Penultimate
Member
Greetings
I need a new red ink pen at work so I tried a rollerball cartridge nib from ExoticBlanks.
My design requirements:
A desk pen, no clip, red body, black cap, body should hold two cartridges. The thread cap must twist off in 1.5 turns and it can't feel to rough when holding the pen. Also there must be a smooth transition from the body to the thread.
I designed the pen to have screw-on cap and body finials. I tap the finials to fit on a pen mandrel so I can finish the body and cap as assemblies. I broke the body while threading the cap thread but wanted to save the body because I only had one red blank. So I flipped body around and started over. This required the finial to be longer than it should and there isn't as smooth a transition as I'd like. The cap thread on the body is a 1/2-13 that smoothly transitions from the nib to the body. I don't like how the thread ended though. I need to machine a chamfer or an undercut next time. The cap twists off in 1 1/2 turns. Unfortunately, the body doesn't hold two cartridges and may not hold a Maxi.
Then I decided to make a closed end cap so I made my first closed end mandrel. After a little tinkering it worked OK.
The pen is comfortable to hold and write with. The fine tip nib writes smoothly.
Overall, I'm pleased with my second attempt at a custom pen. There are a lot of areas for improvement.
FWIW, I used a 1/4 x 50 WF (Whitworth Fine) tap instead of the 6.4 x .5 metric tap to screw the nib into the section. It worked really well.
Comments are always appreciated.
I need a new red ink pen at work so I tried a rollerball cartridge nib from ExoticBlanks.
My design requirements:
A desk pen, no clip, red body, black cap, body should hold two cartridges. The thread cap must twist off in 1.5 turns and it can't feel to rough when holding the pen. Also there must be a smooth transition from the body to the thread.
I designed the pen to have screw-on cap and body finials. I tap the finials to fit on a pen mandrel so I can finish the body and cap as assemblies. I broke the body while threading the cap thread but wanted to save the body because I only had one red blank. So I flipped body around and started over. This required the finial to be longer than it should and there isn't as smooth a transition as I'd like. The cap thread on the body is a 1/2-13 that smoothly transitions from the nib to the body. I don't like how the thread ended though. I need to machine a chamfer or an undercut next time. The cap twists off in 1 1/2 turns. Unfortunately, the body doesn't hold two cartridges and may not hold a Maxi.
Then I decided to make a closed end cap so I made my first closed end mandrel. After a little tinkering it worked OK.
The pen is comfortable to hold and write with. The fine tip nib writes smoothly.
Overall, I'm pleased with my second attempt at a custom pen. There are a lot of areas for improvement.
FWIW, I used a 1/4 x 50 WF (Whitworth Fine) tap instead of the 6.4 x .5 metric tap to screw the nib into the section. It worked really well.
Comments are always appreciated.
