Not that I wanted to post this, but I have a puzzle lurking in the background and I needed a stop gap filler for my projects to appease all my nay-sayers.
Had a friend pop in to play with my arcade machine
(damn, I can’t get any bites from any of all you 1980’s arcade addicts)
and drink my vino…
He had little to say to me until I showed him my pens. Not that the pens were inspirational, but I happen to open my Pen Presentation Box, which brought back memories of the days when I was contemplating being the kingpin of pen distribution in Churchill and the surrounding farms.
Realising I only posted it on the cusp of LJ’s Armagedon (Mar 14, 2022) I decided to lumber you non-jocks with a regurgitation of that posting.
The box was made out of pine, measuring, 410mm x 335mm x 140mm and finished with a water based varnish. It was fitted with a locking clasp with a lost key and some cheap chrome hinges
..... some of the secrets not revealed to the soon to be peasants of Lumberjocks.
PS. The "big pens" and "bullets" are still in the expensive timber boxes.
----------------------------------------- ooooOOOO From LJ OOOOooooo ---------------------------------------------
Boy and Girls,
Quite a few years ago when Adam was a pubescent Aussie dole bludger terrorising The Garden, I had desires to make my millions from pens.
Bought a bucketload of kits, blanks and display stands to peddle my wares at the local flea markets… actually I was just the maker, the daughter was the very successful spruiker… the wares were quality and sold themselves.
For presentation, I started using these types of purchased acrylic stands,
As my penultimate empire grew, I graduated to the fake leather presentation boxes,
and after serves of Bullion carriers’ profit deliveries, I upscaled to these costly timber boxes,
It turned out that my accountant was not as shady as I paid him for, and consequently my balance sheet made me consider more economical shop made boxes for my ever expanding stock.
Just to digress a second… I made this project box a few years ago after I moved to downtown Churchill, lost my Melbourne flea market fences and came to the realisation that I was just too lazy to maintain a WEB for further potential sales.
A taxi driver friend (and a few others) could see $$$ commissions in front of their eyes and suggested they take a swag of my pens for Melbourne sales, in their circle of activities. All the sale propositions fell through… they definitely lacked my daughter's salespeopleship….
Nevertheless, their initial proposals made me consider an appropriate box, for their convenience.
Back to today, I saw a comment by Andre talking about layered pen boxes which spurred me on to tell this belated tale.
Did a quick dirty SketchUp of this tri trayed (no Chinesegangs implied) box,
The typical dovetail box glue-up after the contribution of my Leigh D4R jig,
(the above dated photo is telegraphed by my el-cheapo, now broken, pre-Bessey clamps.
Solid box prettied up with some wood filler (tear out still happen with a D4R),
prior to the tablesaw dissection.
Tackled the router table with some wide, 19mm pine boards using a 90° V bit.
that were cut to size and framed. The three trays on top of each other,
Stained the frame before the tray glue up with the pen holders' "washboard",
Then came the flocking time,
after masking the black stained frame,
I used paint to secure the flock, which scarred the hell out of me as I only painted the upper surface and the boards cupped quite extensively… unfortunately I forgot to reach for the camera and chose the vino instead. After a few consoling vinos, I was surprised by the board flattening once the paint had dried…
Once assembled I was pleasantly surprised with the finished product.
Unfortunately, when the three trays were fully loaded, it was a tad too heavy for my taxi driver mate to lug around and he chose the fake leather trays for transportation. Consequently, this box never met a real live customer and is used to just hold pens for display to friends.
The top layer consists of a number of turned pen "blanks" so that friends/guests can choose their mix of body and kit and assembled on demand rather than trying to anticipate other people's druthers which resulted in a swag of pens that may never discover an owner…
Some may have noticed these plastic triangular tubes.
I initially started using them to keep the turned "blanks" together in sets, however, I later gravitated to a more extensive use to keep others' grubby fingerprints from the new pens begging to be procured.
FAIW… Even I don't think this belated project was worth the 6 years wait time while dust gathered on the box… so lucky I never mentioned it.
Keep safe, jocks... and your jocks, safe!
----------------------------------------- ooooOOOO The End OOOOooooo ---------------------------------------------
Don’t be crafty Craftisians,... SHARE your craft!
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
I'm with Dark_Lightning; Damn. That's a lot of pens! Nicely done! Seriously, that is a lot of hours turning, great work. Like the box too, nicely done.
I made most of those pens 15 years ago before I moved to Churchill and had a great outlet for them in Melbourne. Most were to order that never got delivered (long story). Lucky for the client, no deposit was negotiated... unlucky for me. I have plenty of other case fulls, and hundreds of unmade kits,
and Mokey, if you read this, it's not that I hate plastic, it's just that no one else does, but then again they tend to shy away from the wooden ones as well.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
damn i cant believe i actually read this whole thing !!! well done on the pen box and all the pens. i just use one of those soft fake leather cases for mine. of course i dont have any where near what you show us.
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
The boxes and pens are very well done.....you need to se for of the "Plastic" that you have sitting there, tho.... You do very interesting "timber" and have a really wide variety, not to mention you use the high end kits...so I am a fan! I love the box too!
My report on the weather.... I am under a cloud... SWMBO asked me to clear the table, at my age my runup was not long enough, I landed on top of it and broke some dishes.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
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