underdog
Member
Ever notice how repairing a mistake on a new pen, or fixing wear and tear on an old pen takes more time than just making a new one?
I've just completed 19 of the 25 pen kits I ordered last month. In that time I've learned to apply a passable CA glue finish, and I've managed to mess up at least five of the pens in some way or another. I've cocked a nib or cap when assembling- bending the tube bad enough to have to cut it off, blown out the blank several times when milling it square, messed up the CA finish umpteen zillion times, mismatched blanks, or swapped ends on matching blanks, disasembled and re-assembled after using faulty parts, and glued my fingers to all kinds of crap... And I don't know what all else... It seems to take twice as long to fix the mistake as it does to turn another and put the finish on it.
But here's a special story about repairing an old pen...
A coupla years back I found this forum, and started by turning the classic "Walmart Pen". Then I went "whole hog" (don't laugh!) and ordered five different "real" kits from Craft Supplies USA. Then I turned a total of two of those kits and the rest have been sitting in my bench ever since.
Evidently a real penturner I'm not....
But one of those pens, a "Presidential", is a "user" that I've had with me since that time, and it's kinda special to me. The first reason it's special is because it was one of my "firsts", and the second reason is that it is soft highly figured Alder wood that has custom accent bands created by CA glue and coffee, which was necessary to hide the tearout on the ends of the blank.... so it was with consternation that I noticed that the transmission failed and wouldn't keep the refill extended. Well I set it aside until I re-ordered a replacement. It sat until this last order came in, and I used up a pen a friend had made me. (It's needing repair right now too, but that's another story.)
Well I went down to Harbor Freight and purchased the transfer punch set to disassemble the pens when I needed to. Then I knocked the cap and the nib off, and then tried to punch the transmission out. It wouldn't come. I tapped harder, and then I proceeded to punch the transmission AND the tube out of the wood sleeve... words were said. So now I realized I must have glued the transmission into the tube. So I drilled a hole just bigger than the transmission in a piece of plate steel and fastened it in the vice. I placed the tube/transmission assembly in to the jig, and then I punched that thing out of the tube. YES!
Then I tried placing the tube inside the wood sleeve. NO go. Aggh. So I used the pen drill on the wood sleeve (very carefully) to clean out all the glue. And then I sanded the tube down until I got a smooth fit into the wood sleeve. Too tired to continue that night, I placed all the parts into the bag until another day, when I'd be sure to assemble it all carefully...
Well the day came last Saturday, and I made sure that tube still fit in the wood sleeve. Then I made the first mistake. I tried to use thin CA glue to assemble the tube. It ran like water all over the blank, and all over my fingers, setting almost instantly. (Bad words were said.) Then I made the second mistake. Instead of stopping right there, and cleaning up the mess, I tried to put medium glue on the tube and get it into to sleeve right away. Instead, it glued itself halfway in the tube. Ripping my fingers off the blank (Ow! Even MORE words were said
), and grabbing the punch and hammer, I tried tapping the tube back out, and only succeeded in gluing the punch into the wood sleeve also. I got it out with a little difficulty then poured acetone down in the tube hoping to soften the glue up enough to get it out...
I tried placing the tube/sleeve abomination into my plate steel hole jig and tapping the tube out, but it was the wrong size hole, and now the punch really was glued into the tube....:frown: I "quickly" drilled the right size hole in the plate steel, fastened it back in the vice and placed the quickly becoming junk, punch/sleeve/tube abomination into the jig and used another transfer punch to get the first punch out. Then I poured more acetone into the tube, and punched the daylights out of the tube to get it out...
And that's when the wood sleeve finally crumbled, and I gave up entirely on saving my original wood pen.:frown:
I turned off the remaining wood, cleaned off both tubes, prepared a couple of Bubinga blanks, glued the tubes in, turned it, put the finish on, and assembled the pen (with a new transmission) in about an hour. I considered changing out the nib and the cap with the TN gold finish....
It was then I began wondering at what point it would no longer be my original pen?
Or... whether it was like the proverbial "grandfather's axe" that has had the handle replaced three times and the head replaced twice...
At what point is it no longer your grandather's axe?:tongue:
I've just completed 19 of the 25 pen kits I ordered last month. In that time I've learned to apply a passable CA glue finish, and I've managed to mess up at least five of the pens in some way or another. I've cocked a nib or cap when assembling- bending the tube bad enough to have to cut it off, blown out the blank several times when milling it square, messed up the CA finish umpteen zillion times, mismatched blanks, or swapped ends on matching blanks, disasembled and re-assembled after using faulty parts, and glued my fingers to all kinds of crap... And I don't know what all else... It seems to take twice as long to fix the mistake as it does to turn another and put the finish on it.
But here's a special story about repairing an old pen...
A coupla years back I found this forum, and started by turning the classic "Walmart Pen". Then I went "whole hog" (don't laugh!) and ordered five different "real" kits from Craft Supplies USA. Then I turned a total of two of those kits and the rest have been sitting in my bench ever since.
Evidently a real penturner I'm not....
But one of those pens, a "Presidential", is a "user" that I've had with me since that time, and it's kinda special to me. The first reason it's special is because it was one of my "firsts", and the second reason is that it is soft highly figured Alder wood that has custom accent bands created by CA glue and coffee, which was necessary to hide the tearout on the ends of the blank.... so it was with consternation that I noticed that the transmission failed and wouldn't keep the refill extended. Well I set it aside until I re-ordered a replacement. It sat until this last order came in, and I used up a pen a friend had made me. (It's needing repair right now too, but that's another story.)
Well I went down to Harbor Freight and purchased the transfer punch set to disassemble the pens when I needed to. Then I knocked the cap and the nib off, and then tried to punch the transmission out. It wouldn't come. I tapped harder, and then I proceeded to punch the transmission AND the tube out of the wood sleeve... words were said. So now I realized I must have glued the transmission into the tube. So I drilled a hole just bigger than the transmission in a piece of plate steel and fastened it in the vice. I placed the tube/transmission assembly in to the jig, and then I punched that thing out of the tube. YES!
Then I tried placing the tube inside the wood sleeve. NO go. Aggh. So I used the pen drill on the wood sleeve (very carefully) to clean out all the glue. And then I sanded the tube down until I got a smooth fit into the wood sleeve. Too tired to continue that night, I placed all the parts into the bag until another day, when I'd be sure to assemble it all carefully...
Well the day came last Saturday, and I made sure that tube still fit in the wood sleeve. Then I made the first mistake. I tried to use thin CA glue to assemble the tube. It ran like water all over the blank, and all over my fingers, setting almost instantly. (Bad words were said.) Then I made the second mistake. Instead of stopping right there, and cleaning up the mess, I tried to put medium glue on the tube and get it into to sleeve right away. Instead, it glued itself halfway in the tube. Ripping my fingers off the blank (Ow! Even MORE words were said
), and grabbing the punch and hammer, I tried tapping the tube back out, and only succeeded in gluing the punch into the wood sleeve also. I got it out with a little difficulty then poured acetone down in the tube hoping to soften the glue up enough to get it out...I tried placing the tube/sleeve abomination into my plate steel hole jig and tapping the tube out, but it was the wrong size hole, and now the punch really was glued into the tube....:frown: I "quickly" drilled the right size hole in the plate steel, fastened it back in the vice and placed the quickly becoming junk, punch/sleeve/tube abomination into the jig and used another transfer punch to get the first punch out. Then I poured more acetone into the tube, and punched the daylights out of the tube to get it out...
And that's when the wood sleeve finally crumbled, and I gave up entirely on saving my original wood pen.:frown:
I turned off the remaining wood, cleaned off both tubes, prepared a couple of Bubinga blanks, glued the tubes in, turned it, put the finish on, and assembled the pen (with a new transmission) in about an hour. I considered changing out the nib and the cap with the TN gold finish....
It was then I began wondering at what point it would no longer be my original pen?
Or... whether it was like the proverbial "grandfather's axe" that has had the handle replaced three times and the head replaced twice...
At what point is it no longer your grandather's axe?:tongue:
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