Thanks guys.
I was almost certain I had seen, somewhere in my surfing, a place selling those nose cones! I had been looking but could not find it. I'll check Richard out.
I had also thought about trying aluminum. I made a couple of aluminum pens a couple of years back, and liked the way they turned out very much. I'll have to see if i can round up some suitably sized aluminum.
Meanwhile.......another problem....
While waiting for the alumilite, I went ahead and began experimenting with the threading. Ugg. Not so good.
I read a tutorial that said to turn a tenon approx 11.8 mm for a 12mm die.
I did this, sprayed the die and the tenon with cooking oil for lubricant, and successfully turned some threads.....kinda.....but they were very 'shallow'.
I then turned a larger tenon, to around 11.96mm or so. Slightly better results,...at the back end closest to the pen body, the threads look acceptable, but at the beginning of the tenon, the threads were still a bit shallow and rough looking.
I then --and i think this might have been a mistake-- loosened the screw that held the adjustable die open, and tried to re-turn the threaded tenon, thinking the decreased diameter of the die would now leave full depth threads the whole way.
Disappointingly, the threads looked pretty much the same; well formed at the back half, shallow and poorly formed near the beginning.
The tenon screws into the threaded hole in the other half of the pen body, but is very sloppy and loose, and barely makes contact until it is halfway in, and then tries to cross thread itself. (my tap and dies are single start, until I get it figured out and begin successfully making kitless pens)
Possible problems that I, as a rookie, think might have caused this.......the die I bought is a somewhat cheap one, that says made in China.
(I still think the actual problem is likely in the operator of the die, lol, but I'm not sure. )
The die holder is homemade by me, out of pecan, sliding on a 1/2" steel pin punch held in a collet chuck. It is fairly tight feeling and operates smoothly, but is probably not as 100% accurate at holding the die as the sliding die holder from littlemachineshop would be. (I think i should order one from them)
My next attempt, when i have more time to get back in the shop, is to turn a tenon a full 12mm in diameter and maybe 15mm long instead of 10mm long, tighten the adjustment screw in the die and see if I can get full threads on the last 10mm and then part off the first (poorly threaded) 5mm extra after the threading is done. ??
I am not discouraged in the slightest....I am willing to try as many ways as possible to get this thing figured out...but if anyone can spot something i may be possibly doing wrong here, I'd appreciate any info or advice. Thanks again.