Bois d'arc without band

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dmadis

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Tried a bois d'arc slimline without a band. Left a recess in the upper barrel from the pen mill about 3/4 as deep as the band width so the length of the pen wouldn't be much shorter than usual.



20041214225628_noband.jpg



20041214225710_recess.jpg



Darrell
 
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Randy_

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Not quite sure I understand why you have that undercut area?? Seems like it is an area of potential weakness. Why not just leave all of the wood and forget about undercutting??
 

tipusnr

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Did you do anything to support the recess from caving in? Don't know this wood but it may be hard enough where support isn't needed. Of course I'm assuming the end of this butts up against the bottom half blank.
 

Randy_

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Bill:

Bois d'Arc is a very hard, strong wood; but it does seem that some extra support would be in order. If there is some reason for the undercut that isn't obvious to me, seems that at least a tapered cut could be made rather than the straight one shown. I am really interested to hear from Darrell about his reason for this design.
 

dmadis

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Bois d'arc (osage orange) is very tough wood and I think it will hold up without extra support. Other than a coat of thin CA it has no extra strengthening. I never thought of a tapered cut, that would be a lot stronger.
I was using a standard slimline kit with the 2 1/16 inch tubes. I've made a couple of other pens without bands where the two standard length barrels butt up against each other and they always seem to me to be noticeably shorter, (although that might be my imagination.) I guess probably the best way to do it would be to cut longer tubes.

Darrell
 

tipusnr

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From his reply, I think all Darrell did was add an untubed centerband to the length of the pen top so that the overall pen length would be the same and a slimline with the provided centerband. I hadn't thought of that! My centerbandless slimlines ARE shorter than a normal pen but never saw that as a problem since the refill clears.

Some of use have made seperate centerbands and glued them to the top piece - he has done it one better and MADE it part of the top piece. Great innovation, Darrell.

Might try it myself but will probably only clean up drill hole to keep as much wood as possible.
 

dmadis

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OK, i admit it, it wasn't planned! The blank was cut several months ago about 2 1/2 inches long for drying. I cut it down for drilling, it was still too long and after using the pen mill down to the tube I liked the look of the recess.
Although I like the look of the wasp-waist slimline with a center band, I've made several attempts to use the slimline kit for a more cigar-like look without a slim waist. But it's hard to get the design to flow the whole length of the pen; any extra length helps--I was going to have a recess on both barrels but the lower one wasn't long enough.
 

wayneis

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I know a couple of individuals that make a 1/16" to 3/32" recess on purpose because it add a nice look to have the bottom barrel slide inside the upper just a touch. How I have seen it done is to use a barrel trimmer and mill off part of the outside of the four cutters. That way only the inside of the cutters cut into the blank like if you use a 1/2" trimmer to cut a 3/4" or larger blank. Then when you turn the lower barrel use calipers to get the fit so that it will slide inside without binding. It ends up looking like the CSUSA KC Twist which to me looks like a fake version of what I have just described.

Wayne
 
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