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jttheclockman

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I had shown this pen in the thread about my Birthday and a question came up so thought it would be better to show here and if others maybe interested. Here was the question by Skip.

Time well spent in your shop too. That pen is very very cool. I'm amazed that it stayed together. I would have thought that the round rods would be eager to pop out as you turned. Care to share how you got the equal spacing between the rods?


First a little background on the pen. I was in the shop yesterday and finally was able to complete a pen that I tried 2 other times to get done but had failures. I learned from these failures and as they say the third time is a charm. It is an addition to my series of black acrylic and aluminum pen blanks. This is a spiral aluminum rod on a tube and cast in Liquid Diamonds epoxy resin. It then was spun and polished to a high shine. I have included a photo of the tube with the rods glued to it before it was cast in resin that was dyed black.

I also now included a photo of the tools minus the carbide cutting tool used to spin it and the polishing MM and glues. But to answer Skips question about the spacing of the rods, I draw these circles on a piece of paper and divide them equally with lines. In this case it is quarters so this makes 4 strips of aluminum needed. I center the tube over the circle and mark the bottom edges of the tube. I now transfer that same mark to the top of the tube using a straight edge (in this case a piece of maple in the background) by laying the tube on its side against the wood with the mark on one edge. Now just draw a line straight down the tube using the wood as a guide. Now I have to curve the rods to the right bend so they lay flat on the tube. Sounds weird right.:):) But what I am doing is setting the bottom part of the rod on one mark and rolling the top of the rod to the next mark over from the bottom. I continue all the way around, setting the rods on those marks and gluing them with med CA. It takes very little time for the CA to grab the two dissimilar metals for a tight bond. But here is where I found one of my mistakes and overcame it. I found CA alone was not strong enough because it is too brittle. So I encase the rods sides with some epoxy glue tinted black. This seemed to hold alot better.

I then trimmed the ends close to the tube using a diamond cutter in a dremel drill. Then I sanded on the lathe as we all do so that the rods are even with the tube. Lot easier to do before casting in case of a blowup. I then cast in LD and set in pot for 24 hours. Take out and let cure for another 24 hours. Then spin it down making sure the blank does not get too hot. I actually did that in 2 steps to avoid the heat. Then polished and assembled. By the way this kit is a Stainless Steel Desire kit.

Hope that answers the question and and if others I will try to answer.
 

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skiprat

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Too cool John. Thanks for the explanation too.
When you finished turning down the blank, were the rods turned beyond half their original thickness? If so, this is where I would have expected a failure.
Their doesn't appear to be any noticeable difference between the finished width of the rods on the cap or body so were the tubes similar sized?

To be anally critical and with the benefit of hindsight, I would have tried to copy the angle of the rods on the shorter cap with the body. A quarter twist on shorter distance makes a steeper angle than it does on a longer distance.

I have always wanted to make a pen like the Visconti Divina.....but you have beat me to it....:biggrin:
 

jttheclockman

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Too cool John. Thanks for the explanation too.
When you finished turning down the blank, were the rods turned beyond half their original thickness? If so, this is where I would have expected a failure.
Their doesn't appear to be any noticeable difference between the finished width of the rods on the cap or body so were the tubes similar sized?

To be anally critical and with the benefit of hindsight, I would have tried to copy the angle of the rods on the shorter cap with the body. A quarter twist on shorter distance makes a steeper angle than it does on a longer distance.

I have always wanted to make a pen like the Visconti Divina.....but you have beat me to it....:biggrin:

First Skip that pen you mention is where the idea came from. The way I did this there is no way the strips can line up because of the different diameters in the tubes. Are they the same thickness?? Wow that would take micrometers to measure but can say they ar close to the same size and should be the same. The reason is the amount of material left on both the cap and nib end is very close to the same. That is the reason I chose the kit. Many times the cap has less meat left on the blank than the lower section but not in this case. The difference is in the diameter of the tube.

Now to address your other keen eye is yes the angle of the strips is probably off some because of the length of the two tubes. Now I did not have to adjust the amount of bend in the rods so it has to be close or else they would not sit flat on the tube.

To try to make exact top and bottom can only be done if the diameter of each tube is the same and the length of the 2 tubes were exact. No other way to do it even if you try changinging angles. Any change in the angle throws center of tubes off. If you can do it I bow down to you sir because for what I am working with it can not be done. Now if you make a kitless pen and as I said make all parts equal than that is easy. That is where you will shine.

Yes the one other question about size of rods when turned, lets put it this way. Cap .122mm left Nib .118mm left So that is pretty close to the same thickness of each blank in my book. 1/8" rod used. Measured strips are 1/8" wide. Now I am not a math guy or that smart but when turned down they did go past half diameter or at least that is the way it measures out, but because they curve with the tube they do not lose the overall width of 1/8". Not sure if you understand what I am saying and I am not sure I can explain any better. :):):)

In MM what is half of an 1/8" ???



This was the pen that mine was modeled after

www.visconti.it/uk/pen-collection/divina-elegance-5.asp
 
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skiprat

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Hey John, please don't read anything into my queries. The reason I was asking about the turned width was because if it was me, then the moment they hit fractionally under the half way mark, with my luck, thats when they would blow. :biggrin:

I'm not sure who's theory about the angle of the dangle is correct, so I'll add it to my to do list one day. :wink:

I'm just jealous that you did something before me that was on my bucket list.:tongue:
 

jttheclockman

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Just A Thought

Just thought of something to what Skip mentioned about angles in case someone is following this and thinking of trying something like this.

Maybe I will make up a set of blanks and see how it would look.

But if you treat both tubes as one and make the angle to match the bottom of the nib tube and the other end the top of the cap tube. That may cancel out the discrepancy of the slight angle difference. Not sure if that will alter the distance between strips as they climb upward. Just a thought. It may also line up the strips too. Always looking for other ideas. As I said I have a couple more I want to add to this series. Right now working on a project for my brother. Will start 2 other pens next week but they are not anything of a WOW factor.

Skip I look forward to you doing this and also adding the flat spots to it too. I am working with woodworking tools so it is a little tougher for me. :):)
 

Terredax

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The angle of the strips can be matched between the body and cap. Look at the link you provided. The angle is matching the full length of the pen, and the cap is shorter and larger diameter, than the body.

To match the angle on the cap, the strip wouldn't wrap the full quarter turn that the body does. There are formulas to determine this, but a bevel gauge would work just as well. From my understanding of your method, the cap strips wouldn't receive as tight of an arc.

I've had an idea that is similar, but different, for some time. I have a particular tool in mind to make my design, to keep it symmetrical.

I must have the same affliction as you... too many ideas, and not enough time.
 

jttheclockman

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The angle of the strips can be matched between the body and cap. Look at the link you provided. The angle is matching the full length of the pen, and the cap is shorter and larger diameter, than the body.

To match the angle on the cap, the strip wouldn't wrap the full quarter turn that the body does. There are formulas to determine this, but a bevel gauge would work just as well. From my understanding of your method, the cap strips wouldn't receive as tight of an arc.

I've had an idea that is similar, but different, for some time. I have a particular tool in mind to make my design, to keep it symmetrical.

I must have the same affliction as you... too many ideas, and not enough time.


The pen by Visconti is over $1000 and i am sure they have better lasers to do inlay. This is not an inlay. As I said in my after thought would be the only other way to use my method to do that for angles. If you held this pen in your hand you could not see the difference in angles at all because as I said the strips do not line up. I may try my other method just to see if things change. I hope someone else trys this and comes up with a better method. I am always willing to learn. I hope others may have learned something from my method and they can use it to expand the idea. For now I have so many other ideas I want to try so I am sure we will be having this same conversation once again. Happy turning.:):)

I could have made the cap a solid black blank or solid aluminum and we would not even be discussing this but it is what it is.

I gave your idea a little more thought and the thing that would prevent this for me is that the rod would not lay flat on the tube and this is crucial because you can not have air under it. That would make the stripe narrower in the center when turned. The angle I made the bend is about as small as I could that would allow me to wrap it to the next spot. Anything less I would have to add probably another stripe to make up the distance around. I was looking for equal distance between stripes all the way up the tube. As I said glad that this got people talking pens and sharing ideas. This what I miss here.

Thanks everyone for the nice words too.
 
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Lmstretch

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That pen Rocks! The Turners in this group constantly keep raising the bar, when it comes to making pens. As a beginner, it reminds me that pens are not boring, and the only limits to what pen you can make is your imagination! Please keep inspiring us beginners!


Sent from my iPad using Penturners.org mobile app
 

OZturner

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Excellent Concept, Execution, and Explanation John.
You Certainly have got our Brains ticking over.
Love the Black, and Aluminium, a Classic and Workable Combination.
Congratulations, and Thanks for Posting.
Brian.
 

ajollydds

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Well planned and executed. Fabulous pen, thanks for sharing!

I especially love seeing the progress photos of the blanks before the metamorphosis into pens. In my mind those are the most valuable photos to see. The end result is always great, but I love seeing what the journey looked like to get there.
 
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