Kitless pen tools

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erichardson

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Dec 13, 2015
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Probably a long shot but was wondering if anyone has purchased the kitless pen tools and then decided they didn't want them or decided not to turn kitless pens? I am looking to start making kitless pens so if anyone has the tools and you do not use them hmu.

Thanks
 
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1shootist

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Dec 2, 2018
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Myself and the few others I've spoke with all made our own mandrels for the specific thread sizes we use. The neilsniche.com tap/die holder we bought from the source.
What I'm trying to get to but going about it the long freaking way, I understand you are looking to buy from someone not using them any longer but I thought I'd throw this in also, ..Rick Herrel on here under the vendor forum makes mandrels to fit the sizes you want...I've not bought from him but I hear he does great work.

Good luck in tool hunting and with trying kitless out.
 

FGarbrecht

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Aug 22, 2019
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NY
Agree with Russ. Aside from taps/dies and possibly a metal lathe, most of what you'll need that is required for kitless builds is going to be specific for the design ideas you come up with and will require custom tools like pin chucks or mandrels that you build for your design or pay someone to produce for you (Rick Herrel does excellent work BTW). If you are interested in making fountain pens you are going to need custom taps for the sections which are not widely available and are fairly expensive (although Jick Wu apparently has some taps for the Bock #6 triple for a fair price). Buying random stuff (if anyone even has 'kitless' tools they want to get rid of) may even be relatively useless to you due to the specificity of purpose of many of these items. One cheap way to bypass some of the problem with kitless pens is the work-holding problem with closed ends; I sometimes use a set of transfer punches from HF (cheap) to use as a poor mans jam chuck. You can also find some good deals on stuff on Banggood.

I recommend you sit down, read everything you can here on kitless builds, decide what types of pens you want to do, draw up very detailed plans and engineering drawings (I recommend Fusion360 for this, you can use it free for personal hobby use), and then think through the exact work flow to produce your design. From this you can deduce exactly what tools you need that you don't already have and then see if anyone here can help, and if not, make them yourself. Don't be in a hurry, this isn't exactly easy, but not so hard either if you think through it step by step. Many kitless builders, myself included, started by modifying kit builds to include custom non-kit parts. Good luck and have fun with this.
 

hokie

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May 29, 2017
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Falls Church, Virginia
(although Jick Wu apparently has some taps for the Bock #6 triple for a fair price)
Could you elaborate on this? Do you mean the nib housing has a triple start thread?

To echo what others have said so far, the tools you'll need are entirely up to you. The first kitless pens I made (with wood) are a completely different animal to the ones most people start with (100% acrylic/resin) and therefore needed totally different jigs and tools based on my specific workflow to complete my personal design.
If you're a wiz with the metal lathe, you can do almost everything without even needing taps and dies that so many of us covet (even though I also have a metal lathe, I just haven't gotten into threading yet. The pen I linked to above was done entirely on a Harbor Freight wood lathe with collet chucks, custom mandrels, carbide hand tools, and other specialized jig not normally marketed as things used for kitless construction.
 

FGarbrecht

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Aug 22, 2019
Messages
618
Location
NY
Could you elaborate on this? Do you mean the nib housing has a triple start thread?

To echo what others have said so far, the tools you'll need are entirely up to you. The first kitless pens I made (with wood) are a completely different animal to the ones most people start with (100% acrylic/resin) and therefore needed totally different jigs and tools based on my specific workflow to complete my personal design.
If you're a wiz with the metal lathe, you can do almost everything without even needing taps and dies that so many of us covet (even though I also have a metal lathe, I just haven't gotten into threading yet. The pen I linked to above was done entirely on a Harbor Freight wood lathe with collet chucks, custom mandrels, carbide hand tools, and other specialized jig not normally marketed as things used for kitless construction.
No, sorry, the term 'triple' in this context refers to the combination of a nib, feed and housing. I don't know if this is a generally used term but I've seen it used to reference Bock nibs, since they are sold as a 'triple' containing not only the nib but the feed and the housing as well. All the threading on the section is single start.
 

erichardson

Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2015
Messages
200
Location
Moundsville, WV
Myself and the few others I've spoke with all made our own mandrels for the specific thread sizes we use. The neilsniche.com tap/die holder we bought from the source.
What I'm trying to get to but going about it the long freaking way, I understand you are looking to buy from someone not using them any longer but I thought I'd throw this in also, ..Rick Herrel on here under the vendor forum makes mandrels to fit the sizes you want...I've not bought from him but I hear he does great work.

Good luck in tool hunting and with trying kitless out.
Thanks for the info, will definitely check it out.
 

erichardson

Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2015
Messages
200
Location
Moundsville, WV
Agree with Russ. Aside from taps/dies and possibly a metal lathe, most of what you'll need that is required for kitless builds is going to be specific for the design ideas you come up with and will require custom tools like pin chucks or mandrels that you build for your design or pay someone to produce for you (Rick Herrel does excellent work BTW). If you are interested in making fountain pens you are going to need custom taps for the sections which are not widely available and are fairly expensive (although Jick Wu apparently has some taps for the Bock #6 triple for a fair price). Buying random stuff (if anyone even has 'kitless' tools they want to get rid of) may even be relatively useless to you due to the specificity of purpose of many of these items. One cheap way to bypass some of the problem with kitless pens is the work-holding problem with closed ends; I sometimes use a set of transfer punches from HF (cheap) to use as a poor mans jam chuck. You can also find some good deals on stuff on Banggood.

I recommend you sit down, read everything you can here on kitless builds, decide what types of pens you want to do, draw up very detailed plans and engineering drawings (I recommend Fusion360 for this, you can use it free for personal hobby use), and then think through the exact work flow to produce your design. From this you can deduce exactly what tools you need that you don't already have and then see if anyone here can help, and if not, make them yourself. Don't be in a hurry, this isn't exactly easy, but not so hard either if you think through it step by step. Many kitless builders, myself included, started by modifying kit builds to include custom non-kit parts. Good luck and have fun with this.
Thanks again, great and thoughtful response! I'm definitely just getting started with kitless, but have been making pens for roughly 20 years. Look forward to this new journey.
 
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