Casing pen guys

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Firefyter-emt

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I have a question... What are you doing to secure the nib (slimline) in the casing it self?? I have the tube centered nice on the cap, but the tube would be loose on the nib end. Do you just try to glue it alinged or do you turn a thin sleeve for the tube to mate with the casing?

I would like to either have a 400+ temp aproved solution or something that can be done cleanly after they have been powdercoated. I am not fond of just using epoxy to line it up.
 
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England14

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I have been considering this myself. I am going to use a bullet for the nib. A copper or at least copper jacketed bullet properly drilled should make a nice nib. We already have a lathe so drilling should be no problem. [;)]
 

workinforwood

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At 400 degrees wouldn't the ink blow out and make a big mess inside the pen? I think the nib pressed straight into the actual casing tip on one of the ones I got..but can't promise that since I didn't make it. Now I wish I had examined it more closely.
 

Gary Max

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Powder coat the casing first---then build everything???????
I don't think I would trust any parts exposed to that much heat.
Even a small fire can be real bad is a wood shop??????
 

Firefyter-emt

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Back up guys... I only want to have the TUBE in the casing, not the whole blasted pen! LOL

I am testing one right now with some CA to see what will happen. The gap is very small, almost enough to solder. This may be the ticket to be honest about it. What I did was to glue the tube into the casing and then between centers I took a file to the end to bring it down to .330 I figure with a coat of clear I will be a hair more than the .331 of the slimline nib, but the casing was getting slim!

EDIT: Gary, I wanted to PC the casing with the tube in the pen so that the PC is not damaged trying to glue the 7mm tube inside it.
 

TAld

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I would like to either have a 400+ temp aproved solution or something that can be done cleanly after they have been powdercoated. I am not fond of just using epoxy to line it up.

J-B Weld has a high temp epoxy that can withstand a constant 500 degrees according to the company. (I think it is called J-B Weld Industro and the model is #8280).
There are many different high temp epoxies available. Just google "high temperature epoxy".
 

Monty

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I've had good luck using one or two layers of heat shrink tubing to make a good fit. So far it's held up in the PC oven.
 

sparhawk

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I have only made a couple of these and after i glue the primer end and center the tube i dab epoy into the space between the casing and the tube. After it dries i hand turn my pen mill to sgaure the front until it is even with the tube. Not sure about the heat tolerance of epoxy though.
 

alamocdc

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Lee, I started out using resin scraps epoxied to the tubes, then turned down to press fit into the casing. This keeps the tube centered in the casing. I've since decided to solder them in b/c I don't know how well the epoxied resin would hold up under the heat of the PC oven. The solder should stay in place during the PC process, but there is still the problem of centering the tube in the casing. You can get brass tubing that just fits over the 7mm and should provide a perfect sweat fit (solder) to the casing so that's the direction I'm going on my next ones. BTW JB Weld would work as well. I've used it on stuff that gets much hotter than 400 degrees.
 

Firefyter-emt

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Well, I am going to give the solder a try as I think it's the best method to use, but there may be problems. The melt point of solder is 360 to 380. Now it may just melt and (I hope) just tray where it is until it cools. Or, it will flow into the casing. I will post up how this works.

What do you guys do with the 30-06 casings? The tube is too short to exit the primer cap, or aparently engage into the primer cap itself.
 

alamocdc

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Lee, I've only done 1 30-06 casing and I can't remember how I did it. I do buy 7mm tubes in 10" lengths and I "think" I just cut one to fit the casing. Oh, when I drill the primer I use an "I" bit. This makes a near perfect fit for the 7mm tube and soldering should work. And FWIW, plumbing solder is now lead free and has a slightly higher melting point (just above 400 °F... actually 232-240 °C) so if you use this, melting the solder shouldn't be a problem.
 

LEAP

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Lee,
Like Robert I found that a 8mm pencil tube will fit nicely in the cartridge neck and is a snug fit on a 7mm tube. I bought a couple packs of 10" long tubes from PSI in 8mm pencil and 7mm and cut them to length on the band saw then use a cartridge trimmer to clean up the ends.
 

Sylvanite

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Well, back when I used kit nibs, I used to size, drill, polish, and powder coat the case before gluing in the tube. Just about anything (even a couple wraps of electrical tape) worked acceptably for centering the tube in the case mouth. Teflon tape might also work and stand up to heat better.

If I were still doing that, I'd probably be nesting a brass tube (as already described), and crimping it in place before powder coating. But since I've gone to drilling out bullets for the nib, I don't bother with that anymore. If you really want to solder parts before powder coating, try silver solder, which has a higher melting temperature than tin.

If you are using a long-action (e.g. 30-06) case and find the slimline tube to be too short, you can either buy long tube sections and cut them to length, or use the lower tube from a euro pen kit. I don't have that issue anymore either though. An appropriate size bullet seated to the correct depth allows me to use the slimline tube.

Then again, I've been building cartridge pens on the cigar and perfect-fit kits lately, which open up additional design possiblities.

Experiment and have fun. If you come up with a new and better idea, great!
 

Firefyter-emt

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Well, I left the uncoated casing in the oven @ 400-degrees with no signs of melting, so I put togather a couple more, three in all and I am going to give the clear a try and see how it works.

What I did was to leave the 7mm tube long on the nib end and solder it togather, I was able to hold the casing in my metal vice buy using an old mandrel. This allowed the casing to be aligned by hand once it was hot and soldered. A quick trip to the disk grinder and the pen mill to square the tube and solder had me ready to go. I then held it between centers and used a small file to bring the casing down to slimline size. Once it was sanded all down, I used one of my pen spray rods I built for lacquer to hold the casing to polish it up. Next step, powder coat! [:D]
 

Texasbeachbum

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I powder coat mine before I put the tube in. I use 1/4 inch plastic shrink wrap on the brass tube. Like you use on electrical wires.It makes the tube center perfect. then just glue the tube into the cartriage. I also use the bullet with it drilled. These things are hard to drill too. The lead will melt while you are drilling if your not real careful. I start out with a hollow point bullet too.
 

Firefyter-emt

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My reason for wanting to have the tubes in before I coat them is so I can place it between centers and remove about .015 off the neck to make it match the nib. Doing it this way I am sure it will be round and the proper size when I am done. I may still try the 8mm tube though, lot eaiser to make sure it's really round!
 

Sylvanite

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Originally posted by Texasbeachbum
<br />I also use the bullet with it drilled. These things are hard to drill too. The lead will melt while you are drilling if your not real careful.
Yes, it can be difficult to drill lead. I doubt it's really melting. The melting point of the lead used in jacketed bullets is around 800 degrees farenheit. You shouldn't generate that much heat drilling. Lead is very malleable however, and somewhat sticky. It tends to clump up in the flutes of the drill bit -- causing it to bind. Drill straight, use light pressure, clear the flutes at any sign of difficulty, and it usually goes ok. Oh, and it helps to develop a method for extracting stuck bits without breaking them (from my experience anyway) [:D].

Oh, and by the way Firefyter-emt, I took your suggestion to make a cartridge (with bullet nib) sized appropriately as a tubeless lower barrel on a cigar pen. You can see the result at http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=30088 .
 
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