Question about tubes

[Adillo303]

Do any of you ever build a pen kit without tubes?

If so, do you do anything special about drilling, etc.

I wasa wondering about drilling a smaller hole through the pen, drilling it out enouth for the top and bottom and using epoxy or CA to hold them in.

Often, my ideas have pitfalls that I do not foresee, so I thought I would ask.

Why would I do this? I have everything for a Navigator and am missing the tubes. I know I can order just tubes, I was just curious.

 

[Dalecamino]

Andy, the main purpose of the tubes is for support of the material. If you're using kit parts, the material will be very thin at the ends. That's why we sometimes have to either paint the tubes or, the inside of the barrels. You can leave the barrels fatter but, that's just not attractive to me. Might be to you though. You can consider going kitless. But then that's a completely different pen. Hope this helps.

 

[mredburn]

If you make the pen out of Brass or Aluminum stock you could use the parts without tubes. You probably wont be able to drill the correct sizes that would match the inside tube diameter so you would have to get as close as you could staying oversized and epoxy them in.