Thanks guys.. I do like the soda can better than a washer I think. If you look quick, you don't even see it.
Oh, and Joe.. It is floating, if you look close, you can see the nib is taped down!
I made a jig today, I had an old "live cup center" that was pretty rusted up, but the bearing was still "OK" I had plans to use the MT-2 shaft as it is threadded to 1/2-20 and if I really want to, I can use any of the things from my metal lathe on the wood lathe. The head threads on so I made a wood block to press into the old head bearing and this block has a nice round indent in it to hold the dip pen after it's been parted. I part "almost" thru the ball end and then carefully cut the center hole part off and shave it down with a sharp chisel. I can how hand sand the ball to shape.
Once this is done, I can return the dip pen to my old pen mandrel with the shaft flipped around. This is kind of like a pin chuck without the pin. I now can sand the pen without worry that the thin ball end will break. I holt it like this right up thru CA and then remove the tailstock and apply a dap of CA by hand and burnish it with BLO. I have always had too much "whip" trying to apply CA on something like this becuase it's too thin. This solved that problem.
Here are a couple photos. The "cap" is fitted over the head a little bit because there is no dust cap on the bearing. I tried to get it out and there is no where to grab it. I plan to turn a new head on my metal lathe and use a smaller bearing and a smaller head. I "might" make the head from brass this time, but that is a summer project!
