My first handmade cap!

[Drstrangefart]

It's got some rough edges, to be sure. I figured I'd take a crack at it as a box of most excellent blanks showed up today. My process was as such: Grab an old piece of Bradford Pear. Thick CA the blank cutoff to the end. Go to bandsaw and trim wood down to the same dimensions as the resin. Cut it to length, chuck it up in the 4 jaw, and turn away. I have some lessons to learn here, but I actually got it!!! The first bad thing was getting it to stay centered. Had to re-center it by eyeballing it 5 or 6 different times. Once I moved the tool rest and forgot to turn the lathe off. Hit the spinning blank and blew the resin off the wood. Glued it back down after I threw a few things across the room. I really needed to be more careful about the edge at the clip ring and kept it sharper. Got carried away with MicroMesh and polished more off than expected. But, I got it done, and feel pretty accomplished with it. I also should have softened the edge of the pen barrel at the clip ring to make it all look cleaner. Next time!!!

 

[skiprat]

You are coming on in leaps and bounds.:wink:
That pen is very close to being a unique first, (as far as I know)
If you cut a little recess and notch for the clip, then do the finial like you have, then I'm pretty sure you will have the very first 'one-piece-hidden-clip-slimline' on IAP.
There's an article in the library that will give you clues how to handle the clip.
Keep it up!!:biggrin:

 

[ctubbs]

AMAZING! very good for your first. I am envious. A one piece slim with an almost hidden clip. Fantastic ideas here. Thank you for posting.
Charles

 

[Drstrangefart]

You are coming on in leaps and bounds.:wink:
That pen is very close to being a unique first, (as far as I know)
If you cut a little recess and notch for the clip, then do the finial like you have, then I'm pretty sure you will have the very first 'one-piece-hidden-clip-slimline' on IAP.
There's an article in the library that will give you clues how to handle the clip.
Keep it up!!:biggrin:

The very thought occurred to me. I may have to try that out next time I'm feeling absurdly brave. Someone else posted 2 on pieces with the custom caps on them today, so I can't take too much credit for the idea itself. next time I visit this, I'll try to hide the clip. Maybe get a second matching blank so I can try more than once. That seems like a good idea.

 

[Drstrangefart]

On a random side note: I had the thought to make a more pointy cap so's the pen would be a killer self-defense tool, too. Then it occurred to me that aluminum would be IDEAL to do this with. So I now know what I wanna do next time I have a bar of aluminum. Seems like we have some members here that could really make some magic with that idea.