12mm stepless #1 - Happy 4th of July

[PatrickR]

Continuing to work smaller, this is my first 12mm stepless. A couple minor refinements needed but I'm pleased with it.
The nib is a place holder until I get a bock #5 wide shoulder for it.
All material is AA except an ebonite section.
11.84mm barrel
14.27mm cap
131mm length
24g fully loaded
Q, C & C welcome

 

[randyrls]

Beautiful! The end caps are a nice touch!

 

[RichAldrich]

Really nice! Great job!

 

[Jim15]

Beautiful work.

 

[leehljp]

Beautiful Red! Excellent Pen!

 

[PatrickR]

There is an element of this pen that I had initially considered impossible. With a little thought I came up with the solution. I thought someone would have caught it by now.
any takers?

 

[stuckinohio]

Only thing I notice is that the convertor end of the body is female threaded. So the cap that goes over the convertor and secures to the body is male threaded and convertor goes through the threads into the cap

 

[PatrickR]

Plenty of clearance in that area.
it's the rings on the open end of the cap. I left them off of the previous stepless pens because of wall thickness.
its a little over 1mm thick and threaded. I doubt there is any glue that would hold up but remembered a solvent that is used to fuse acrylic (It must be AA). The first stress test was tapping. The second was an accident while buffing, it was jerked out of my hand and ricochet off the floor.

 

[sorcerertd]

the rings on the open end of the cap

Oh yeah, that didn't jump out at me, but now that you mention it... wow!

 

[sorins]

Plenty of clearance in that area.
it's the rings on the open end of the cap. I left them off of the previous stepless pens because of wall thickness.
its a little over 1mm thick and threaded. I doubt there is any glue that would hold up but remembered a solvent that is used to fuse acrylic (It must be AA). The first stress test was tapping. The second was an accident while buffing, it was jerked out of my hand and ricochet off the floor.

Patrick, if you wouldn't use that solvent, what you regularly use for such small sections? Is epoxy strong enough? What other feasible solutions could be? Thanks!

 

[PatrickR]

Patrick, if you wouldn't use that solvent, what you regularly use for such small sections? Is epoxy strong enough? What other feasible solutions could be? Thanks!

The most common solution is to Swage a metal band on that part of the cap when dealing with such thin walls. I have tried swaging and failed. At some point I'll give it another try.
I dont know of any other way to do these rings in this situation. Epoxy would not do it. There is just too little surface.
the rings at either end are done with tenons and thats how I do them on the open end of the cap on larger pens.
this size pen presents its own problems and is pushing the limits.
if you figure out something else let me know.