newbi needs help

[1 eyed turner]

I have been turning pens, on and off for 5 years. Recently I have wanted to turn closed end pens and did my first one today. I decided to use the parts from a Jr. Statesment kit that was missing parts, and use the nib coupler and Fountain nib. To match this to the pen cap, I took the center band off the plastic coupler and just pressed the coupler ito the cap. I turned this on my pen manderal by using a bunch of spacers until I could get the tube to the end of the manderal and brought up the tailstock.

I expenced it to be a learning experience and it was. Problems with the prototype include:

1)cap out-of-round. I used the appropate busing for the nib coupler end and brought the tailstock up to the center of the piece, but the piece turned out of round at the bushing end. I have no idea why this happened.

2) when I thread the nib coupler onto the cap there is a big gap. I expect that this is because I took the center band off. How then do you get a good tight close without using the center band?

Any thought or advise would be much apreciated.

1 eyed turner

 

[RAdams]

Congrats on the first closed end pen!!!

I will try to help what i can, but there are much better people than me at closed end. I am sure they will be along shortly to offer some better help.

Let's start with a question. What method did you use to hold the blank on the lathe? There are several tutorials in the library here that offer different means of material holding... pin chucks, jam chucks, adjustable mandrel, etc. etc. Understanding this will further help figure out why it was OOR. I use the adjustable mandrel and have very little problem with OOR.

The CB problem sounds to me like maybe the lid coupler was pressed a little bit too deep? Can you thread the lid coupler onto the nib, and then press it into the lid, using the pen itself as the "judge" for where to stop the lid coupler? Do i even understand what you are trying to do?

Sorry for the questions. Just trying to understand the problem better to offer a real solution. I hope you get it figured out. It will be interesting to follow this thread and see what the big names say!!

 

[1 eyed turner]

Thanks for the reply. To answer your questions. I used a regular pen mandrel and used spacers to move the wood out to the end where I could then get tail stock to engage the wood.

On your second point, this may work. I will try and play with it tomorrow.

 

[ed4copies]

I have been turning pens, on and off for 5 years. Recently I have wanted to turn closed end pens and did my first one today. I decided to use the parts from a Jr. Statesment kit that was missing parts, and use the nib coupler and Fountain nib. To match this to the pen cap, I took the center band off the plastic coupler and just pressed the coupler ito the cap. I turned this on my pen manderal by using a bunch of spacers until I could get the tube to the end of the manderal and brought up the tailstock.

I expenced it to be a learning experience and it was. Problems with the prototype include:

1)cap out-of-round. I used the appropate busing for the nib coupler end and brought the tailstock up to the center of the piece, but the piece turned out of round at the bushing end. I have no idea why this happened.
Because you were not holding it centered in the tailstock I would suspect. When you move your tailstock up, you have no idea where the end of the mandrel is, so you had to guess. If you are off center of the mandrel, you will move your frame of reference at the bushing end, as well. This results in an OOR.

2) when I thread the nib coupler onto the cap there is a big gap. I expect that this is because I took the center band off. How then do you get a good tight close without using the center band?

How did you get the centerband off?? Looks like it would have to be cut off with a saw??? I have never used this kit for a modified pen--looking at it, I would not recommend it for that purpose.
But, it can be a double closed end without changing the centerband, from what I can see--why did you modify this??




Any thought or advise would be much apreciated.

1 eyed turner

Them's my thoughts!! Good luck with version 2--we all make prototypes--sometimes intentionally, sometimes not.:biggrin::biggrin:

 

[1 eyed turner]

From your replies, and going back and reading Don's article on closed end pens, I have figured out that I did not drill a hole for my manderal to seat into, thus the OOR.

As for Ed's question, I just pulled the metal center band off the plastic coupler. It came off easy and then I pressed the coupler into the cap. I suspect that the nib coupler is designed to fit into the center band and without it, I will not get a good fit. I am going to disassemble this pen today, salvage parts and I will play with moving the coupler to see if that makes a differance.

Thanks for the replys! It helps being able to discuss this with you all.