Segmented Stars and Stripes

[Robert111]

This was one of those crazy ideas that I pursued because I just happened to have all the right material on the shelf. I started think about it as a NY Giants pen and quickly shifted to a flag theme.

The closed end was an afterthought and because I didn't start out making it a closed end, I drilled it wrong and had no material to work with to give it nice lines--so there it is--a baseball bat!

The "stars" are just randomly placed in the blue field, not because I didn't want to set them in a perfect pattern, but because I've never learned to index with my lathe. I need to read up on that. Anyone know of a good tutorial?

The kit a Jr Gent II, of course, and I finished it with CA just as if it were wood in hopes it would help keep it together. I'm afraid that the bottom segment (the afterthought) might part company with the rest of the pen.

Comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

 

[wiset1]

I love the direction you are taking with this! I can see your vision here and it's pretty cool. Are those aluminum or solder rods used for the stars? If I could change something on this pen it would be the material around the flag...? I think it would have been much more dynamic if it was a black or some other color that didn't mute out. Again...love it and think you're on a roll here!!!!

 

[Atherton Pens]

Sorry, I just can't get excited about anything that started out as a NY Giants anything. After what they did to the Falcons I just can't help it!

Seriously, the pen is pretty cool. I do like the segementing and the colors work.

This was one of those crazy ideas that I pursued because I just happened to have all the right material on the shelf. I started think about it as a NY Giants pen and quickly shifted to a flag theme.

The closed end was an afterthought and because I didn't start out making it a closed end, I drilled it wrong and had no material to work with to give it nice lines--so there it is--a baseball bat!

The "stars" are just randomly placed in the blue field, not because I didn't want to set them in a perfect pattern, but because I've never learned to index with my lathe. I need to read up on that. Anyone know of a good tutorial?

The kit a Jr Gent II, of course, and I finished it with CA just as if it were wood in hopes it would help keep it together. I'm afraid that the bottom segment (the afterthought) might part company with the rest of the pen.

Comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

 

[Drstrangefart]

Yeah, I can see some great results and where a little more practice could go. You are definitely on to something!

 

[leehljp]

That looks like aluminum rods of some kind to me. Is it? Or Solid core solder. Cored solder makes for star like appearances.

I like that design. Looks Great!

A way to line up the spots for drilling without an index is to first score lightly equally spaced lines while it is on the lathe. I used the point of a skew. Next mark lines lengthwise. Where the lengthwise lines cross the scored (light cuts with the tip of the skew while turning) This is where to drill for a more consistent placement. It gets tedious for sure.

Indexing is better but it takes a jig for the drill to use the index correctly. The above method is reasonable though.

Below is a link to a pict of one that the solder was intentionally not aligned. I have since made some that are aligned.
http://www.penturners.org/photos/images/940/1_Glued_solder.jpg
http://www.penturners.org/photos/images/940/1_30_Pieces_of_Silver.jpg

 

[boxerman]

Very cool pen.

 

[Robert111]

That looks like aluminum rods of some kind to me. Is it? Or Solid core solder. Cored solder makes for star like appearances.

I like that design. Looks Great!

A way to line up the spots for drilling without an index is to first score lightly equally spaced lines while it is on the lathe. I used the point of a skew. Next mark lines lengthwise. Where the lengthwise lines cross the scored (light cuts with the tip of the skew while turning) This is where to drill for a more consistent placement. It gets tedious for sure.

Indexing is better but it takes a jig for the drill to use the index correctly. The above method is reasonable though.

Below is a link to a pict of one that the solder was intentionally not aligned. I have since made some that are aligned.
http://www.penturners.org/photos/images/940/1_Glued_solder.jpg
http://www.penturners.org/photos/images/940/1_30_Pieces_of_Silver.jpg

Hank, that is such a beautiful pen! Great design and execution! The wood REALLY sets it off. Tim said he would have preferred something other than the silver on my pen, and I can see that wood would have been a better choice.

Thanks for the ideas on getting the stars lined up. That'll work for me, I'm sure.

 

[Robert111]

I love the direction you are taking with this! I can see your vision here and it's pretty cool. Are those aluminum or solder rods used for the stars? If I could change something on this pen it would be the material around the flag...? I think it would have been much more dynamic if it was a black or some other color that didn't mute out. Again...love it and think you're on a roll here!!!!

Thanks, Tim. That's silver solder (solid).

I learned some things making this pen, and one is not to cut the solder with wire cutters. It leaves the ends of the little pieces of solder in a kind of wedge and when I inserted the pieces into the holes and glued them in, the wedges on the ends sometimes ended up close to the surface after turning. Instead of round silver dots, they were just little fragments of solder from the very tip of the wedge. Next time I think I'll try cutting the solder with a knife to get squared off ends.

Check out the flag pen Hank made (link in his reply below). The wood I think really gives his pen a very classy look. And I have to say I like his design better than mine, but I'm glad I tried this anyway. Good learning experience. I agree with you 100% about trying new stuff.

 

[Robert111]

Sorry, I just can't get excited about anything that started out as a NY Giants anything. After what they did to the Falcons I just can't help it!

Seriously, the pen is pretty cool. I do like the segementing and the colors work.

This was one of those crazy ideas that I pursued because I just happened to have all the right material on the shelf. I started think about it as a NY Giants pen and quickly shifted to a flag theme.

The closed end was an afterthought and because I didn't start out making it a closed end, I drilled it wrong and had no material to work with to give it nice lines--so there it is--a baseball bat!

The "stars" are just randomly placed in the blue field, not because I didn't want to set them in a perfect pattern, but because I've never learned to index with my lathe. I need to read up on that. Anyone know of a good tutorial?

The kit a Jr Gent II, of course, and I finished it with CA just as if it were wood in hopes it would help keep it together. I'm afraid that the bottom segment (the afterthought) might part company with the rest of the pen.

Comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated.

Thanks, Gary. And sorry about last Sunday, but you guys were really at a disadvantage without Grimes and the other DB who were injured. But I have to say I was surprised we got the running game going against you, and equally surprised your running game was so unproductive. Anyway, your team will be around for a long time. Real good core there.

 

[leehljp]

Robert,

I meant to congratulate you in the earlier post but my mind was holding on to too many things (LOML was talking to me at the time.:wink You did a great job and anyone who has not tried solder doesn't fully appreciate the problems that they bring up. You did a great job!

Question: Did you sand that in any way?

I found that I could not use any kind of sanding on the wood as sandpaper or MM would cause the solder to smear like pencil lead and no amount of cleaning would make it look good again. The way I overcame it was to spend about 20 minute working on my scraper chisel getting it mirror edge sharp. Then I cranked the lathe up to about 2000 - 2500 RPM and took small bites. When I got down to the size, I sharpened it again and let the chisel and the high speed do the cleaning and smoothing of the wood and solder. The picts of the pens that I posted - the wood and solder were not touched by sandpaper.

Next, I coated the wood with several coats of CA and built up a thick layer BEFORE sanding. IF I sanded through to the wood, I would have had to start over. Where metal and wood meet, smearing can ruin the wood color. So I do what I can to prevent that by building up enough coats so that I will NOT sand through before arriving at a fine CA finish.

Again, I applaud your creativeness!

 

[Robert111]

Robert,

I meant to congratulate you in the earlier post but my mind was holding on to too many things (LOML was talking to me at the time.:wink You did a great job and anyone who has not tried solder doesn't fully appreciate the problems that they bring up. You did a great job!

Question: Did you sand that in any way?

I found that I could not use any kind of sanding on the wood as sandpaper or MM would cause the solder to smear like pencil lead and no amount of cleaning would make it look good again. The way I overcame it was to spend about 20 minute working on my scraper chisel getting it mirror edge sharp. Then I cranked the lathe up to about 2000 - 2500 RPM and took small bites. When I got down to the size, I sharpened it again and let the chisel and the high speed do the cleaning and smoothing of the wood and solder. The picts of the pens that I posted - the wood and solder were not touched by sandpaper.

Next, I coated the wood with several coats of CA and built up a thick layer BEFORE sanding. IF I sanded through to the wood, I would have had to start over. Where metal and wood meet, smearing can ruin the wood color. So I do what I can to prevent that by building up enough coats so that I will NOT sand through before arriving at a fine CA finish.

Again, I applaud your creativeness!

Thanks, Hank. I don't know what might have happened if I'd used the solder with wood, but I had no smearing with the polyresin and I did a lot of sanding on the solder.

I thought the silver solder was easy to work with except for the mistake I made in failing to cut it square by using wire cutters.

Were you using silver or lead solder? I can see where this material has a lot of possibilities in penmaking.

 

[Monty]

Well done. :good::good::good:

 

[leehljp]

I thought the silver solder was easy to work with except for the mistake I made in failing to cut it square by using wire cutters.

Were you using silver or lead solder? I can see where this material has a lot of possibilities in penmaking.

Initially I used a high content sliver but later I used a tin-silver (with a low silver content) and something else combo. I brought several rolls back with me from Japan. And I have several sizes for different effects. I haven't tried this in a while, but intend to get back into this type of pen work soon.

 

[Robert111]

I thought the silver solder was easy to work with except for the mistake I made in failing to cut it square by using wire cutters.

Were you using silver or lead solder? I can see where this material has a lot of possibilities in penmaking.

Initially I used a high content sliver but later I used a tin-silver (with a low silver content) and something else combo. I brought several rolls back with me from Japan. And I have several sizes for different effects. I haven't tried this in a while, but intend to get back into this type of pen work soon.

Okay, I used the only silver solder my local hardware store carried, which was silver/tin with only 4% silver. It was .015 in diameter.

 

[firewhatfire]

WOW, need to be looking at these better. You folks can humble a fella back to beginner status with these things.

Phil

 

[msvoma44]

Just a thought....

Could you drill the holes and melt the solder, dripping it into the holes, thus removing the need to cut it? Would the heat be too much for the resin?

 

[Robert111]

Could you drill the holes and melt the solder, dripping it into the holes, thus removing the need to cut it? Would the heat be too much for the resin?

Mike, I haven't tried that. Please let us know if you do.

 

[leehljp]

Could you drill the holes and melt the solder, dripping it into the holes, thus removing the need to cut it? Would the heat be too much for the resin?

As Robert said, I too have not tried that. I personally (meaning for me) would be afraid that I would damage the blank with the heat from the soldering iron. On resin some resins, if not all, I would think that the hot solder would melt the hole out more. I could be wrong. That is a thought to try out though. I will have to try in sometime in the future.