Question about bullet pens

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tommy2tone

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I seen were tutorials talk about drilling the casing and inserting the transmission. Was wondering about the top part. If you turn the blank to the diameter of the casing then the top will be "to fat" for a slimline clip. And vise versa the bottom will be to small (using 7mm bushings) to cover the bottom of the bullet all the way. Do you use just one of each? A bullet bushing at the bottom and taper it to a slimline at the top? Also I guess you have to flip the bullet bushing around (on the mandrel) as the little part will not fit in a slimline tube.
 
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tommy2tone said:
I seen were tutorials talk about drilling the casing and inserting the transmission. Was wondering about the top part. If you turn the blank to the diameter of the casing then the top will be "to fat" for a slimline clip. And vise versa the bottom will be to small (using 7mm bushings) to cover the bottom of the bullet all the way. Do you use just one of each? A bullet bushing at the bottom and taper it to a slimline at the top? Also I guess you have to flip the bullet bushing around (on the mandrel) as the little part will not fit in a slimline tube.
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I just turn the top part using comfort bushings. The fat one is nearly perfectly sized for the casings that we use and the thin one is made for slimline hardware.
 
You do need to taper at the top for the clip to fit.
Making these type of bullet pens are by far my best seller and favorite to make.
I actually use bushing from all kinds of different kits. I usually use the larger comfort bushing for the clip and sometimes use the 7mm tip bushing.
For the end of the blank on the cartridge I sometimes use a larger bushing exactly like you mentioned. I don't usually like to have the blank the exact same size as the cartridge, I like to have the rim of the cartridge show a little.
I do a lot of segmenting on these and I like to use antler which has a nice taper to it which works out really nice if you have the right size piece.

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For a bushing, I drilled out a casing with a 1/4 inch bit then cut the base off. This gives me a reference to turn to. I then use a standard 7 mm bushing for the other end. I like to turn my tops a bit proud or even with the casing with a slight round over. I have made pens from 223, 270, and 308. A while back I picked up a couple pieces of nickel plated 30-06 to try. I made a stubby pocket pen to test the durability on the plating. The cartridge has no signs of ware but the poor copper plated slim tip looks like it has been to hell and back.
 
When using 308 and 30-06 casings, I turn the center of the pen with the comfort bushing and use a comfort band. A copper plated comfort pen kit makes a nice bullet pen!
 
If you have the slim line bushings then turn the one end of your blank to the slim line bushing and the other to the size of the casing you are using. And then just use the slim line kit..
Lin
 
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