How it was made - assembly
Ok, this morning, I seated the bullet, polished the cartridge, and powder-coated it. Then I inserted the transmission. The first picture shows the case head where you can see the end of the transmission and the refill (retracted). There is just enough room around the refill to get a pair of small needle-nose pliers on the refill to insert/remove it. The second pic shows the upper tube pressed onto the fob. The tube turned out to be about 1/16" too long, so I turned a bit off the end. Final assembly is just a matter of slipping the tube into the case head over the transmission.
While I was waiting for the powder-coat to bake, I decided to do the next one a little differently. The hardest part of making this pen was soldering the tube square to the bullet. There's very little bearing surface between the two, and melting the solder blind without also melting the lead in the bullet can be a challenge. Therefore, I got out a solid copper bullet, turned a stepped tenon on the base to fit the tube with a ring for the solder wire, and drilled it out for a mini-refill. It soldered together much better. I'll make another one soon and post pics if people want.
Regards,
Eric