No Brass?

[SimonJester]

Somewhere I saw someone say that they don't use the brass tubes for their pens. I'm afraid that the pen would be too weak without it, but I'm willing to experiment.

I can't find the instructions now though. Can someone point me to that post?

 

[leehljp]

I don't remember seeing that but that is not saying it wasn't posted. I have seen references to pens in which a certain section was used without brass tube to allow for a different design.

I am not sure if either of the next two do that or not, but they are modified to the point of not gluing the tube at certain points, or not using a tube at certain points.

http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21470

http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=27195

I had these in my file for single blank slimlines. The top link uses one tube as a "floater" - as noted in the last post in that thread. The 2nd post did the same thing but instead of using a floater. I don't see how a twist pen could be used without a tube to hold the nib and grip the transmission. It might be possible to do this on re-doing a Walmart click pen or the likes.

 

[SimonJester]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, Hank.

Neither of these is the message I was referring to, but they both give me some ideas.

It could have been on a forum other than Penturners. At this point I don't recall where I saw it.

 

[ashaw]

I totally forgot about this. Here is the link http://www.thepenshop.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5026&PN=11

All of the pens are holding up well. I have stopped making the barons for right now sice they have not been selling well. Trying to sell off the rest of the barons this year. No problems about breaking just make sure you use epoxy glue not CA. Also you will need some mini clamps.

 

[DCBluesman]

I've made a boat load of pens without tubes. Typically I just drill the hole to the ID of the tube and CA the inside of the blank. Rather than press fit, I glue the components in place. I find that the pen is plenty strong enough for normal use. I've never had someone tell me one broke.

This pen was made without tubes.

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[SimonJester]

Thanks guys. That's exactly what I was looking for.

 

[bitshird]

I think you may be referring to cncjohnny's aluminum pens, he has made some available that don’t require brass tubes, I didn't use them on the aluminum pen I made either, in a metal pen they really are quite unnecessary,
I'm not sure if skiprat uses tubes in his metal pens either[?]
Ken Ferrell