Guess I’ll keep this one …

[EricRN]

An old Lazerlines stainless steel. The bushes I had were a little off so I turned between centers using calipers. Turned the finial end on the body a little too small. No big deal. Solid stainless fittings so I shaved down the finial to size. Turned out looking pretty good. During it final inspection, I noticed a hairline crack in the blank. Guess I tightened the blank down too hard when mounting between centers in the lathe. Oh well. Will keep it for myself.

Blank is Italian acrylic.

 

[Ted iin Michigan]

Nice pen! I've cracked a few, too, and have found that I can stabilize and repair with some this CA and then re-polish. Disassembly can be an issue but once that's complete it's not a bad deal.

 

[EricRN]

Nice pen! I've cracked a few, too, and have found that I can stabilize and repair with some this CA and then re-polish. Disassembly can be an issue but once that's complete it's not a bad deal.

Yeah. I've done that once or twice, too. This crack was sufficiently large and sufficiently noticeable that, even with that repair, I wouldn't be able to sell it. I was planning to make myself a pen out of this material anyway so no harm in keeping it for myself.

Also, forgot to mention in my original post--I hand painted the dark grey strip in the centerband with some modeling enamel. I really like how this turned out. I'm planning to order some more of these kits from McKenzie penworks and experiment some more with color combinations on the center band.

 

[montmill]

They sure are a nice kit. Sadly it looks like they're sold out on almost every kit.

 

[jrista]

Its frustrating when you have cracks. I had a chat with Ed from Exotic Blanks about that with the Triton kits (love the look, but cracking is real problematic with that kit). He mentioned that sometimes, it can be due to differences in plating thickness. I'd never thought about that, but some platings (i.e. chrome) could be quite thick, while more precious platings (i.e. rhodium) could be very, very thin. Sometimes that may be all it takes to cause or avoid cracking.

I tried to fix some small cracks with CA... I wasn't successful, but, I had already finished the material down to an exact size, and to re-sand and re-polish everything, I ended up with a blank that was then smaller than the kit parts. I ended up either filing down some of the kit parts, or filing the tubes thinner, to avoid cracking in the first place, on kits that it seems to happen with.

 

[EricRN]

Its frustrating when you have cracks. I had a chat with Ed from Exotic Blanks about that with the Triton kits (love the look, but cracking is real problematic with that kit). He mentioned that sometimes, it can be due to differences in plating thickness. I'd never thought about that, but some platings (i.e. chrome) could be quite thick, while more precious platings (i.e. rhodium) could be very, very thin. Sometimes that may be all it takes to cause or avoid cracking.

I tried to fix some small cracks with CA... I wasn't successful, but, I had already finished the material down to an exact size, and to re-sand and re-polish everything, I ended up with a blank that was then smaller than the kit parts. I ended up either filing down some of the kit parts, or filing the tubes thinner, to avoid cracking in the first place, on kits that it seems to happen with.

That makes sense on the platings. I'm 99% sure the crack on this one was entirely on me and not the kit. For one, this kit was solid stainless so no platings. For another, I'd actually filed down the inside of the tub too much when removing epoxy that had dripped down in there, so the fit on the hardware was kind of loose. I actually had to drop some glue in there to secure it. The only way it could have cracked was if I'd tightened down the tailstock too much. I (perhaps stupidly) was not using any bushings since I didn't have any TBC bushings.

That said, I do wonder why more pen kits don't use thinner tubes. For example, the Gatsby Grande and a few other sierra-style pens use 3/8 inch tubes. Given that the twist mechanism and refill are exactly the same size for those kits and others like the regular Gatsby, sierras, siroccos, etc., why do so many of the later kits use a tube with a 27/64 inch diameter? The hardware ought to fit. And the difference in strength of the blank is HUGE. Not to mention that it would make it much easier to use thinner, vintage materials that are, in theory, wide enough to fit on a the pen but are sufficiently narrow that there's no way you can drill a 27/64 inch hole in them and have any sort of wall strength left in them.

 

[jrista]

That makes sense on the platings. I'm 99% sure the crack on this one was entirely on me and not the kit. For one, this kit was solid stainless so no platings. For another, I'd actually filed down the inside of the tub too much when removing epoxy that had dripped down in there, so the fit on the hardware was kind of loose. I actually had to drop some glue in there to secure it. The only way it could have cracked was if I'd tightened down the tailstock too much. I (perhaps stupidly) was not using any bushings since I didn't have any TBC bushings.

That said, I do wonder why more pen kits don't use thinner tubes. For example, the Gatsby Grande and a few other sierra-style pens use 3/8 inch tubes. Given that the twist mechanism and refill are exactly the same size for those kits and others like the regular Gatsby, sierras, siroccos, etc., why do so many of the later kits use a tube with a 27/64 inch diameter? The hardware ought to fit. And the difference in strength of the blank is HUGE. Not to mention that it would make it much easier to use thinner, vintage materials that are, in theory, wide enough to fit on a the pen but are sufficiently narrow that there's no way you can drill a 27/64 inch hole in them and have any sort of wall strength left in them.

I've wondered the same thing about tube size. Never understood why they make the tubes so large, and require the blank to be turned so thin. Sometimes the blank isn't even a millimeter thick for some kits.

 

[EricRN]

I've wondered the same thing about tube size. Never understood why they make the tubes so large, and require the blank to be turned so thin. Sometimes the blank isn't even a millimeter thick for some kits.

Yeah. I also get frustrated when a blank that has nice, deep rich colors comes out looking pastel after it's been turned thin and painted white on the inside. Yeah, you can paint different colors to get a darker effect. But even then, it's not uniform throughout and a bit of a guessing game. Part of the art, I guess.

 

[sorcerertd]

Also, forgot to mention in my original post--I hand painted the dark grey strip in the centerband with some modeling enamel. I really like how this turned out.

That does look really nice. If the channel were a little deeper, you could even put opal in it like the turned rings that are popular these days.

 

[sorcerertd]

Yeah. I also get frustrated when a blank that has nice, deep rich colors comes out looking pastel after it's been turned thin and painted white on the inside. Yeah, you can paint different colors to get a darker effect. But even then, it's not uniform throughout and a bit of a guessing game. Part of the art, I guess.

Yes. This is my complaint about using Hybrids on Jr. kits. Haven't found a way to get the color consistent between the 10.5 and the 12.5. Looks awful to me.