I am... displeased.

[pipecrafter]

Mostly with myself. Partly with my material. I was making a pen out of some polyester resin, and was at the final operation - putting the cap threads on the body. I got a little aggressive, and *snap* *crack* *curse*. I imploded the entire front part of the body.

I've been doing that step *before* drilling the body so that there's a solid bunch of material there, but I got out of order today when I got interrupted and if before I knew it, I had drilled the body instead of putting threads on it.

I'll never make that mistake again.

 

[Skye]

I did things out of order one day and my right arm was ripped off, had lots of reconstructive surgery, still not back to normal.

Naaaaaah, just kidding. You feel better now though?

 

[jkeithrussell]

Almost every time I've been interrupted or gotten in a hurry or paid too much attention to the radio or whatever, I've screwed up. The pen making process is pretty easy, but it does require concentration.

 

[BRobbins629]

You'll find that ebonite is the most forgiving material for threading (but not totally), but with care almost all the PRs and Trustones can be threaded. I have a few to prove it can be done and a bucket full of *!$&#'s that almost convinced me otherwise. The design freedom of you own kits it well worth the agony of defeat.

 

[VisExp]

Sounds a bit like segmenting. You spend hours and hours building the blank, manage to survive drilling the blank and then blow it up with that "final cut" with the skew :biggrin:

 

[GouletPens]

When I make screw ups like that, I almost immediately take the busted part and chuck it at supersonic speeds across the shop...into the wall, not the tools, of course. I find it quite satisfying and it gives me a bit of closure to know that the piece is then "completely gone", and I start over. eace:

 

[pipecrafter]

I sometimes do that, but the piece was in mostly good condition. I stuck in the drawer next to the cap, and I think that I might be able to recover from this. I'm probably going to make an ebonite section that threads into the M10x1 threads in the body. This, of course, means I have to buy a M10x1 die (only bought the tap, that was short-sighted) - so I'll have to hit Harbor Freight while I'm out today.

Hopefully I *can* recover, because this was shaping up to be a really nice pen. Hmm. Time to go take a second look while I'm drinking my tea....

 

[LostintheWoods]

Kurt, your solution is far better than throwing the part across the shop. You can nearly always find a solution to nearly any "accident" in a tea or coffee cup. Good luck to you!!

 

[alphageek]

I'll never make that mistake again.

Ohhhh.. I know that phrase far too well.. Unfortunately it normally comes with a 2nd half... "onto the next mistake!"

 

[Daniel]

Why is it they never blow apart sometime early in the process. Something like just coming out of the box all cracked into pieces. oh no they wait until you are on that last possible final touch with any sort of tool. Then they react like they never had any structural integrity of any kind. blam total vaporization.

 

[pipecrafter]

Hey at least it was just a an hour or so on the pen. It could be worse. Like the pipe I was sandblasting yesterday after spending 5 or so hours on it. A big flaw opened up and half one side of the pipe just disintegrated under the nozzle. Amazingly bad luck.

Taking my tea to the metal lathe now. Lets see how this turns out....

 

[andyk]

I wanna know how you're going to turn your tea!!! Seems like it would be AWFULLY messy....

 

[pipecrafter]

That might look a little like Adam Savage turning a 2-liter bottle of soda....

But I managed to salvage the pen. I posted it here, along with pics:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?p=770459

 

[Texatdurango]

Kurt, If I'm understanding correctly, I do one thing that might help the next time you get "out of sequence".

I make a small plug that is threaded with whatever thread I use for the front section. I thread the little plug all the way into the blank then thread the outer, larger threads for the cap. I haven't broken a lower section since. If this doesn't make sense, I can post a photo when I get home.

 

[pipecrafter]

No, that makes perfect sense! That's one of those little things that seems obvious *after* you learn it from someone else. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Blind_Squirrel]

Kurt, If I'm understanding correctly, I do one thing that might help the next time you get "out of sequence".

I make a small plug that is threaded with whatever thread I use for the front section. I thread the little plug all the way into the blank then thread the outer, larger threads for the cap. I haven't broken a lower section since. If this doesn't make sense, I can post a photo when I get home.

Please do.

 

[rstought]

Kurt...

Excellent save - the pen looks fantastic!

Could you possibly elaborate a little on the steps you took to get the pattern to line up (your "lots of little cuts on the lathe" routine...)?

Thanks in advance!