Kitless BX Cable pen

[ldb2000]

This one was just for fun but so far everyone who has seen it wants it .
After I finished the Alt Ivory kitless FP , I was sitting here trying to think of what to do next (anything to keep me from building my stock back up...:wink . I recently put an extra electric outlet in and had some BX cable laying on my clean workbench and I thought to myself "myself , wouldn't that make a cool pen" , so after a little designing and cutting and tubing and sanding and....you get the idea , I ended up with this . It is a Kitless BX Cable pen . It is made from a piece of BX armored electrical cable cast in Alumilite , have I said lately how much I hate Alumilite (sorry Curtis) and aluminum , 2 7mm tubes and a 7mm transmission with a clip from Elliot.
Hope you enjoy it .

As always , comments are welcome .

 

[sefali]

I like it. Looks good. My pop would have loved it. He worked with the stuff, and would have gotten a big kick out of it.

 

[seawolf]

Looks great. Make a great gift to any electrician.

 

[akbar24601]

That is very cool Butch!!! I love the way that it turned out. Nice use of something just laying around.

 

[jttheclockman]

I am continued to be amazed what we come up with to make a pen. Fantastic idea. I being an electrician am surely going to have to give this a go. Put it on the to do list. Job well done and thanks for showing. That should have entered in one of these many contests here. You can do a constuction theme here. These for the electrician, some copper pipe for plumber, wrap some tin for the sheet metal worker, of course the carpenter gets wood or if you can do a casting with some nails, iron worker would be tough. Any other suggestions???

 

[Jim15]

Looks great, neat idea.

 

[workinforwood]

It's a great looking innovative pen Butch. What's the problem with the alumilite? loooks perfect to me.

 

[papaturner]

Very creative and as always an excellent job.

 

[toolcrazy]

Very cool...

 

[Skye]

It reminds me of something, but there could be children reading over people's shoulders, so I'm not going to say what.

 

[ldb2000]

Thanks for the kind words everyone . This was a fun pen to build , not sure what possessed me to do it but I'm glad I did . Any one who is thinking about trying this one I can tell you that 14/3 BX cable is about 7.5mm ID so a 7mm slimline tube fits but needs to be epoxied in place . The OD of the cable is 1/2" and after casting the final diameter is about 9/16" .

John , I would have entered it in a contest but it don't fit in any of the currently running contests .

Jeff , theres nothing wrong with Alumilite , it's me that has the problem . You'll understand when I say that I love turning and finishing Acrylester and when I pour a PR blank I use 10 drops and sometimes more MEKP per ounce of resin . I like turning and finishing brittle plastics and Alumilite is anything but brittle and no matter how hard you try you can never get as nice a finish as Acrylester , I get a nice shine but it's no where near as deep and lustrous .

 

[workinforwood]

I almost agree Butch. I believe you can get the finish just as lustrous and shiny, but there is no doubt that it requires far more time and patience to do so. Takes more time per grit, and then after that it really helps to use plastic polish followed by Mcquires scratch remover and then Mcguires glass coat and finally some furniture polish. After all that...it shines really brite and attracts dust like a 10,000 lb magnet!

 

[PaulDoug]

Well, I can't say I think it is pretty... but, I really admire the workmanship and the thought that went into it.

 

[ldb2000]

It's funny I'm thinking of entering it in the ugly pen contest ...inovative use of materials ? not as good as cat poop but less smelly :biggrin: