First Kitless Pen - Mostly Successful

[Russ Hewitt]

After a day and a half in the shop, I have my first kitless pen. Feel free to critique it, but be gentle, I am a kitless virgin.

What I have found from this experience is that the single most important tool in my shop is my calipers followed by careful notes, collet chuck and sharp tools. The lathe is low on the list.

As you can see, this is a rollerball pen. I initially wanted to make a fountain pen but I ran into a difficulty with the section. I was using a Boch. # six and was using a 10 mm tap and die into the body. I actually made two sections, both we're so thin that I was unable to thread them. As soon as I tried to thread them, they broke to bits. There simply was not enough material. Was I using the wrong combination of nib and body tap? I'm thinking that I should have used either a smaller nib or a larger tap for the body. 10 mm for the body seems to be about right. I went extra slow when starting the die and made sure that I kept it lubricated. I guess what I'm looking for is the perfect combination of cap size, section size and nib size, and body size that would leave enough material for threading. HELP!!!!!!!

 

[PatrickR]

the first is the hardest and the first dozen is a lot of lessons learned.
for a #6 I use 10x1 section threads with a 12mm cap to body minimum. 13 leaves more wall thickness on the barrel.
for the section, cut the tenon, thread it and then drill and tap the female threads. It sounds like you may be doing it in reverse?

 

[mark james]

I don't attempt kitless, but my calipers and collet chucks are well used and would be re-bought in an eye-blink. Very nice first foray.

 

[Darrin]

This was 100% a success.
Every time you learn something is a win.
Great finish.

 

[Psychmike22]

This is a good start. They get better from here.

 

[grebmar]

Looks like a good first attempt! I'm also still learning, about five pens in. The most difficult thing for me is to get the proportions right. Regarding threading, what I've learned most of all is to cut the tenon, thread it, and then drill (slowly). If you drill the hole before threading the walls are just too fragile most of the time for threading, especially if you've cut a relief at the end of the threads.
For a 10 x 1 die, I make the tenon just a shade larger than the recommended 10 mm before threading, which seems to work okay for good threads.

 

[Russ Hewitt]

the first is the hardest and the first dozen is a lot of lessons learned.
for a #6 I use 10x1 section threads with a 12mm cap to body minimum. 13 leaves more wall thickness on the barrel.
for the section, cut the tenon, thread it and then drill and tap the female threads. It sounds like you may be doing it in reverse?

Indeed I did. Lesson learned.

 

[JamesC]

After a day and a half in the shop, I have my first kitless pen. Feel free to critique it, but be gentle, I am a kitless virgin.

What I have found from this experience is that the single most important tool in my shop is my calipers followed by careful notes, collet chuck and sharp tools. The lathe is low on the list.

As you can see, this is a rollerball pen. I initially wanted to make a fountain pen but I ran into a difficulty with the section. I was using a Boch. # six and was using a 10 mm tap and die into the body. I actually made two sections, both we're so thin that I was unable to thread them. As soon as I tried to thread them, they broke to bits. There simply was not enough material. Was I using the wrong combination of nib and body tap? I'm thinking that I should have used either a smaller nib or a larger tap for the body. 10 mm for the body seems to be about right. I went extra slow when starting the die and made sure that I kept it lubricated. I guess what I'm looking for is the perfect combination of cap size, section size and nib size, and body size that would leave enough material for threading. HELP!!!!!!!View attachment 337981View attachment 337982View attachment 337983

I agree with Patrick. Turn the tenon, thread then drill and tap. You'll get it. Looks like a great first attempt.
Jim

 

[RichAldrich]

Very nice. I saw one of our members uses thread to polish and clean between the threads.

 

[TDahl]

Very nice. I agree with everyone. Turn tenons first, and drill last. Good luck.