How do from East Texas

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RDPowell

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2022
Messages
17
Location
Fruitvale,TX
My names Ron and I'm from a little town of 418 in East Texas. Retired truck driver, Jack of all trades Master of none.
Always had to have my hands busy even when still in the workforce. Collecting and restoring just about anything that plugs
into a wall to furniture, etc. etc. Smoked for over 50 years and decided one day because everything else was just getting too heavy
for me to work with or on and that I liked the art work end of it to start creating smoking pipes. I did that for close to ten years but,
after quitting tobacco/nicotine I still needed to have something to occupy my time and maybe help a little to pad my SS. Going stare crazy
some one said I might take up pen making so I looked into it, still looking into it. I have a 10 x 30 metal lathe with a good amount of tooling
and many tools to get it done and the Mandrel seems the only other tool I'll need to acquire. But, machining a pipe and a Pen are to different things.
Both of course need to be precise but, it seems to be a lot more machining to be done in Macro on a Fountain pen's interior . Looks like there might be
a lot of hair pulling for me, and I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box. So there you have it, I'd like to give it a try but, I'm really not too interested in making
ball point pens and would rather try my hand at what I would think is probably the toughest first. Yeah, yeah, typical rookie even at almost 70 yo.
 
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Edgar

New Member Advocate
Staff member
Joined
Feb 6, 2013
Messages
6,890
Location
Alvin, TX 77511
Welcome to IAP - I'm from a little unincorporated south-central Texas town - depending on how you consider the area, we have a few dozen to a few hundred residents. Small town life is certainly different from the city, isn't it?
 

its_virgil

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2004
Messages
8,100
Location
Wichita Falls, TX, USA.
Welcome Ron from Wichita Falls. Pen making is a quite broad subject. Do you want to make kit pens? Or kitless fountain pens? Kit pens are easy and kitless pens are a bit more challenging.
Do a good turn daily!
Don
 

RDPowell

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2022
Messages
17
Location
Fruitvale,TX
Welcome to IAP - I'm from a little unincorporated south-central Texas town - depending on how you consider the area, we have a few dozen to a few hundred residents. Small town life is certainly different from the city, isn't it?
Thank you sir, In this small of a town it's a bit challenging for me because everything is a good drive away and I'm not really
in the condition to drive very far at all anymore. All we have here is a P.O., school and a gas station. Although I've always lived in small towns
this small of one is certainly different and has NO advantages.
 

RDPowell

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2022
Messages
17
Location
Fruitvale,TX
Welcome Ron from Wichita Falls. Pen making is a quite broad subject. Do you want to make kit pens? Or kitless fountain pens? Kit pens are easy and kitless pens are a bit more challenging.
Do a good turn daily!
Don
Thank you sir, been through your town on several occasions over the years. No kit pens really, looking at kit less.
Use to making everything as I did in pipe-making. As we would say, hand crafted. Cutting threads over 1/2" will be a first for me.
Most my lathe work up till now has just been generally turning, boring, drilling and facing without cutting outer threads.
 

Edgar

New Member Advocate
Staff member
Joined
Feb 6, 2013
Messages
6,890
Location
Alvin, TX 77511
Thank you sir, In this small of a town it's a bit challenging for me because everything is a good drive away and I'm not really
in the condition to drive very far at all anymore. All we have here is a P.O., school and a gas station. Although I've always lived in small towns
this small of one is certainly different and has NO advantages.
I hear that - my little town is just 10 miles from the county seat (pop 5,000) and 30 miles from a fairly good sized city (about 70,000 now - more like 50,000 when I last lived there). I haven't lived there for 50 years, but we still own property there & still visit family about once or twice a year. I love the country, but it's tough to make a living there, especially in the field I wanted to pursue.
 

Wayne

IAP Library Manager
Staff member
Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
851
Location
East Troy, Wisconsin, USA.
Hello and Welcome to our home. We have many ideas and tutorials for your review.

Here's an Introductory Document for Reference.


Take a look at our Library of Tutorials listed on the Home Page under "General Announcements".


Here is a direct link to the Library of Tutorials Menu.


Here's a list of world wide Pen Suppliers.


Let me know if you find any others.

Have Fun!
 

RDPowell

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2022
Messages
17
Location
Fruitvale,TX
Hello and Welcome to our home. We have many ideas and tutorials for your review.

Here's an Introductory Document for Reference.


Take a look at our Library of Tutorials listed on the Home Page under "General Announcements".


Here is a direct link to the Library of Tutorials Menu.


Here's a list of world wide Pen Suppliers.


Let me know if you find any others.

Have Fun!
Thank you sir, while these are great for those who can remember what they read, sadly for me I can read a 1 page pamphlet and forget what I read in a matter of seconds. I was wondering if there is a Good book out there outlining how to make Fountain Pens as I'm really not interested in making any other kind at this point, and yes that would be Kit-less Fountain Pens. I've acquired two books that I thought might cover fountain pens in detail but, as luck would have it neither one really covers the Whole process in the detail my little brain needs.
Thank you for any help in finding such a book or books.
 

RDPowell

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2022
Messages
17
Location
Fruitvale,TX
Ron,

Take a look at the library :


Under the Fountain and Kitless Pens Tab.
Thank you sir! Had no idea they were downloadable, these will certainly help.
Thank you and those who contributed to the library!
LiftHat.gif
 

RDPowell

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2022
Messages
17
Location
Fruitvale,TX
Thank you all, I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around the whole thing. I don't know, I thought
I'd be more enthused about doing this but, I can't seem to get started. I'm all tooled up for it so I reckon I better do something, LOL!
 

Velcrodog

Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2022
Messages
87
Location
Altanta
Lived Stonewall, Texas for a few years long time ago. Population 430. Now close to Atlanta, population much bigger. What a difference.
 
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