New lot of Pens

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ragz

Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
Messages
241
Location
Bartlett, TN
Hi all,
Bunch of pens and I apologize if the pictures are poor. I was hot and tired and I'll be delivering all of them tomorrow but I wanted to share with you all
Soo...
Blue Wave acrylic US Navy Senior Chief Euro
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Spalted Cherry USN Senior Chief Euro satin finish
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Amboyna Burl USN Senior Chief Euro
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Cedar USMC Bullet
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Bloodwood USMC Bullet
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Box Elder Burl USMC Bullet
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Purple Heart USN HM FMF Bullet
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Red Mallee Jr Statesman in satin finish
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All wood was sanded to 600, MM 12K with paper burnish and blo/ca finish.
Bullets had pantina removed and rough buffed to 400 sandpaper sealed with ca.
 
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Very nice. Mind if I point out a few things?

Blue wave: A great looking blank. Don't know that I would have used it on a gold kit though. The custom clips limits the possibly of a chrome kit though.

Cherry: Something is up with your fit at the nib end. Being that the blank is proud on top, overturned on bottom I'm going to say you've got an out-of-round bushing in your midst.

Cedar: Great looking wood there. You've got some real fitment problems with the neck of the casing and the nib though. I think you used the wrong centerband bushing too.

Box Elder. Again, great wood but you've really missed something at that center bushing. That fit is waaaaaaay off.

Statesman: You're getting that bad bushing problem again at the centerband of that kit.

All the pens are great in that they're outside the box and you're moving in a good direction, but you've got some fit-n-finish problems to sort out.

I'd also suggest buying an extra set of MM to polish the shells with. In time, that CA may start to flake, the brass may tarnish underneath it, lots of bad little things may happen as well as the fact it's just not got the appeal that shiny brass has. I'd get the extra MM, devoted just to the brass polishing, go through the steps to bring it to a mirror finish, then tell anyone who buys a pen how to polish it with brass-o. I've found people actually enjoy knowing they have to 'maintain' the pen with polishing. Adds to the novelty of the pen. Just be sure they pull it apart before polishing to preserve the wood half.

Oh, and also, if the casings you're using are too small in the neck to match the nibs, it's possible to lightly stretch out the necks to smooth the transition.

Make sure to get yourself some new bushings and go easy on them. Also, check for straightness in your mandrel as insurance. Oh, and make sure to get a 60 degree live center if you can afford it, it'll save both the mandrel and the bushings.

Hope that helps, hope it's not too much info or critiquing!
 
Ragz, other than a few proud fitments, those are some damn fine pens, the flush fittings will come soon enough, Harbor freight has Digital calipers on sale, and there's one on Summer Ave in Memphis. I may be seeing things, but it looks like on the amboyna burl and the bloodwood the finish is a bit wavy, but that could be the photographs, but I don't think there would be any problem selling any of those beautiful pens, the bullet nibs do seem a bit off, are you using .270 cartridges? 30-30 and 30.06 usually fit the nibs better but you have to shim the 7 mm. tube or solder the tubes in, I'm going to make up some bullet nibs or at least try to while my hand heals up.
 
Ken and Skye,

The fittings issue you guys are referring to were all requested as such with the exception of the Spalted cherry

The wave she wanted fatter. I don't personnally like the bulge style so hence this turn.

The Cedar, Box elder they wanted smaller then the cb. Not my choice, thier's. Oh the pic on the cedar was taken before I had secured the casing to the pen so it's a little off there.

Since they were all buyer requested I turned them the way they wanted. I wouldn't put them out at a show like that.

The statesman I've looked at quite a bit since you mentioned that. It's not proud of the fitting but it looks like my bit walked during drilling

I did change my mandrel rod out recently and the old one may have caused that flare on the cherry pen. Will check my bushings though.

Casings are 30-06, .270 would have been too small for this pen. Yes the nibs are slightly larger. Finding casings and slugs has proven harder then I thought to come by here. Going to try some .300 and 308 shells as well. I just need to find some slugs to use as nibs.

I'm not sure but it seems there are several different manufacturers now and suppliers are getting different runs. I noticed in these kits that the bushings I was using would not fit into the tubes but the nibs and finial pressed in fine with no issues and the brass tubes fit the blanks perfectly. I have seen clips that are smaller then the finial in their outer diameter as well. I guess we need to keep an eye on our kits

Like I said most of the things you guys noticed were buyer requested and since they paid I did what they asked for before hand. I have switched from drilling with a drill press to using my jaws and drill chuck on the lathe for blanks and just replaced a mandrel rod as well. Will check my bushings too as they may have a bit of gunk on them from doing blo/ca finishes.

I appreciate the critique, comments and suggestions :)
 
ragz said:
Casings are 30-06, .270 would have been too small for this pen. Yes the nibs are slightly larger.
Click to expand...

Doh! I just noticed, you're using Euro kits. The nibs on them are slightly larger than the normal slimline kit, which is the perfect fit for the 30-06 pens! I don't know how I missed that. So, naturally the euro nibs aint going to line up with the casing.

If you want to avoid that, you'd have to use both a Euro kit to get the round finial, then use the slimline kit to get the perfect fit at the nib end. Now, since you'd be using twice the kits, it's possible to take the left overs and make a plain wood or acrylic pen using the standard finial and euro nib, although it may look a bit odd.

If you're not 100% dead set on using the euro finial, you can just use a fancy slimline kit like I've been doing.
 
Yeah :/ the nib was driven by the finial which was driven by the clip unfortunately. When I went to deliver the FMF pen I noticed the nib had a bad spot on it. Turns out the plating was bad. Soo I went to the local kit supplier and looked at a slimline nib. They are actually a bit smaller then the neck of the casing. but not noticeably so to a user.

All those pens were sold to active duty Navy personnel and in the turnings they requested. They didn't mind the nib being proud of the casing or the cb being proud of the barrel since that was what they requested. I'm still trying to locate casing and slugs for use to do these in as that would really make them standout. I used 30-06 since it is easier to come by then 308 which they are most accostumted to.

Either way if I use 2 kits or one I end up with extra parts I now have 5+ euro clips without kits to figure out what to do with.
 
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