Skip to content

16. Wild Card

Overview

This week I made a wooden pen and engraved my name using a rotary engraver and a laser cutter.

Finding my wood

I decided to try and create the pen using multiple pieces of wood as the base of my pen. The pen needs two parts each 2 inches long. When creating mine I decided to make one of my pieces out of 2 different kinds of wood. 2 pieces were 0.5 inches while the other was 1 inch. I needed to cut out the code to the correct sizes so my friends and I used the table saw and the bandsaw to cut our wood pieces out. After this I used super glue and clamps to hold the three pieces together.

Wood Lathe

A wood lathe is a power tool that shapes wood into desired shapes. It works by rotating a wooden block and using stationary cutting tools to change the wood.

Pen Holes

I used the lathe to drill the holes in the blocks of wood to glue the metal holder in. And then I also used it to modify the pens to get the shape and smoothness of the pen I wanted.

Lathe Workflow

Thank you Cooper Cumbus for helping me with the workflow.

  1. Wear a face shield to protect yourself from loose wood chips.
  2. Plug in the machine** and make sure it has power.
  3. Loosen the chuck** using the lathe chuck key, then secure the wood piece into the chuck.
  4. Make sure its the chuck that spins not the drill.
  5. Install the drill bit into the holder.
  6. Make sure the extender stays between 1 inch and 6 inches.
  7. Unlock the carriage and slide it until the bit is just touching the wood.
  8. Turn it on and select the feed rate, and wait for the chuck to reach the right speed.

Drilling

  1. Once the lathe has the correct speed slowly turn the crank to move the bit into the wood.
  2. Stop once you’ve reached the 6 inches deep.
  3. Rewind the drill bit to the 1 inch position.
  4. Slide the carriage forward to where you left off.
  5. Repeat until the the hole is through both sides.
  6. Remove the wood from the chuck and vacuum the machine up.

Brass Tubes

After drilling, I used superglue to seal brass tubes from the kit into the holes. This holds the wood in place on the pen.

Drilled holes with brass tubes

Shaping the Pen

To shape the pen:

  1. Insert the rod between the carriage and put a metal receiver in the holder, this way both sides are connected and spinning.
  2. Mount both wood pieces back onto the lathe.
  3. While the lathe spins, use a carving tool to carefully modify the wood.
  4. Once the right shape is found, sand the surface to make the pen smooth and comfortable to hold.

Rounded wood pieces

Assembling the Pen

I used a pen press to assemble the parts:

  1. Pressed the pen head into the thinner wood piece.
  2. Attached the twist mechanism to the opposite side of the same piece.
  3. Pushed the butt of the pen and grip into the thicker wood piece.
  4. Added the metal ring to separate the two wood segments.
  5. Pushed in the ink cartridge into the twist mechanism.
  6. Finally, pressed the thicker piece onto the twist mechanism to complete the pen.

Engraving the Pen

To engrave my name, I used the rotary engraving chuck attachment with the laser cutter.

Setup

  1. !Turn off the laser cutter! before plugging in the rotary tool.
  2. Plug in the rotary device on the left side of the machine.
  3. Turn the laser cutter back on and wait for the bed to lower and the laser to reset.
  4. Move the rotary tool to the top-left corner of the bed for correct axis alignment.
  5. Insert the pen into the chuck and tighten it using the silver wheel.
  6. Manually focus the laser onto the pen using the red dot

Creating the Design

  1. Open CorelDRAW and create the text or design you want engraved.
  2. Send it to the Epilog Laser software.

Design in CorelDRAW

  1. In the laser software:
  2. Set X=1, Y = 4.5
  3. Select the upper-left grid box
  4. Use a DPI of 300 for engraving text

Laser engraving settings

Test and Engrave

  1. On the laser screen, change the diameter value from 7 to 0.5 to be more accurate .
  2. Use the test outline button in the lower-right to preview where the laser will engrave.
  3. Adjust X or Y values in 0.1 increments.
  1. Once aligned, press Print to begin engraving.

Here is the final engraved pen:

Engraved pen

Reflection

This week was a nice break before starting my final project. Each step was comfortable and easy to follow long with and I am happy with my finnished product.

Last update: June 3, 2025