It worked :)

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skiprat

skiprat

Passed Away Mar 22, 2022
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Hiya
In this thread I showed my homemade pen mill and said I wanted to try it on stainless steel
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39683.
Here is my first effort from a couple of bolts. :biggrin:
I did the twist on the cap, but I don't think there is enough 'twist' in it.
But I have a plan for future ones:cool:
The body is just flat tapered. The nib was from a 10mm bolt and I just kept the standard threads. I didn't want to go to the hassle of doing fancy 3 start thread until I knew it would work.
Can any of the metal guru's tell me if there is any difference between using the side of an End Mill bit or a Slot Drill? I have to use the side of the bit to do the twisty part and I'm not sure if my End Mill is the correct bit to use?:confused:
I couldn't think of a clip style to put on it. So it doesn't have one.
Comment and criticism welcome:wink:
Cheers
 

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Awesome job Steven! I like how it came out, although I would agree that a little more twist would perhaps be better. More twist would help show off the fact that it is spiraled.
I wonder how difficult it would be to time the end of the twist of the cap to line up with the flats on the body?

Did you do the twist before or after drilling and tapping the inside?
If you did the twist after it was drilled and tapped, how did you hold it to machine the flats and the twists? I went back to the previous thread and you held that on a mandrel.
You have my curiousity peaked now!
Great job and thanks for sharing it with us.
 
Did I mention how much I hate you right now? :tongue:

Beautiful work .. inspired design..
yep.. I hate you.
 
Joe, I had to thunk about it for a while too:rolleyes: But I drilled and tapped for the nib first. I tapped fairly deep and used a section of all thread to hold them together while I milled it. You can see the threads in the first top pic. I then did the flat facets. As it is a hex, the end off the facets fitted in the Jacobs chuck when I turned it around to do the twist. The mill had to be re-assembled with the 'extra' holes first though. The up-right ends on the mill bolt onto the base and then just get shimmed to the correct height.
You know your stuff with machines, any clues which bit I should have used?:confused:
In the pic below I have it doing the flats. You can see the joint of the two parts of the pen
 

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A while back someone started a thread asking if a penmaker is an artist or a craftsman. My immediate answer is both, but it depends on which penmaker you're talking about. At best I am a craftsman, you on the other hand came to my mind immediately as an artist. Your pens are always beautiful with unique designs, clean lines and surperb workmanship.

Thank you for sharing and for giving us craftsmen something to strive for.

Outstanding work as always.

Jim Smith
 
Well, more twist would be more spectacular, but if it was just perfectly straight it's pretty darn spectacular...I appreciate the way you think..in constantly challenging your mind. When your brain starts to sweat...then you know you are having fun!
 
Thanks for the kind words:biggrin:

btboone said:
Nice work. The side of the endmill would be the right way to do it.
Click to expand...

Thanks Bruce:biggrin:
The reason I asked was that even using the lube, it squealed like mad. I wasn't sure if it was cutting or trying to grind. When I turn stainless, I've found I get better results if I take slighty more aggressive cuts but I was too scared to take deep cuts with the side of the bit. I think that my hand cranking feed rate was perhaps a bit slow too. I don't mind learning by practice, but I don't want to wreck my tools either.:redface:
 
btboone said:
Nice work. The side of the endmill would be the right way to do it.
Click to expand...

I agree that the side of the endmill would be correct, and provide the best finish. You must be careful with this type of setup you don't want to climb mill your cut.

Thank you very much for showing your set-up, I was having a little trouble getting my head around how you would have cut this. I got stuck once I saw your post using the mandrel.

Great way to improvise and use the equipment at hand! I like it..
 
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Another case in point for a "Best of" or "hall of fame" forum. It is ashame that in a couple or weeks or so, it will be buried under tons of new posts and all but forgotten!

GREAT WORK!
 
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Stainless is tough to machine. Carbide endmills work best. Slow rpms, like 600 for a 1/2" 4 flute em and lots of coolant. Pull it all in to be as stiff as possible.
 
Steve will you marry me? lol :clown:

Awesome work as always, ignore the above question I was just trying to say something nobody had already said!:worship::banana:
 
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