Rehabilitated Desert Ironwood Euro

[toddlajoie]

Another member posted a question a few days ago about removing the glued in CB in the Euro kit to recover the hardware and replace the wood. I was in a similar situation, where I had a Euro all assembled, but it had an epic disaster of a CA finish (sanded through in multiple places, part shiny, part dull, rinse, repeat) but the wood had fantastic grain, and hey, it's DI, it would look great with beaver chew marks in it... So the suggestion was made to soak the CB in acetone to disolve the CA, and I decided I would pull all the hardware and soak all the wood, hoping to remove the CB and at least most of the bad CA finish. Well, the acetone also did a fantastic job of removing a good bit of the oil that makes DI what it is, so with the CB removed, I had a nicely figured, but very grey looking piece of DI. Figured I'd go ahead and follow through, so I poped the tubes back on the lathe and gave it a quick sanding, then rub a little BLO on it and bingo, the beautiful DI color came right back. The drying out that the acetone did had caused a few cracks in the DI, so I filled those with some thick CA and let that cure overnight, then went about doing a better job of a CA finish. In the end, it was a hell of a lot of work to save $7 of wood on a $4 pen kit, but it was worth it first for the experience (I won't soak DI in acetone again...) and MORE than worth it in the pen, as it is now probably my favorite ballpoint I have made yet, and it is going to live on a nice stand on my desk, so I can use it every day... Unfortunately, I did not take before or during photos...

Thanks for looking/reading, and any comments, criticism, or advice for future similar situations is very welcome!!

 

[1dweeb]

Great recovery! It is a very nice looking pen.

 

[lwalden]

Love the grain in that blank- definitely worth the effort to make the save!!

 

[1080Wayne]

Todd
Gorgeous pen . Acetone is a desperate measure , but you recovered from the problems it can create beautifully . When I made the acetone suggestion I didn`t imagine that anyone would give the entire tube a bath in the stuff !! In retrospect , a small pointed diamond burr in a Dremel would easily cut through the CB without doing much damage to the tenon . The CB could then probably be pried off without too much trouble . Of course , you would then have the cost of another kit to replace the CB .
Wayne

 

[Glenn McCullough]

To save you some time, I remove all the hardware (cap and body) and mask off the cb, remount it, use 400 grit sandpaper to remove all the ca, redo the CA steps, use a blade to cut around the tape at the CA and reassemble. Ren wax removes masking tape glue superbly. Works great!
Instead of CA, I put two coats of Deft brush on lacquer on slims and less expensive models. Just my way.

 

[Bree]

You did a good job getting the pen right again. It looks very nice now.
:wink::wink::wink: