FGarbrecht
Member
Here's a Churchill Fountain pen with closed ends, my first try at going beyond a standard kit. I cast the blanks from alumilite and used the center band, tubes and fountain pen guts from a Churchill kit. I measured everything and drew it out, including drilling depths, which despite my care I still managed to screw up. I made little jamb chucks from hardwood dowel and turned the closed end blanks on a collett chuck. Either my drilling was a bit off or my jamb chucks weren't completely centered or square, but the drill hole was slightly eccentric at the far end of the barrel, and as I shaped the end I cut through to the drilled out center. I was tempted to throw it all away and call it a day, but instead I cut off the damaged end and glued on another piece of blank. I turned it down to match and it came out great; I can't see the repair at all. Getting a halfway decent finish was pretty hard, and I'm not very happy with the finish on this, but I'm tired at this point, so I just put it all together and it came out looking pretty OK. Because of the eccentricity on the jamb chuck, I had a hard time getting tool marks out and getting a homogeneous finish but eventually got something that isn't too bad (wet sand 400 & 600, then Novus 3, 2, and 1). Please feel free to criticize and make suggestions!