hey guys, dan rees here from zebranowoodcraft.comand in this video i'll show you how i made this funky pen out of recycled skateboards. to begin i removed the hardware and grip tapefrom a broken skateboard which was easily the most tedious part of the process. i used a hair dryer to heat up a portion ofthe grip tape to soften up the adhesive. i was then able to work a razor blade underthe grip tape to peel it off. first i started with the edges and then workedon peeling off the rest. i had a few rips but i just did my best withthe hair dryer and razor to strip the grip tape off.
next i moved over to the band saw to cut theskateboard down. after cutting away the parts of the deck thati didn't need i set up the fence on my bandsaw so i could slice the board down into 35mmsections. i cut 8 sections from the center of the deckso the shape of each slice would be similar. this made the glue up easier as they wouldall fit together seamlessly. my adhesive of choice was gorrilla glue asit is seriously strong and expands to three times it's volume to fill any gaps. i simply applied a generous amount of glueto each section, smoothed it out so that i had even coverage and then placed the nextsection on top.
i repeated this until all of the sectionsof deck were glued and then i clamped them up over night. when the adhesive had cured i cut away anydried up ooze on the bandsaw until i was left with a block of glued up skateboards. i pencilled a rough outline of my pen blankon to the block and cut it out carefully on the bandsaw. next i drilled through the center of the blankusing an 11mm drill bit and glued the brass tube from my pen kit into the hole. i used super glue and a sacrificial paintbrush to make this part nice and easy.
before turning i trimmed the edges of theblank flush with the brass tube by using a standard barrel trimmer. i also knew that the skateboard would be afragile material to work with so i sanded the corners and ends of the blank on a sandingdisk to minimise the risk of blow out. to start making my skateboard blank roundi mounted it on a pen mandrel with specific bushings for the “sierra†style pen kiti was using. i began with a roughing gouge to eliminatesome material and i tried to work delicately so as not to ruin the blank. and all was going well until (bam)....
the morals of the story here are1- always wear eye protection because when pen blanks explode they go everywhere! 2- skateboards are fragile when you startpoking them with chisels so be gentle and ... 3- if at first you don't succeed, try andtry again! after exploding my first blank i made anotherand turned it down to a good width for the sierra pen. to give the wood a smooth appearance i sandedit through progressively finer grits of sand paper up to a 1200grit and cleaned the grainoff with a little surgical spirit when i was
done. time for a tea break with my favourite “slaveto the lathe†mug! my finish of choice for this pen was superglue aka “c.a finishâ€. i changed to using tapered bushings to avoidthe pen blank getting glued to them and cleaned up any dust from my work area. i applied a few drops of glue to the blankand rubbed them in quickly with paper towel. to speed the process up i sprayed a littleactivator spray in between layers. after 10 layers were applied in this fashioni ran a sharp craft knife between the blank and the bushings just to release any gluethat was attaching the two.
then i wet sanded the blank through progressivelyfiner grits of abranet and micromesh until i had an even, smooth and shiny surface. a quick rub down with a little burnishingcream was the final stage to make the pen glassy smooth! finally i used a vice to assemble the endcap of the pen kit and the rest of the pen was easy enough to piece together. the end result was a very swish pen with aunique story and in the end it made a great gift for my friends brother! i won't be in a hurry to make another of thesebut welcome you guys to try!
i've included ebay links to tools and materialsi used in the description of this video so if you're interested in pen turning or feelinspired then check them out. i am a member of the ebay partner networkso if you use any of my links to make a purchase then i receive a small reward. this will not affect the price you pay inany way, and just helps to support me to make more videos! i made another crazy cool pen with colouredpencils that you might like to watch. occasionally i send out exclusive tutorialsand discounts to subscribers of my email list so get on over to www.zebranowoodcraft.comand subscribe to my newsletter!
thanks for watching, see you in the next one!