this in flat stock but I want to use a long piece of material 1" square and cut 6 equal sides on it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Greg Keddy]

I am looking to make a six sided pen plank and am having a brain malfunction. I know how to do this in flat stock but I want to use a long piece of material 1" square and cut 6 equal sides on it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

You can set up an indexable router jig on a lathe with an indexing feature to do this. Then all you need to do is throw in a flat bottom mortising bit and rout 'til your heart's content.

I dont know how long a you are planning on making this blank, but if its a typical size, you can also do this on a table saw using a specially designed sled

 

[John Terefenko]

You can set up an indexable router jig on a lathe with an indexing feature to do this. Then all you need to do is throw in a flat bottom mortising bit and rout 'til your heart's content.

I dont know how long a you are planning on making this blank, but if its a typical size, you can also do this on a table saw using a specially designed sled

I did not think about the lathe and router but was thinking tablesaw all the way and I coulnd not come up with a jig to hold the blank and get perfect evenly spaced 6 sides. I may give the lathe a try.

 

[Syd Sellers]

Six Sides.

Hi John,
Do you have a jointer? If so, set the fence at 30° and go for it, you may want to make some sort of finger protection however....

 

[Greg Keddy]

I did not think about the lathe and router but was thinking tablesaw all the way and I coulnd not come up with a jig to hold the blank and get perfect evenly spaced 6 sides. I may give the lathe a try.

It'd involve using shims to keep the blank square, but it can be done.

 

[Dan Henry]

I have made 6 sided pens on a Pen Wizard with good success.

Dan

 

[MichaelMouse]

It'd involve using shims to keep the blank square, but it can be done.

Assuming you're answering the tablesaw. A non-sacrificial v/grooved fence will do a good job. I was making 2.5 in. diameter hexes, but it should work smaller as well. USE PUSH STICKS!

 

[Joe Greiner]

Measured across the flats, a 1-inch hexagon is larger than a 1-inch square. To use a table saw, you'll need wider material. Set the blade height at less than mid-thickness to preserve the far face, and set the fence against the near face for cutting the far bevel, at a precise distance. Cut the 4 bevel faces by flipping and reversing. Remove the mid-thickness material by whatever means, and plane the corners flush. Use a draftsman's 30-60 triangle to set the bevel angle (more reliable than the saw's gauge); put some masking tape on 2 edges to mark the blade height and the offset from the fence. If you don't have a zero-clearance insert, use a sled; AND USE A PUSH STICK.

Lathe with index wheel, and a router sled, is probably less bother. At best, from 1-inch square stock, the result will be a hexagon 1-inch across the points, not the flats; and cut all 6 faces.

 

[DOCworks]

You can also use an "Off Center Chuck System" the tool was designed and built by Danny Hoffman, but is sold by Penn State. Yes I'm a friend of Danny's and have one that he made and not from Penn State. The one I have will do 3-12 sided whatever. I like that fact that you can put a curve in the sides(fits the pen kits better), either convex or concave, but since you are doing it on the lathe it will not be truly flat across the surface. It also makes some great 3 or 4 sided bottle stoppers, not that I use the stoppers all that much...never anything left to stopper.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Measured across the flats, a 1-inch hexagon is larger than a 1-inch square.

You mean a hexagon with one-inch flats, right? Compared to a square of 1" per side?

You can make a hex in any square if you remember that the figure is constructed by spanning out the radius of a circle around its circumference. Thus a hex made in a 1" square will end up with half inch sides.

 

[Bill Boehme]

The largest hexagon that you can put in a one-inch square will have sides that are ½" wide and it will be rotated as shown in the illustration below:



If you use a tablesaw, you are going to have a heck of a time making all of the cuts without winding up with some trapped cuts -- an unguided missile waiting for the launch signal. Anyway, if it isn't obvious, the cuts needed are 45° and 15° and the distance along each side for the angle cuts are ⅝" and ⅜".

 

[Joe Greiner]

The hardest part is determining which surfaces (both fence and table) support it for the final cut, with allowance for kerf. Hence my over-engineered process. For widths other than 1 1/2" or 2", center the target shape on the width.

A couple weeks ago, I cut groups of 4 equilateral triangles from square stock by a similar process. Six of them nest perfectly - staves for a variation of inside-out turning, still pending.