Kit Less Pen Challenge

[rherrell]

GREAT JOB BUTCH! I'm gonna have to try Corian one of these days. You do such a great job with it.
You do your own plating too? Too bad NJ is so far away, I'd love to see how that's done.

 

[SamThePenMan]

I wasn't going to make a pen for this challenge, but decided I would. I'm not finished with it just yet, taking my time on the finish, but it should be done soon I hope. I'll post the picture once its done obviously.

 

[PaulDoug]

Does this qualify? I made it a little while back and sent it to MesquiteGuy because he was nice enough to send me some nice mesquite pieces. The only external kit piece is the clip. It is made from mesquite and wine bottle corks.

 

[ldb2000]

Well , it was supposed to be made for the challenge but it fits all the other requirements .
Really nice pen Paul , how was the cork to turn , did you have to stablize the cork first or did you use CA on the lathe ?

 

[PaulDoug]

Well , it was supposed to be made for the challenge but it fits all the other requirements .
Really nice pen Paul , how was the cork to turn , did you have to stablize the cork first or did you use CA on the lathe ?

Ya, I knew I missed the challenge, but I got to looking at the pens here and thought hey, mine may fit. I really admire the kitless pens. Fun to figure out how to do the different parts.

The cork was pretty easy to turn. Very sharp tool and light touches. When I get close to the required thickness, I use sand paper. A guy told me he uses dry wall sanding mesh on cork (he makes fishing pole real seats). I got some but haven't tried it yet.

Thanks for the compliment on my pen. Means a lot to me coming from a guy whose work I greatly admire.

 

[kruger]

there is another kitless pen

that is a closed end slimline pen

he is made with
padouk, holly&ebony inlays the bottom is cocobolo and the last piece of wood is "unknow"

finish is sandind to 2500 with micro mesh and CA another sanding up to 3000 Hut polish and shellawax. mmh..... it smell so good.

 

[Rick_G]

My example of a kitless pen. Made this one for another contest and came in second so I am happy. This is not and entry for this contest. Used the transmission and tubes from a slim. Main body is Amboyna burl finial, CB, and tip are ebony. The clip is ebonized maple. Blue bands which after making them I'm not that keen on them are that shiny powdered glitter you get at the dollar store. They did cover any mismatch there may have been between the ebony and aboyna though.

 

[ldb2000]

Paul , I didn't mean you missed the challenge , I had stated in an earlier post that the pens posted should be made for the challenge because I wanted some fresh ideas shown , not just the same stuff that had been posted before , so if you want to post more please be my guest and post away . Thank you for the compliment , it means allot .

Kruger , That is a great looking kitless slimline , great choice of woods and a fantastic segmenting job . I really like the shape of this pen , it's different , it would make a great desk pen , you just have to make a stand for it .

Rick , Beautiful job on this one . I love the Stealth look of it , and the blue bands are a nice touch . A great example of a kitless slimline .

 

[ldb2000]

This is my latest attempt at duplicating most of the ballpoint kit pens we make . It is a Kitless Polaris . It is made from 2 7mm tubes and a slimline transmission , and a clip I bought from Elliot (xylostyle) , all of which I buy in bulk , and some Black and White Corian .
I love these Finial operated kitless pens , they are a blast to build .:biggrin:

This is fun , next is a 7mm cigar pen . :biggrin:

 

[rherrell]

Outstanding Butch! I love the color combo. I'm gonna have to try Corian one of these days.:wink:

 

[SamThePenMan]

Here is my first kitless slimline. The kit external parts were green that I had gotten some time ago for some Christmas pens I was working on. Thought I would use it to try making a kitless pen. It was definitely a challenge as I don't have the closed end mandrel yet, I just had a scrap piece of wood held in my 4jaw chuck, and turned it to the size of the inside of the 7mm tube, and used the tailstock to help support it until it was done. I have a few more details about it over in the Show Off Your Pens section.

 

[ldb2000]

Sam , great first attempt at a kitless pen . The upper barrel looks great , I think the part that don't work so well is the lower barrel , the shape looks kind of akward . Thin it out next time and taper it a bit more , but not too much or it will become too weak and the refill might crack it . You made a good try with this one , if you do more you will learn what works best . As for the closed end mandrel , I have one but don't use it much . I do just what you did , I make a jam chuck and the tailstock , I don't drill the hole for the refill to go through till I get the shape refined and most of the time I get the finish on then I drill the hole through .

 

[workinforwood]

Pretty cool Sam...that pen is very unique!

 

[ldb2000]

The Kitless Kit

A Kitless Kit tale:
Be careful boys and girls , this is where doing "Kitless" can lead you to...Down the path to..."Making Kits" .
I call this one the "All American" because I made over 95% of the pen my self .
It is made with Homebrew Blue Mica PR and some bar stock Aluminum for the nib , CB , finial and the clip .
It is built on a Slimline transmission and 2 7mm tubes .

Thank you to those of you that followed the link here . I have to find a way of bringing people here to this forum . :biggrin:

 

[Jim15]

Looks great, nice job.

 

[cowjelly]

Very Impressive!!!

________________
Keith,
Jeffersonville, IN

 

[rherrell]

I like that ALOT Butch!:good: You did a fantastic job. Now if you could only get rid of that pesky transmission and those little brass tubes.:devil::wink::smile-big:

 

[Russianwolf]

Way to go Butch. How did you handle the clip if you don't mind my asking. It looks nicely done.

 

[nava1uni]

:banana::banana::good:WOW!
That is really beautiful. I now think that I will have to do some work on this idea. Did you turn the metal parts on a metal lathe? I am thinking I may have to get myself one after a few more shows.
I am amazed by all of the pens I have seen on this thread. What creativity and artistry

 

[ldb2000]

Thanks Mike .
The clip is a piece of 1/8" aluminum rod , flattened to shape and bent in a "J" and hooked in a notch cut in the tube . The finial tenon is turned to fit the 7mm tube and then ground on one side to fit in the tube with the hook end of the clip and wedge them all together .
I shall be using this technique again as it is simple and strong .

Rick , thanks for the kind words and as for those pesky parts well.....I'm working on it , I will show first crude prototype as soon as I work out a detail or two . Don't expect a really complicated click mechanism but just a crude but slick work around to the problem .

Cindy , Thank you for the kind words . All the parts , except the clip , tubes and tranny , were turned on my trusty little Jet 1014vsi . I would advise you to use Carbide turning tools to turn the Aluminium bar stock or you will be resharpening your tools very often .

 

[PaulDoug]

You the master, I love that. Got to get back to working on the lathe. I was thinking about kitless pens and I guess a cartridge/antler pen fits the catagory also or any of the other cartridge style pens.

Anyway Butch thanks for starting this thread, maybe it should be turnen into it's own catagory on the forum.

 

[marcruby]

Here I am pouting about how people with metal lathes can do things that I can't and you announce you created your little meisterstucke on a Jet 1014. I'm awestruck - and a bit inspired. I'll catch up with you someday >

All the parts , except the clip , tubes and tranny , were turned on my trusty little Jet 1014vsi . I would advise you to use Carbide turning tools to turn the Aluminium bar stock or you will be resharpening your tools very often .

 

[rherrell]

I didn't use a metal lathe either when making my two pens for this challenge. The only "SPECIAL" tool I used was a Beall chuck. Now, take THAT away from me and I'd be up a creek!:wink::biggrin:

 

[DurocShark]

I didn't make this for the challenge, but instead made it just to say I could a little while back:

 

[bitshird]

Butch, I haven't given up on my kitless yet, since there has been all this politispeak about transparency in government I want to make a transparent pen, Brian Grey figured a way, Now I have to get cracking, (on the pen) .

 

[PaulDoug]

Another simple one but meets the critera. It is green water pipe from Bruce119 and white corian accents. Just finiahed it today, wish I could make a white clip.

 

[rherrell]

EXCELLENT Paul.:wink: I'll bet you could sell it to a surgeon, kinda reminds me of "scrubs" green.:biggrin:

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

Another simple one but meets the critera. It is green water pipe from Bruce119 and white corian accents. Just finiahed it today, wish I could make a white clip.

Powder coat one! :wink:

 

[ldb2000]

Excelent workmanship on that one Paul . I really like it , good contrasts in the colors or would that be complimentry colors? , either way it looks great . You got the shape of the nib perfect and overall a nice shape for the pen .
Like Scott said , Powder coat a clip white or you could also use a Satin Pearl clip which is kinda white .

 

[ldb2000]

Another Kitless Kit

Hi All
Doing this Challenge has been a blast and I have learned allot of great tricks , even if some of you didn't tell how you did them . That's what this Challenge is all about , stealing your ideas....eeerrrr ..... learning new ways of doing things .:biggrin:
OK , here is my latest creation . "The Kitless kit Euro" .
It is made from some 1/2" Brass bar stock and a piece of Lapis Tru-stone and the clip is .035 sheet stock .
The brass turns very well , it seems to be softer then Aluminum to turn and sands and polishes to a mirror shine .

 

[rherrell]

Excellent Butch! I like working with brass also. Did you powdercoat it? .035" is pretty thin, it's hard to tell in the photo but did you fold it over to give it some strength?

 

[PaulDoug]

Holy Crapola! Awesome. I will never catch up with you guys.

 

[skiprat]

Oh no!!!! I really wanted to enter this one, but have just discovered my pen doesn't qualify.
It has a slimline mech in it but I used a Parker type refill and the rules said it has to be a Cross style. Who makes these stooopid rules anyway:biggrin:

Oh well........ so I posted it seperately anyway.

I must say that I'm very impressed with loads of the pens in this contest so far. :biggrin:

If you haven't done one yet, then WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?????:tongue:

 

[ldb2000]

Steven , you are welcome to post ANYTIME you want here . Your stuff is amazing .
I want to thank you for the idea of the upside down slimline transmission , I've been looking for a way to use parker refills without breaking up a kit .
If you don't mind me asking "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" , I see allot of great looking "KITLESS SLIMLINE" pens here .......So where's yours?

PS: I made up the "STOOOPID RULES" so no cheating "CROSS REFILLS ONLY" :tongue::biggrin:

 

[ldb2000]

Rick , sorry to say I'm not up to speed with powder coating , have all the stuff just don't have the room to set it up right now , soon I hope . As for the clip , so far I have found .035 to be just about right thickness , it's stiff enough to be strong and flexible enough to deflect and spring back to shape . It will deflect over 3/8" before it starts to bend . So as long as it's not abused it works well , but thats true of most clips .

 

[PaulDoug]

Just for a novice like my can you tell me where to start to get the metal for making things like the clips, CB's and nibs. I have never worked with metal and would like to give it a try.

 

[PaulDoug]

One other thing. Do you feel that this subject is getting enough interest that maybe we need a Kitless Pen section, maybe a subsection of advance pen making?

 

[rherrell]

Paul, you can get small pieces of sheetmetal here..... http://www.whimsie.com/ Their sample packs are reasonable.
For round, square or plate stock try here.....
http://www.onlinemetals.com/

 

[PaulDoug]

Thanks, Rick, added to my favorites for future work. I have to learn a lot about metals, i.e., so many (I guess) hardness', thickness. It also looks to me like it would be worth buying brass tube from a place like Online Metals, wouldn't it, instead of buying the short lengths from a pen kit selling place?

 

[rherrell]

Thanks, Rick, added to my favorites for future work. I have to learn a lot about metals, i.e., so many (I guess) hardness', thickness. It also looks to me like it would be worth buying brass tube from a place like Online Metals, wouldn't it, instead of buying the short lengths from a pen kit selling place?

I would'nt. Pens use some real oddball tube sizes and to me the prices pen suppliers get for tubes is pretty decent.