Once Upon an Apple Tree
by Jack Masten
North Creek, NY
In order to make room for the building of our new fellowship hall at the Calvary Bible Church in Wevertown, NY, a mature apple tree was removed. Being a wood hoarder, I salvaged a few pieces to make some keepsakes for church members. One of the projects was a wooden body pen for the pastor, Wayne Schoonmaker.
This pen project turned into a weekly Saturday afternoon get together for a group of church men, ladies and boys to learn how to turn pens and pencils.
In the beginning I had just a Delta wood lathe in my woodworking shop. It wasn't long before I optained a Rand lathe and a vintage Sears & Roebuck lathe. I modified The latter two by cutting bed length to mini size and adding a 3/4 inch pipe to the live end of the Sears lathe and a mini chuck to the Rand lathe. By doing this we were able to secure the pen mandrel between centers. Chris, one of my fellow Calvary turners, brought in a Grizzly mini lathe which made a total of 4 pen lathes for our Saturday sessions.
My years as an industrial arts teacher paid off for me as I taught one participant the procedure for preparing stock for turning and they in turn taught someone else, and so on. A short time later all lathes were spinning and the chips were flying.
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The Rand lathe
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The vintage Sears & Roebuck lathe
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The Grizzly mini lathe
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Jeremy, (16 years old) sanding his first pen.
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A proud Jeremy and his finished pen.
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Grampa Jim putting a finish on his pen.
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Jim's finished pen.
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Pastor Wayne is shown turning his pen
on the modified Sears lathe.
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Matt, a friend of Jeremy's is turning
blanks on the modified lathe.
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Matt with his finished pen.
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Chris sanding a pen on his Grizzly mini lathe.
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Meredith (Chris's wife) turning her first pen.
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Meredith and her first pen.
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Some of the turners are turning pens and pencils
from white tail deer antler.
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You can email Jack at
jackaudie@frontiernet.net.
