I've been fairly busy and have not had time to make many pens at all.
A thread on the forum about smaller diameter roller ball pens got me to thinking about designing something and this is what I came up with. I built it on a 3/8 tube for the pen Body and a 105mm Sierra tube for the cap. I shortened the upper tube to 1.75 inches (44.6mm)
I made the outer diameter of the pen body .426(10.82mm) and the cap I made .487 or 12.37mm finished Diameter. I used a piece of Sapphire Blue Cebloplast that was 1/2 square to start with. Not much room for error on the cap diameter. I also turned a piece for an insert into both finials on the pen.
THe tubes were painted with a bronze metal spray paint to keep it darker. The wall thickness on the blanks is .040 or 1mm on the cap and .030 or .75mm on the bottom. It would have been really easy to see the brass tubes if I hadnt.
I figured out on the Saturday of the last week of the Summer Extravaganza for submissions in the Kitless contest that if I got off my butt and made the pen I could enter it. I wanted to at least participate if nothing else.
Its very comfortable in my hand and has become one of the pens that sit on my desk for use.
I could probably make it a fountain pen with a number 5 nib but a convertor would not fit up through the shoulders of the front connector where the nose cone of the roller ball screws in. As long as I just used the plastic cartridges it should work.
C&Cs welcome .
A thread on the forum about smaller diameter roller ball pens got me to thinking about designing something and this is what I came up with. I built it on a 3/8 tube for the pen Body and a 105mm Sierra tube for the cap. I shortened the upper tube to 1.75 inches (44.6mm)
I made the outer diameter of the pen body .426(10.82mm) and the cap I made .487 or 12.37mm finished Diameter. I used a piece of Sapphire Blue Cebloplast that was 1/2 square to start with. Not much room for error on the cap diameter. I also turned a piece for an insert into both finials on the pen.
THe tubes were painted with a bronze metal spray paint to keep it darker. The wall thickness on the blanks is .040 or 1mm on the cap and .030 or .75mm on the bottom. It would have been really easy to see the brass tubes if I hadnt.
I figured out on the Saturday of the last week of the Summer Extravaganza for submissions in the Kitless contest that if I got off my butt and made the pen I could enter it. I wanted to at least participate if nothing else.
Its very comfortable in my hand and has become one of the pens that sit on my desk for use.
I could probably make it a fountain pen with a number 5 nib but a convertor would not fit up through the shoulders of the front connector where the nose cone of the roller ball screws in. As long as I just used the plastic cartridges it should work.
C&Cs welcome .
