# Pen kit equivalence/compatibility



## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

So far the pen kits I've purchased were from Woodcraft and I've got a few Woodcraft bushings and their pen mandrel. The kits I've turned so far are the Wall Street II, Toni, American Slim, and multi tool pen kits. I've noticed very similar looking pens on the Packard, Craft Supplies, and Berea Hardwoods sites and assume there are fewer manufacturers than brands out there.

I can guess (but haven't verified) that the Wall Street II is the same as the Berea Sierra, Craft Supplies Sienna, and Packard Gatsby. What I don't know is which suppliers bushings are compatible with other manufacturers mandrel shafts - for example I know that Berea has 2 diameters for mandrel shafts and their multi tool pen kit requires the thicker mandrel shaft, but from Woodcraft the multi-tool pen kit uses the same mandrel shaft as all the other kits, but I assume I could use either companies kits for the bushings I have.

Obviously as a consumer I'd like to not be locked into any one companies kits and tools, though that's clearly their intent by being vague with the specs for things.

Has anyone started to compile a tools/bushings/kit compatibility/equivalence table somewhere?

On a side note I'm not familiar with gold plating specs - which is better 10k or 24k gold plating?

Steve


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## sawdustfactory (Jan 30, 2011)

When you look at the instruction sheets for the pens (at least PSI and Craft Supplies), they show the diamter of the bushing. Or you could use a digital caliper and compare the bushings to the hardware.

Also remember that if you sand with the bushings in place, you'll eventually remove some material from them ( my original slimline bushings no longer match). I've gotten in the habit of turning close, sanding close and then checking final diameter with the calipers...makes for a perfect seamless fit.

Hope this helps.


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## wildwood (Jan 25, 2011)

The three main suppliers of kits are Berea Hardwoods, Craft Supplies and Penn State. Both Berea and Penn State have more than a couple resellers’. Some resellers carry a less expensive kit line too. Woodcraft and Rockler used to carry only Berea kits, not sure that is still true. 

Over at IAP there is a compatibility chart that is pretty up-to-date in their library.


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## sprior (Aug 31, 2008)

What's IAP?


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## wildwood (Jan 25, 2011)

http://www.penturners.org/forum/

See if link below answers any questions you might have. May be an updated version too.

http://content.penturners.org/articles/2009/bushingsandtubes.pdf


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