vintage celluloid with SKM-192 click mechanism

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duncsuss

duncsuss

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A few years ago I had the good fortune to acquire some gorgeous vintage celluloid rods, but at 11mm diameter they aren't really large enough to make fountain pens. I made one into a ballpoint using the Schmidt SKM-88 mechanism (it sold quickly), then set them aside to focus on fountain pens. Eventually I got back to them - this time trying the Schmidt SKM-192 mechanism. It's a bit trickier because you have to make the housing for it (3 or 4 different drill diameters, plus internal tapping, plus a threaded tenon to screw into the end of the barrel, plus a button to glue onto the stem - where the SKM-88 has all of that stuff ready made.) I like the end result better, but I'm sure that some people would prefer the chrome button.

Anyway - here's the first one in a pretty green celluloid. I've started another in blue material before I forget the sequence of steps :cool:

green 01c.jpggreen 01b.jpggreen 01a.jpg
 
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Magnificent. I've been into fountain pens for a long time, but in the last year or two got into collecting vintage pens and pencils, especially celluloid ones. No other material compares or can really be considered a direct substitute.

I did some googling around a few times to see if anyone was still producing it, or if blanks of any sort were available. Turning a celluloid pen would be amazing. I couldn't find anything, so I'm glad to hear that blanks exist somewhere, though from what I can tell they are no longer manufactured.

Beautiful work!
 
BHuij said:
Magnificent. I've been into fountain pens for a long time, but in the last year or two got into collecting vintage pens and pencils, especially celluloid ones. No other material compares or can really be considered a direct substitute.

I did some googling around a few times to see if anyone was still producing it, or if blanks of any sort were available. Turning a celluloid pen would be amazing. I couldn't find anything, so I'm glad to hear that blanks exist somewhere, though from what I can tell they are no longer manufactured.

Beautiful work!
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Thanks!

I was very lucky to get these - only managed it because a fellow pen maker offered to go halves on the batch, it was too expensive for me to buy alone.

And I'm doubly lucky, I know a fellow fountain pen aficionado who used to work at a pen store. When the store shut down he picked up a block of royal blue Omas celluloid on his way out ... and gave it to me. Mmmm, I love that camphor smell as I sand it!
 
hokie said:
Nice work! I'm happy to see someone from the SKM-192 tap group buy put the tap to use and share their finished product other than me! haha
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Thanks! I'm beginning to get the hang of forming the mechanism housing - I did a couple in clear acrylic rod to see what needed to be adjusted before trying it on the celluloid. I have a mandrel that Rick Herrell made (threaded for the barrel) which I'll try out on the next one. Might be asking him for a step drill also to cut down on bit-swapping.
 
duncsuss said:
Thanks! I'm beginning to get the hang of forming the mechanism housing - I did a couple in clear acrylic rod to see what needed to be adjusted before trying it on the celluloid. I have a mandrel that Rick Herrell made (threaded for the barrel) which I'll try out on the next one. Might be asking him for a step drill also to cut down on bit-swapping.
Click to expand...
I, myself asked Rick to make me a couple of step drills. Learn from my mistake and don't make one with more than one step in a single bit, or at least don't allow the ground-down steps to be more than 1/2" or so in length. When you use one with more ground length than that, the relief normally built into the bit is gone from that section and the length of the ground section is pure friction against the walls of the blank. For one of my designs, that meant I needed more than one custom bits to get the number of steps and length I needed.
 
hokie said:
I, myself asked Rick to make me a couple of step drills. Learn from my mistake and don't make one with more than one step in a single bit, or at least don't allow the ground-down steps to be more than 1/2" or so in length. When you use one with more ground length than that, the relief normally built into the bit is gone from that section and the length of the ground section is pure friction against the walls of the blank. For one of my designs, that meant I needed more than one custom bits to get the number of steps and length I needed.
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Thanks for the advice - it's a bit late for me, though. I already have 3 different nib section bits and a cap bit, they all have more than one step.

I agree that they heat up faster than a non-stepped bit does, but advancing in small steps with a spritz of lube between keeps it from overheating. My objective with a step drill is not necessarily to make the operation faster, it's to make it less prone to error (selecting the wrong bit from the index or misalignment.)

I've considered using my air-turbine rotary tool to see if I can grind relief - one of these days perhaps.
 
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