Advice needed on homemade pen press.

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Brandon25

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Joined
Jul 17, 2008
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185
Location
Louisville, KY, USA.
I've been fine using a pistol grip clamp for my pens thus far, but I've got about twenty slimlines to assemble soon, and I get very nervous assembling the tip. This is the only place I've ever had a blank crack on me during assembly, and it's happened numerous times. Pretty sure the cause is the tip being pressed in a little crooked, which for me at least is hard to prevent using the clamp as my press. Even when I hold the parts with one hand, it's hard to keep the tip lined up at that critical moment when the fitting enters the brass tube.

Long story short, I happened upon a $5 horizontal toggle clamp today rated at 500 pounds, so I want to try to make a pen press. I have a few questions- do you guys who have made or tried several find that the inserts that shorten the capacity to your desired length work better than, say, woodcraft's adjustable shaft with locking nut? Also, when making the part opposite the toggle clamp, should the contact point that touches the pen be straight, or have a hole, or be turned with a conical recess similar in size to my slimlines? I dont just do slimlines though, so I'm not sure if a straight-walled hole might be better. Would a straight walled hole really even help much for keeping my pen tip straight when pressing?

Sorry for the long post and numerous questions, but I wanna get this right the first time, else my savings over a store-bought model will dwindle with my wasted time increase.

Here's the idea I drew up in MS Paint.

penpressjig.jpg
 
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Thanks for the response. However my ability to machine metal is pretty much nonexistent and my flatwork skills are pretty limited as well. Dont you think the extra wide block with hole will keep the shaft from flexing upwards?
 
Brandon: Here is one I made that is a little easier to construct. Unfortunately, this view does not show all of the details to their best advantage. There are five of six detail shots in my photo album. Sadly, they are scattered all over the place rather than being all together. The pictures are stored as thumbnails and you will need to click on them (enlarge them) twice after you make the initial selection.

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I looked at numerous presses and then decided to make my own.
It's cheap, works with any size, easily carried to the turning club, and it lets you stay at the lathe during the process.
I used hard nylon for the caps rather than a wood as its too easy to dig into most woods with some caps and barrels. The nylon caps have shallow dimples drilled into the centres to prevent the pen parts from slipping when pressed together. A small one for the nib end and larger one for the cap ends. Regular drill bits can be used make the dimples.
The nylon caps were recessed with a forstner bit then slipped over the ash pads and glued in place. The wood used was ash but any hard wood will do.
Trickiest part was getting the fit right for the morse tapers.
Washers on the end prevent damage to the wood when knocking them out again.
I can give accurate pressure with these on the lathe and really feel the parts going together in the process of assembly.
I've attached pics which hopefully are self explanatory.
Cost me nothing other than about an hour's work
regards,
Bill

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Randy,
That looks good. I was unable to tell by your pictures, but how do you keep the "tailstock" end of your press from lifting up when you press? Looks like just a sort of sliding block with a bolt as a stop. In other words, what holds it down?
 
Bill, just when I thought I'd seen all the simple and genius ideas, you come along and rock my world with this. I really can't see a reason NOT to go with this idea, except that I would have to remove my tailstock and pen mandrel if I want to assemble as I go. With this batch of 20 pens, it's no biggie because all assembly is done at once, but if I want to make, say, four or five pens, all different types, I dont want to forget the grain orientation or otherwise lose my head prior to assebly of each one. How do you deal with that, and can you admit any other downfalls to your idea? Finally, where did you get the hard nylon?

Thanks for the responses.
 
Hi Brandon,
I tend to do pens 2-5 at a time as the norm and I do the assembly after all the turning and finishing is complete so when the mandrel is out it stays out and the press goes in.
When each kit has been turned its placed on a tray in the correct order/grain line and stays there until assembly. Dustin offered up an excellent tip also.
If you can get hold of a retailer pen display tray it would be ideal for storing the parts until assembly but its the sort of tray thats very easy to make.

The nylon was given to me as length of about 12" by about 2" but Ive seen these on Ebay over here so it shouldn't be difficult to get hold of.
Its the sort of stuff that some turners use to make forms/shapes in metal turning.
Any hard sort of plastic/nylon material would be OK I guess but I found that wood even the hard ones didnt really work too well and got roughed up after a few pens.
To be honest, I havent experienced any problems or downfalls with this, in fact I took to the club last night and used it there on a couple of pens, it takes up no room in the bag.
It's assembled all the kits I've tried to date and I can't see any reason it why it would'nt handle all kits, there are no spacers involved and its so controlable.
Finally, it cost almost nothing to make.
Hope this helps.
regards, Bill
 
Brandon25 said:
Randy,
That looks good. I was unable to tell by your pictures, but how do you keep the "tailstock" end of your press from lifting up when you press? Looks like just a sort of sliding block with a bolt as a stop. In other words, what holds it down?
Click to expand...

Brandon: The anvil pretty much stays in place by itself unless I get a pen that is extremely tight and needs a little extra oomph. And because of the way that I hold everything, it is not really a problem anyway.​
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The blank and hardware are held in my left hand against the anvil and the right hand works the press. My left hand is placed on top of the anvil and can exert a little downward pressure if necessary to keep the anvil in place.

Don't recall if there was a picture of this detail or not. The little step on the anvil could be a little fragile and possible crack along the grain under heavy pressure so I drilled a pilot hole up into it from the bottom an screwed in a sheetrock screw of the appropriate length for extra strength.​
 
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Brandon; It would be nice to take the tool with you. While I like the ingenuity and creativeness of the solutions posted above, I believe in multi-tasking tools. My pen press is just a wood workers vise attached to my workbench. It has a quick-adjust so it will quickly go from very open to closed. I did put a set of magnetic jaw covers made from ultra high molecular density polyethylene (and yea, I had to look it up!) on the vise. This works perfectly as a pen press.
 
I shamelessly copied Firefyter's design and I can tell you it works great. Lots of control and visibility. I mounted mine about eye level. Thanks Firefyter
 
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