Barrel Cleaner and Trimmer for Fountain Pens

[Cody Winters]

Hi!
I'm just getting set up to turn my first fountain pens. I am going to turn an Olympian Elite, but I don't know what barrel trimmer to get, because the drill I'm using to drill the blank is 33/64"
Do I need a special size barrel trimmer?

 

[thewishman]

THe way I do it is to take an acrylic blank that I messed up on another pen (usually a 7mm pen) and turn the material down so it just fits inside the tube of the pen you are trying to make. Slide that onto the 7mm barrel trimmer shaft and you have a custom trimmer.

Or you can go the lazy way and wrap electrical tape around a tube, at the bottom and the top, until it fits snugly into the tube you want to trim.

 

[pshib]

You could also use polymer clay on a 7mm tube. Then before baking the clay use a a small sharps tool to mark the size

 

[Boz]

I have a set of center punches. Find one that is the right size to fit in your blank. Chuck it up on the tail stock. Use adhesive backed sand paper on a piece of wood attached to the head stock. Slide the blank forward to the spinning sandpaper. Job done.

 

[pshib]

Works for cleaning the tubes but what about squaring up the blanks?

 

[mbroberg]

Works for cleaning the tubes but what about squaring up the blanks?

The methods described above will square tubes and blanks.