faith hope love pens

[Cloven]

My aunt on my mother's side commissioned me to make four pens, three for her daughters (my cousins) and one for her mother (my grandmother). They are to be Easter presents from her to them, and her only stipulation is that they be Christian themed, and girly/pink. They are all the pewter finish on acrylic blanks.
Let's see...the first is called Pink Camo. The second is called Rasberry Frosting (bit more purple than pink). The third is Pearl rose quartz, and the fourth is Pink Pebble. The last picture is just a group shot.

It has been cold as anything up here, so haven't been productive all winter, but now that I've got these four out of the way I have two Nautical kits and two Cambridge/Canadiana kits in my supplies that I am going to make up.
I wasn't 100% impressed with the construction quality on the FaithHopeLove kits, in pressing the center band into the lower barrel the outer collar with the text separated completely from the middle cylinder as there was nothing holding it on. With the third pen too, when screwing the end on, the cap with the crosses separated completely from the inner cylinder too. Bit of thick superglue and wrangling with assembly fixed it so they are good now, just a bugger to assemble.

 

[Band Saw Box]

Very nice group of pens.

 

[turncrazy43]

David, Nice work on those pens. Choice of the blanks was very good as well. Thanks for the heads up on the kits and the assembly problems. I purchased the started set of those pens but have not gotten around to making them yet. Your post will help me try to assemble them.
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Everyday I'm vertical is a great day

 

[Cloven]

turncrazy: my suggestion when assembling would be to use a 7mm or 1/4" (if it'll fit) socket head, like you would use on a ratcheting wrench for fastening bolt heads. Put the socket over the threaded part and press assemble like normal, but pressing on the back of the socket piece. There is a small ledge of the inner cylinder's metal beyond the threaded part, and that is what you have to press on. Any pressure applied to the outer collar will result in it sliding off this inner cylinder. You cannot press on the outer collar, as it will result in it sliding off, nor should you press directly on the end of the threaded part the transmission threads on to, as you may ruin that part, so the only safe option would be pressing on the small space of the inner collar at the base of the threaded part of the center band. Good luck.