Thanks Don, do you just buy the Ebonite as a Blank and then drill the centre to allow for the conversion pump and turn it down to slide into the barrrel (obviously drilling he hole in he barrel to allow it to fit. then make the section out of ebonite as well with a inner female thread to screw over the insert as in your picture and a male thread to allow for the cap to fit onto.
Yes, I drill the sleeve material first. Drill and thread as if it would be the pen barrel. I place it on the mandrel and turn it down as far as I think ia small enough but still strong. I stop at a diameter for which I have a drill bit. Drill the wooden pen barrel and glue the sleeve inside. Turn as usual.
I've never tried threading wood, but I would think that the woods that would accept the fine threads needed for pen making would be those with very tight grain and that are very hard—like the ironwood in the link. Blackwood and bloodwood would also work ok, I would think. Anything soft or with an open grain would be difficult. Like I said, this is totally based on theory. I haven't tried it.
I agree, likely the harder the better. In his post, Pierre said he used maple, also. While I know Janka hardness isn't the ultimate characteristic, hard maple only has a 1,450 hardness as opposed to desert ironwood at 3,260.
Are we able to use the same tap and die sets for brass or does it require a different set?
I use the same sets, actually such tools are designed for threading hard metal (steel), so brass is a joke for them
. I only have a wood lathe, I'm doing all my works on it.Thanks for the reply.I use the same sets, actually such tools are designed for threading hard metal (steel), so brass is a joke for them
Drilling large diameters is difficult in any material, as is a matter of physics (surface, friction factor, bla... bla... ), but is much more obvious in metal. There's no need for such small steps, I usually make a 13mm hole (for the M14x1 thread) in just 3 steps: 6 (or 7)mm / 10mm / 13mm. It can be done even simpler, but I don't wanna stress my lathe. Anything else is inefficient and is a waste of time and resources. But, at the end, is just a matter of engineering knowledge, you need to ensure the right RPM, some cooling fluid (whatever might be, WD40, oil, water, mixtures, depending the drilling characteristics), a good drill bit (there are HSSs, and...HSSs
, if you know what I mean).Yes, please check this: https://www.penturners.org/media/20220628-020-png.49499/
is that ebonite sleeve turned on a wood lathe or a metal lathe? Is a perfect cylinder needed to be glued in the wood blank?
You can turn it on any lathe. No need for perfecțion, but don't go over 1/10 or 1/20 mm difference în diameter size on the sleeve lenght. Such gaps will be easily filled by the resin you use to glue it. You should have the same gap between sleeve and blank as you have for kit tubes.
do you use ordinary chisels for turning brass?I use the same sets, actually such tools are designed for threading hard metal (steel), so brass is a joke for them
I do have a modified wood sculpting chisel, but I also adapted a cross table with a quick-change holder and necessary cutting tools (these are all designated for metal turning). Using the modified chisel is quicker, but if I look for precision, I use the others.
My goodness, that is stunning work.
Wood lathe. I try to get as perfect a cylinder as I can.
i was thinking about making a base (for a cross table) which i could clamp onto the tool rest base, do u reckon it would work? how did you fix yours if u don't mind sharing ?
I was going to ask the same thing. I have a Taig metal large but figuring out how to adapt a cross slide to a wood lathe would be pretty handy.
(for @InkyMike too)
I thank you for your kind words! Indeed, the box gives another value to the pen. It was a real struggle to get such a large piece of stabilized maple burl, most of the suppliers simply don't have a piece of burl of 20x5x5cm (as I asked for) without any voids or defects.
