My other hobby........

[CANicoll]

One of the things that has kept me away from the bench has been the woodshop.  There is a crafts fair this weekend I have been gearing up for.  Here are some of what I'm selling.  Wood and custom acrylic ballpoints, as well as Rollerball and Fountain pens.  

These are from custom acrylic blanks made for me off of a NASA photo of a sunspot.  I love the colors!  They easily convert from Rollerball to Fountain pens.

Two views of the same three pens.

[KevinM]

23 hours ago, CANicoll said:

One of the things that has kept me away from the bench has been the woodshop.  There is a crafts fair this weekend I have been gearing up for.  Here are some of what I'm selling.  Wood and custom acrylic ballpoints, as well as Rollerball and Fountain pens.  

These are from custom acrylic blanks made for me off of a NASA photo of a sunspot.  I love the colors!  They easily convert from Rollerball to Fountain pens.

Two views of the same three pens.

Chris how do you obtain those shades of blue red green all in one pen?Do you stain sheets of wood and glue like laminate?

I see it now acrylic but do you still turn in any way then?

[KevinM]

Had a good day at the range 250 rds in two weeks of .308 the gun I think iis finally dialed in and even after almost 5K rounds is working well.I am having to re-teach myself the site picture but it's coming back.The four rds in the middle was 100yds with open sights their was fifth  a flyer somewhere.I have many many more rounds for practice lets about 10K I reload.

 

[PanzerWomble]

On 10/23/2025 at 9:47 PM, KevinM said:

Had a good day at the range 250 rds in two weeks of .308 the gun I think iis finally dialed in and even after almost 5K rounds is working well.I am having to re-teach myself the site picture but it's coming back.The four rds in the middle was 100yds with open sights their was fifth  a flyer somewhere.I have many many more rounds for practice lets about 10K I reload.

 

The 100 bucks I owed you ….I sent it this morning 😳

[CANicoll]

On 10/16/2025 at 8:55 PM, KevinM said:

Chris how do you obtain those shades of blue red green all in one pen?Do you stain sheets of wood and glue like laminate?

I see it now acrylic but do you still turn in any way then?

Hi Kevin, sorry for the late response. These are all resin.  The guy who pours the resin blanks gets the colors to mix a certain way and the result is amazing.  Those ones are from a blank he calls Painted Desert and are on his website.  He's frequently out of stock, but if you like something, he will pour some for you.  It is an art to get them to swirl and not really mix.  It is also really hard to visualize what the turned blank looks like from the pictures on his website.  I met him at a pen show nearby and took a chance turning some blanks.  

With a sharp gouge, they turn very smoothly and finish quickly.

[Martinnfb]

On 10/23/2025 at 2:47 PM, KevinM said:

Had a good day at the range 250 rds in two weeks of .308 the gun I think iis finally dialed in and even after almost 5K rounds is working well.I am having to re-teach myself the site picture but it's coming back.The four rds in the middle was 100yds with open sights their was fifth  a flyer somewhere.I have many many more rounds for practice lets about 10K I reload.

 

Open sights on 100yards? That's fantastic! 

[belugawhaleman]

I've had a life-long interest in small engines of all types; steam, Internal combustion, stirling cycle, and flame licker. 

Well recently, I got a little hit & miss engine for a gift. I posted a  pair of pics of this in the "What did you just get" thread.

Like I said these little engines are fun to work with. I initially had trouble with compression and discovered that the intake

valve was leaking. I took the head off the engine and used Novus plastic polish to lap in the valves. After reassembly, I found

the compression much improved. I also found out, from a You Tube video that this engine runs better with the oil filler cap

on the crankcase removed...odd. I will later simply re-drill the vent hole in this cap a little larger. This engine runs well using

Coleman lantern fuel (naptha) mixed with a bit of Marvel Mystery Oil. The instructions state using 95 octane gasoline. I don't

recommend this. Gasoline can contain ethanol, and other additives that may harm the engine. Besides Gasoline is more

dangerous and smelly than the Coleman fuel . This fuel is the same stuff as Zippo lighter fluid BTW (the Coleman fluid is a little better quality).

Anyway, I now have two of these hit miss engines now. The first one , a M90 I've had for years. It's a bit beat up now, but still runs great.

This second one , I plan to alter its governor so that it runs slower. The term hit & miss refers to way these engines are governed. The governor

prevents the engine from firing unless it is below a certain speed giving them a strange clunk-clunk-clunk sound while running.

I have another engine on the way. A running model of the engine from Karl Benz's first car😀 I added a video of my M90

Engine running😀