ozmandus,
To do a closed end pen, a blind hole is drilled to accept the tube and then a smaller hole is drilled to accept the rollerball refill and spring as shown by micah. Then you need a way to hold the closed end blank. One of the more popular ways is to use a pin chuck. There are several threads from the last few months as these have been very popular. Here is a link to a pin chuck, how to make one and how to use one. http://penmakersguild.com/articles/pinchuck.pdf
Also, there is an expanding chuck which holds the closed end blank available for sale from Arizona silhouette. Here is a link to that special tool: http://arizonasilhouette.com/Closed_End_Pen_Mandrel.htm
Finally, there is a way to hold the closed end blank with our standard mandrel. Here is a crude picture, but if you will email me I can send you a better drawing with some notes. I suppose I could draw it up nice and send it to Jeff for the library. This is not original with me, but I use it often and it works fine if making a pin chuck is out of the question or if purchasing the special expanding mandrels is also not a possibility. One drawback with closed end pens is if a pic chuck or expanding mandrel is used, then you need one for each size tube. But the alternative method I added will work with all kits and tube sizes, since you already have th tooling for that kit...mandrel and bushings.
Have fun and show us one when you get it done.
Do a good turn daily!
Don
Originally posted by ozmandus
Fantastic work... I especially like the antler.
Question for you... Is there a tutorial somewhere that shows how it's done... all I've seen on this site are great looking pens.
