Kitless tools - what I used to make these pens:

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
See more from InvisibleMan

InvisibleMan

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2011
Messages
716
Location
San Jose, CA
I'm not sure if this belongs here or advanced section, please move it if need be.

There's a long discussion about a "kitless kit" of tooling to get people started on their kitless journey. This may or may not happen. In the mean time, here's what I'm using to get started:

I'm two pens into my kitless journey, so this is pretty simple stuff. My two pens were made with the same set of tools. I'm not claiming these are the world's greatest pens, but they write, and they were fun:biggrin: I have the orange one in my hand, and it's about 13.5cm capped and should be about .5cm shorter if it weren't my first:redface:. The cap is about 14mm and the barrel is about 12mm. I don't have the blue one, but it's roughly the same - a little smaller:

These are both #5 Bock nibs. If you want to use a different nib, you'll probably need different tap and drills for inside of the section!!

M6.4 x .5 tap for the nib housing


7.3mm and 5.8mm drills for inside of the section


small round file to take off a little material so the converter fits into the section nice and snug. It's a standard friction fit converter. One other option would be a 6.4mm drill, which I'll add to my next tool order.

M12 x .75 single start tap and die for the cap threads. I'll get triple starts soon, but single start works well and is very cheap in comparison.

11.2mm drill for the cap

You are on your own if you want a hidden clip - you have to measure and design your cap finial and barrel around the clip you use. Or just skip the clip for your first pen.

M9 x .75 single start tap and die for the section-to-barrel threads

8.2mm drill for the barrel

other tools used: die holder, collet chuck, 60 degree live center, 60 degree dead center, drill chuck (or Jacobs chuck or whatever it's called).

That's one of probably 1.76 bagillion combinations of tools you can use. Kitless pen making is a free-for-all. This isn't a "here's what you should use" thread, just a "here's what I used" thread. Hopefully it'll help somebody get started.

I cobbled this stuff together from various sources. If one of our forum vendors puts a kit together, I'd definitely go that route. If not, now you have one shopping list that will work. Look at the library and youtube for how to use them.

:)

1_Mothers_Day_2012_5.jpg


1_Orange_Camo_Marble_Kitless_Fountain_Pen_1.jpg


If I obviously missed something, please correct me.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom