Emeral City and Galaxy Trek!

[BSea]

Here's my weekends work. 1st is a new blank for me. I've been wanting to do a green blank for awhile. But they are really hard, at least for me. But I kinda like this one. I wanted to put it on something gold, and this kit was handy. It's a long click in gold TI from Timberbits. I did make an error that I didn't see till it was almost done. I have a drilling mark near the top. I should have sanded it out before I reverse painted the blank.

Next up is a Jr Gent I also from Timberbits. This one is closed end with a custom finial & centerband ring. This was the 1st custom centerband ring I've done. The kit from Timberbits has the black ring & chrome ring as removable. I think Smitty's does too, but I'm not sure of others. The blank kinda reminds me of a view of deep space.

Here's a close-up of the cap.

As Always CC welcome.

 

[MikeL]

Sharp looking pens. Great job on the blanks too. Your center band looks like it was a delicate operation. Nice job.

 

[Charlie_W]

Sharp looking pens. Great job on the blanks too. Your center band looks like it was a delicate operation. Nice job.

Bob, This goes for me to!

 

[TDE]

Bob, It looks like you keep raising the bar. That centerband looks great but I draw up just thinking about turning it. Good job . The green blank looks good too. Happy turning, Ted

 

[BSea]

Sharp looking pens. Great job on the blanks too. Your center band looks like it was a delicate operation. Nice job.

Bob, This goes for me to!

Thanks, it was a bit of a learning curve. I ruined 2 before I figured it all out, but now I think I could do a ring in about 20 minutes. But it takes me longer to turn a pen than most, so I'm sure many could do it faster.

Bob, It looks like you keep raising the bar. That centerband looks great but I draw up just thinking about turning it. Good job . The green blank looks good too. Happy turning, Ted

Thanks Teddy. I don't know about raising the bar, I just wanted to try something I hadn't tried before.

 

[Joe S.]

Both are incredible! Especially the blue one! Even more especially the ring!

 

[walshjp17]

Great looking pens, Bob. Productive weekend indeed!

 

[ChrisN]

I like it! If you don't mind me asking, how did you make the center band? I just recently finished a pen with a custom band, and, well, let's just say I've learned some things :biggrin:

 

[asyler]

nice,, like the centerband,

 

[BSea]

I like it! If you don't mind me asking, how did you make the center band? I just recently finished a pen with a custom band, and, well, let's just say I've learned some things :biggrin:

Sure I'll share. 1st thing is try a few times a ruin a couple, then sleep on it for a few days till a new brainstorm hits.:biggrin::biggrin:

Ok, just kidding. I'll try & explain it without pictures. I take the black band & see what bit fits the band then go down 1 size just to be sure that it fits snug. In this case it was snug with a 7/16ths bit. I stepped down to a 27/64ths. I turned a small piece round in my collet chuck. Then squared the end using my parting tool. Then I drilled in about a half inch. Then I turned the piece down to just over the size of the black ring. I then used my parting tool to cut a groove but not all the way through, but enough to be sure the ring wouldn't show any rough edge when finally parted. The end of the blank is where the ring is cut, so I parted it to where the end was the width I wanted for the ring. I just eyeballed the size. Then I took some 320 sand paper & rounded the edges. After that, I polished the ring with MM. Then I used an X-acto knife to part off the ring. At that point I put the drill bit back in the chuck and gently scraped the inside of the ring till it would just ease onto the fitting. This went pretty fast as I was close to begin with. If you try & drill with the larger bit, you get slop, and the ring will never look right.

I hope that helps. Feel free to ask me to explain any step that isn't clear.

 

[Dustygoose]

I think the center band is great. I see a demo of this soon... Great job Bob.

 

[Sataro]

Great job on both pens! That blue one is something else with that center band. Wow!!!

 

[Hendu3270]

Very nice! Love the finial and centerband.