BradG
Member
Well, this has been the most challenging pen i have ever turned, and the one i am proudest of.
This pen is the end result of months of experimenting and research, and thinking back, i think this is the 18th attempt before cracking it. From now on, this should be plain sailing with making the future ones now i know the ways on how not to do it
Firstly, both sections of the pen are turned from aluminium.
I apply masking, and on this occasion a celtic pattern.
The circumference of a gent lid is equal to its length, so a 50x50mm pattern touches lip to lip which is perfect.
With the taper on the pens body, not so straight forward. i manually doctored the pattern with a scalpel as applying it so its an endless pattern going round. you will see this in the video when i release it tomorrow.
After this, the pieces take a dip in an exothermic etchant. typically etching takes around 9 hours for a usable depth for inlacing. The issue i encountered is that after so many hours the masking would peel at the edges and give rough lines, and parts which failed. The solution was toincrease the etch speed, and i found by adding a small amount of copper alloy to the ferric chloride, it created a violent exothermic reaction with the aluminium etching down to 0.5mm in around 30 seconds. the temperature it generates is so intense an earlier attempt with wax as a mask simply dripped off in a second. The second issue is smut. as the metal is corroded is leaves a layer of filth behind, and if this settles on the metal it protects it from the etchant. as a result of this it stopped etching down, and started etching outwards, eating away at the lines i was trying to preverse. this is known as under cutting, and can be avoided with ansiotropic etching with gases, but thats beyond the scope of this post.
I needed to find a way around this sediment buildup, and i found etch houses use a recipe called an edinburgh etch, where they add a 1:5 ration of citric acid, which lifts the smut away from the surface of the aluminium. with using 200Grams of citric with 800ml of Ferric chloride, with the parts suspended vertically (laying them down was a failure too) i managed to succeed after much trial and error..
After being etched, i mixed black dye with polylite resin, and applied it using a finishing Rotisserie
The idea was given to me by Jeff Powel over at masterscrollers.com and its been a god send. Turns at 2.5RPM which is perfect for making the resin flow around the blanks slowly giving an even finish.
Once left to cure, they were turned back down to size and sanded to a polish.
The centre band is made from aluminium which i have anodised black
The finial, again made from aluminium and anodised black with detailing turned on the lathe.
I hope ive not waffled on too much :redface: Il be posting a tutorial on how this is done in due course... though tomorrow il be posting a video tomorrow which just shows the journey through making this pen without all the tech waffle
This pen is the end result of months of experimenting and research, and thinking back, i think this is the 18th attempt before cracking it. From now on, this should be plain sailing with making the future ones now i know the ways on how not to do it
Firstly, both sections of the pen are turned from aluminium.
I apply masking, and on this occasion a celtic pattern.
The circumference of a gent lid is equal to its length, so a 50x50mm pattern touches lip to lip which is perfect.
With the taper on the pens body, not so straight forward. i manually doctored the pattern with a scalpel as applying it so its an endless pattern going round. you will see this in the video when i release it tomorrow.
After this, the pieces take a dip in an exothermic etchant. typically etching takes around 9 hours for a usable depth for inlacing. The issue i encountered is that after so many hours the masking would peel at the edges and give rough lines, and parts which failed. The solution was toincrease the etch speed, and i found by adding a small amount of copper alloy to the ferric chloride, it created a violent exothermic reaction with the aluminium etching down to 0.5mm in around 30 seconds. the temperature it generates is so intense an earlier attempt with wax as a mask simply dripped off in a second. The second issue is smut. as the metal is corroded is leaves a layer of filth behind, and if this settles on the metal it protects it from the etchant. as a result of this it stopped etching down, and started etching outwards, eating away at the lines i was trying to preverse. this is known as under cutting, and can be avoided with ansiotropic etching with gases, but thats beyond the scope of this post.
I needed to find a way around this sediment buildup, and i found etch houses use a recipe called an edinburgh etch, where they add a 1:5 ration of citric acid, which lifts the smut away from the surface of the aluminium. with using 200Grams of citric with 800ml of Ferric chloride, with the parts suspended vertically (laying them down was a failure too) i managed to succeed after much trial and error..
After being etched, i mixed black dye with polylite resin, and applied it using a finishing Rotisserie
The idea was given to me by Jeff Powel over at masterscrollers.com and its been a god send. Turns at 2.5RPM which is perfect for making the resin flow around the blanks slowly giving an even finish.
Once left to cure, they were turned back down to size and sanded to a polish.
The centre band is made from aluminium which i have anodised black
The finial, again made from aluminium and anodised black with detailing turned on the lathe.
I hope ive not waffled on too much :redface: Il be posting a tutorial on how this is done in due course... though tomorrow il be posting a video tomorrow which just shows the journey through making this pen without all the tech waffle
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