Woodturning for cash! - Pen turning is fast, easy and makes money!

[@BrotherDoug]

Nice Job! I'll have to try an end grain pen now. Thanks too for showing the CA glue. Appreciate your efforts, techniques, and not being too wordy. I also liked hiw you showed a problem along with the fix. Nice end result. Thank you!

[@Northerngulf]

It's good to see you making a pen (mostly) without a drill press and also without a pen press. This is something I'm going to try now that I've seen it done without those things. Thanks.

[@HighSpeedWood]

Hope it goes well for you! Sometimes pressing it together with a clamp is difficult. be patient and gentle. 👍

[@myopictopics7258]

Nice video. As far as pricing goes, your price is your price, if you’re too high the market will bring you down. Negative comments are going to come if you said you charged 5 dollars. Your pen is worth what you and your customer have agreed upon (although you probably want to disclose the break and repair). In the hand turned pen marketplace people are pricing their pens below actual cost due to the hobby aspect of it. In order to have a viable business you need to factor in all the costs, not just the cost of the wood and kit. Most people don’t include cost for the lathe/shop equipment, your labor (not just the time for turning the wood, but all the time spent to buy everything and setup), marketing costs, supplies, and rent for the shop space. When you factor all that into your price as well as the CAD exchange rates, then I don’t think your price is excessive. I think it would be hard to get that in the DFW Texas market unless you get a unique niche, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a fair price. I wish I could sell hand turned pens for a business because I love the process, but for me the economics aren’t there and I keep my corporate job. If more people explained pricing from a business perspective maybe it would help raise the water level for all ships.

[@Bjork-holt]

Nobody is reading all of this

[@masjabrikdiy8422]

hello friends greetings healthy and successful always. thank you for sharing knowledge and always faithfully watching your latest things @👏👏👏

[@Bjork-holt]

If you put the tool rest closer you get lesd vibration, less knockback and drasticely lower the chance of breakedge

[@waynechristie2970]

great job ,good comments on fixing a chipped piece,really nice looking pen.

[@HighSpeedWood]

I was lucky I could find the piece!

[@gregdagg9305]

good video, to sand the tube, I take about a 6" dowel, sand about 2 inches at one end, insert other end into a drill, snug on a tube, hold sandpaper in one hand, drill in the other and get excellent sanded tube in 10 seconds, quick and easy..Blessings..

[@HighSpeedWood]

Nice I may just start doing that when I do lots of pens at once thanks for sharing the idea! 😊

[@brayden2209]

hey man, great vid. just wanted you to know you tool rest is way to far away from the blank on the lathe. you want it to be about 1/8 of an inch away so your tool doesn't get caught and isnt as hard to control.

[@HighSpeedWood]

Hey thanks for the tip I will do that in my next video 👍

[@Mr_Chuckles]

Also never wear gloves like that while turning! If the work catches you it can pull your whole hand in!

[@aschulte91]

"I like to pull it out, stick it in the other end as well" 🤣

[@HighSpeedWood]

I knew someone would eventually make a comment about that hahaha 😆

[@assynt]

$80 for a slimline pen is quite a price! Must be a sellers market where you are. Here in U.K. that same pen would be about $30 !

[@HighSpeedWood]

Yes it is quite a price. I've had a few comments on my price in my videos and I realize now that I haven't explained it fully why it's so high. But the reason is that the price is in Canadian dollars which is around 30-40% more than usd and the pens I sell from my videos I price even higher because I sell it with a "how I made it" video. So now I leave the price out because I sell all my stuff locally, maybe in the future if I open a online shop I will start posting prices again. But for now I'm going to just post project videos. Now the long winded answer is over haha. Did you enjoy the video? I'm planning on making a few more pen videos soon. Are there any other projects you would like to see on this channel maybe ornaments or bowls? I like to hear what viewers want to see. And thanks for the comment!

[@TheUnseenWaffle]

What's your stance on the carbide insert tools you have? Would you take them over the traditional turning tools?

[@HighSpeedWood]

I like traditional tools much more but the carbide tools definitely have their uses. An example is getting a really tight v shape in a spindle takes much more time, patience and skill with traditional tools or you can just grab a carbide tip and push it in. Carbides usually leave a more rough surface while sharp traditional tools will always leave you with a better finish and less sanding. All that being said I prefer carbides for small spindles at high rpm.

[@Kickupflix]

I am not sure who turns in U.S.A, but it is hard to see if there is even a market for it in America. I wanted to get into making and selling pens, but I haven't the slightest clue on what to even do

[@HighSpeedWood]

Sorry for the late reply. There's a few different options.One is selling your projects at a farmers market, if you have enough stock to fill up a booth. Two is selling online locally on market place or other local apps (make sure you have a few key words like "gift, handmade, and local") anything that will get your posts found. Three is websites like Etsy, posting here is a little harder you need to make sure you have very good quality pictures of your projects and ways to ship them.

[@Kickupflix]

@@HighSpeedWood thankyou. I will take notes and see what I can come up with.

[@florimundos]

Hi, linda caneta torneada! Estou a pensar fazer algumas, mas até agora não encontrei lojas online que tenham este material na UE. Países fora da União Europeia fica tudo muito mais caro por causa da alfandega, fica tudo retido e as taxas são altas.

[@Shorty589-jt]

Nice pen, I used to turn pens but certain people, like my husband said no one buys pens these days, and not at that price. What is your opinion?

[@HighSpeedWood]

Thanks for commenting! This is the information I need to hear! A Pen still sells well especially around the Holliday's. The price for the pens in my videos are in Canadian dollars and are sold with a how I made it video which people really like. I have to stay true with my price for that reason. That being said a pen like this being made of zebra wood would sell for around 25-40 usd. I've had a few comments about the price of my pens and Im going to try and leave the price out of the videos and see how that goes! Thanks again for the great feedback!

[@SQLKC]

The price people are willing to pay makes the per hourly price lower than minimum wage. You can easily spend one hour or longer making a pen then you got cost of materials, equipment and supplies. I always get the slimline kits and most of the time give them away. The only time I get nicer kits/wood is for gifts.

[@HighSpeedWood]

@@SQLKC Its not the best money maker out there but in my area they sell pretty good. I also love giving them away for gifts as well!

[@jordanrowland8566]

@HighSpeedWood You can put the tubs on the mandrel turn it on then sand it.

[@HighSpeedWood]

Hey that's a really good idea. Il try that 🙂

[@tfwoodcraft]

Any chance I could send you a couple blanks of wood and you could turn them into pens for me? I want to give it as a little gift to the first furniture customer I've had. I think a pen from the same wood as the project would be kinda neat. Thanks! (I'd obviously pay for shipping and time and materials too)

[@HighSpeedWood]

Possibly I'm located in BC Canada so I don't know how much shipping will be either way. How many pens are you thinking?

[@tfwoodcraft]

@@HighSpeedWood I was just thinking 1 or 2 pens, depending on the cost. The wood is poplar so the blanks would be fairly light. I'm not sure how much international shipping would be though, i'm near Denver, CO. I want to keep the cost pretty low as it would just be a little bonus gift so shipping might make that not really an option...

[@slayerhawk1972]

@@tfwoodcraft did you get the pens for your client? I could make them if needed.

[@tfwoodcraft]

@@slayerhawk1972 I did not. Have a ballpark price range in mind?

[@myhoneyshandmade1077]

@@tfwoodcraft $30 each.

[@curtisaitken7027]

How long did it take to turn and assemble the pen?

[@HighSpeedWood]

About 30 minutes taking my time from start to finish. A bit longer with filming.

[@lenshandcraftedwoodsigns6033]

How much was the pen kit and wood?

[@HighSpeedWood]

The pen kit is was bought on a super sale original price I think was 7$ or so, and the sale price was 2.99 I think. I buy them in bulk so I don't often remember the individual price.

[@Irishrebel092]

Depending on the wood type, I can see this being an $80 pen. But given the chip that had to be repaired, I feel that's too much. personally wouldn't sell a repaired pen for more than 75% of what I originally wanted to list it for

[@HighSpeedWood]

Ya posting my prices has given me some negative feedback. 75% rule seems like a good one to follow. Thanks for the comment! 🙏

[@craigc7493]

What did that pen sell for and how did you sell it?

[@calebgh]

Did the pen sell at that 80 dollar price tag?

[@HighSpeedWood]

It sure did. The pens in my videos sell for a higher than normal price because they have a "exactly how I made it video" also the price is in Canadian dollars so it seems higher than it is. A pen like this I would sell for About 40 Canadian usually. I've had a few comments about the prices and now I leave the prices out of my videos haha

[@calebgh]

@@HighSpeedWood Cool man, charge what you can no judgement here

[@philbrownred6500]

Where do you sell your pens at?

[@HighSpeedWood]

On Craigslist. I would make a Etsy store but I only make around 3-4 projects a month as I have very little free time.

[@Scarm1974]

I turn pens and I would never sell a pen after it splits it's a weak spot after that. My prices are quite a bit different than yours. Your getting quite a profit for a pen that only costs 5 dollars at the most to make. You must be charging a fortune for your labor.

[@HighSpeedWood]

I do charge a fortune because I have very little free time to wood turn. The pen kit is not worth much the cost of the pens in my videos are high because they are sold with a video of how its made and the price is in Canadian. I don't include prices in my videos anymore because i don't explain the reason why it's so high.

[@stevenr6397]

this stuff is far too expensive, profitable woodwork takes timber and turns it into saleable items without the use of expensive kits to make highly repeatable items, to buy the turning tools and inserts to make a batch of 10 pens is a quite an outlay and if nobody buys them your stuck, try making salt and pepper pots, the bungs are just pence to buy and you can turn a small chunk of wood that costs 50p into a fancy looking cruet set you can flog for a tenner 100times over

[@HighSpeedWood]

Your absolutely right. My channel is still new and I have very little time to make projects that require more than 1 hour to complete but I have a few interesting projects lined up that don't require kits or anything like that that can easily sell for a decent amount. My latest video is taking a while but will be worth it! Thanks for the comment I may just make a salt and pepper combo in the near future!

[@stevenr6397]

@@HighSpeedWood its the curse of business, there are the projects you WANT to do that interest you and the projects that are PROFITABLE, sadly the two rarely coincide, the key is to remember a stable business works better with 1000 customers spending £10 than it does with 10 customers spending £1000 each especially if your into selling at craft fairs