Rollerball Spyra

[btboone]

Here's a rollerball version of my pen. It has African Blackwood spirals, and this one has a brushed finish. I kept the front barrel polished for contrast, and there's a nosecone for the rollerball refill that is brushed. I had to make a lot of fixtures for the parts needed to change it over. The Blackwood gave me fits trying to inlay it today. It is so hard that it's brittle and doesn't want to bend around the spirals. I think I might experiment with veneers to try and knock some time off the spiral part. It probably took 8 hours to do that part alone, and the results were not the same as the Olivewood. One spiral from both the back barrel and base broke out when turning it after gluing. I had to cut the remaining wood in the spirals out, laser cut another tube, and glue the new ones in. It's a lot of work. I'll probably try an all wood one with titanium fittings next. They could sell at a lower price point, and would be tons faster and easier to make.

 

[DWK5150]

Amazing!!!

 

[Jim Boyd]

How come I like this one better than the last one[?][]

 

[wdcav1952]

Bruce,

I always thought I had a good vocabulary, but you have run me out of superlatives! I'll just settle for awesome!

 

[alamocdc]

[:0][:0][:0], Bruce! I'm just speechless.

 

[JimGo]

That is REALLY beautiful, Bruce. Great job, as always!

 

[Old Griz]

Very Sweet.... I really like the black and Titanium look... and the polished nib section offsets the brushed barrel beautifully...
All I can say is that this is definately a winner and should be a real seller to those who don't use a fountain pen..

 

[rtjw]

This one is better than the last.

 

[btboone]

Thanks guys. Interesting that a lot of people like the look. I'm kinda torn. The final look is fairly clean, but turning the wood is like working with coal. Everything it touches turns filthy and gritty. Almost like tarry black sand. It cracked several times when setting the base spirals because they need to flex to get into position, but you probably wouldn't know by looking. Something needs to give because they take too long as they are, and I won't be able to make rings and pens both at the rate I'm making them now. Fortunately October is a relatively slow month for rings, and it allows me to experiment more with the pens. Like anything, they should get faster and more efficient as I work out the details, but this one went pretty slow.

 

[wayneis]

Bruce did you think about steaming or getting the wood wet before bending? Or even soaking in a 50 50 mixture carpenters glue and water. When I made my Stars and Stripes pen the stripes went in much easier after the glue had softened the wood for a little bit.

Wayne

 

[btboone]

Hi Wayne, I soaked the wood overnight in olive oil. It seemed to work fine for the olivewood, but the blackwood never seemed to soften up very much. I wasn't sure what else to try. The other question is would it be better to soak before or after the laser cut spirals? I imagine after, since that would open up more pores into the wood. The downside is that the thin strips might warp a lot? I was also concerned with something like water filling the pores and shrinking later when it dries out and cracking the wood. I definitely need something to work better in this step. I will go to WoodCraft today to see if there are any veneers that might work. They could be lasered flat, and eliminate the machining of the tube, the soaking, the hand grinding and fitting of each strip, and since the machining of the grooves is not as deep, the spirals in the body could be run a lot faster and have less tool breakage.

 

[nilsatcraft]

I really like it, Bruce. Are you planning on making a couple for yourself?

 

[wood-of-1kind]

Bruce may not be able to 'afford' to keep a few of his creations if you know what I mean$$$$$$.LOL []

 

[btboone]

That's true! I do love to use them, but the idea is to make them manufacturable and sell them. I will probably keep the first prototype, which works fine, but doesn't have the details as dialed in as some of the ones following. I'll keep revising them to try to get manufacturing time down, so I imagine there will be more prototypes to come my way. As I mentioned, I'll try to also produce a wood version because they should take a lot less time to make, and maybe I can "afford" to make myself one of those. []

 

[Old Griz]

Hey Bruce you run out of desk room for the prototypes, just email me... my wife loves that pen...

 

[Mudder]

Although this is an absolutely gorgeous pen, I have to go against the grain here and say I like the shiny olivewood one better. I wonder how it wound look with a "red" wood?

Your work is superb Bruce, I hope they sell well for you at a handsome price.

 

[TimElliot]

Hi all,

I'm new to this forum and enjoy working in both wood and metal. I've yet to make my first pen, but reading this forum has given me lots of ideas.

Anyway, Bruce - I'm curious what you are using to attach the wood to your titanium pen. I would think after soaking the wood nothing would adhere.

Tim

 

[btboone]

Hi Tim, welcome to the forum. The strips I used are about .060" thick, and are laser cut from a tube of wood. They are deep enough where there is an element of a friction fit going on. I used CA glue to hold them in. I used oil to soak them in because somehow CA glue doesn't seem to be affected by it. There's a well known trick in pen turning to add boiled linseed oil to your pen and add CA glue. I figured that olive oil certainly would be compatible with olivewood and would probably work with CA as well. It seems to work fine.

Tom and Mudder, there's going to be some serious prototyping going on. I just bought $150 worth of veneers. Some of that stuff looks awesome. I got some Madagascar Ebony, with some reddish streaks in the dark brown, some burled redwood, burled maple, some stuff that looks similar to koa or rippled maple, rosewood, and some wood that has been dyed black. It feels flexible enough in the pack, but I'll see if I need to soak it beforehand. Hopefully, CA will work well enough for it.

 

[Rudy Vey]

Bruce,
I like this version better than the shiny Olivewood variation. The brushed look combined with the shiny section and the black wood accents is just very elegant!!

 

[btboone]

Just wait Rudy! It looks like these veneers should work great. That stuff is awesome! The cut is so much more crisp because I can turn the power way down on the laser because the wood is not as thick. It also doesn't need the hand fitting because of the difference in angles that the cutter and the laser take. Both machines cut on centerline, but the machining center has cutting tools with a bigger diameter than the laser beam, so the difference in angles to the centerline comes into play. The veneer is so thin that the effect is not an issue.


I cut the parts backwards so the focal cone of the laser will help to wedge the wood into the slots. I just got them dialed in so that the 2D cut parts fit very precisely. It took a lot of iterations to get them working right, but they are jammin'. [8D] I wet them with water and they take the bend OK. I imagine oil should work well too.

Since a lot of people like the brushed, I might offer that as the standard and polished more as a special. Hopefully I'm on track to get the labor down and actually be able to manufacture them in desirable options.

 

[woodscavenger]

I like the olivewood better. From the pic I could believe that you anodized or painted it. The grain of the olivewood would be impossible (nearly) to paint so you know it is a wood inlay. Try a dark reb/black cocobolo

 

[btboone]

Shane, I took it with me to WoodCraft, and the guy there said the same thing. He assumed it was some kind of epoxy or something until I pointed out that it was wood. He was pretty impressed with it then. I picked up some nice Madagascar Ebony with a little more coloration than the Blackwood. It should be enough to really tell it's wood.

I'm with you though; I like the look of the Olivewood and polished ti better. I have some nice burls and other nice looking stuff to try now. With the laser technique, I should be able to do a lot of variations of the inlay thing. I wish I had more time to play!

 

[Randy_]

Bruce: have you given any thought to revising the nib end of the pen for the rollerball? The angled end is just fine for the fountain pen; but, to my eye, looks a little funny with a rollerball cartridge. Maybe I'm just to brainwashed on a traditional nib profile; but I would like to see the pen taper down to the the tip and be totally symertical like a traditional rollerball

 

[btboone]

Hi Randy, Yes I looked at that in CAD. It didn't have the same look to me. I never got a symmetrical one to have the look and handfeel I wanted. The angled cut also makes it stand apart from what's out there and matches the opposite end. It also uses the same parts with the addition of the nosecone, so one pen can be changed over either way. A symmetrical front barrel could not easily be made in one piece because of the very small bore, so would need a separate nosecone with a visible cut line which would interrupt the spirals. Remember too that the front barrel needs to be made first, and the back barrel needs to be made to match the spirals of the front barrel, so I wouldn't be able to change from one type of pen to another without remaking the major parts.

 

[darbytee]

Bruce, I've got to say that I like this one better than the olivewood. I can't comprehend the time and effort put into this design, but it is absolutely gorgeous (in case you haven't heard that yet []).

 

[btboone]

Thanks Fred. Before it's over, it looks like I'll be able to offer something like 8 different woods, fountain pen or roller ball, blue or black ink, and brushed or polished finish. I suppose I could do any of my 11 finishes, but no need to get silly with it. []

 

[Mudder]

Originally posted by btboone
<br />....Tom and Mudder, there's going to be some serious prototyping going on......

If you need any product testers, I volunteer!