Kitless fountain born of free time

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pipecrafter

pipecrafter

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Joined
Oct 31, 2008
Messages
320
Location
Clayville, Rhode Island
I had a bit of free time today (miracle of miracles!) so I decided to take the next step in my quest to make a completely kitless fountain pen. For this step I used a Berea front section, and made everything else myself - all two pieces.

Let me know what you think. I definitely learned several things while doing this pen.

Click the thumbnails for bigger pics:





 
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Am I right in assuming thats ebonite? technicaly very nice but a little severe for my taste, I would have lightened it off a little, having the chance to hold it may change my mind.
Have just got hold of 3 metre lenghts of Jet black ebonite at around 14mm so will turn these up soon no doubt
does any one want any?
 
Stunning!!! How Sleek. I love it! Great work! Might fit nice in my hand too, but not sure. Why don't you send it on over and I'll let you know. :)
 
Thanks, guys!

It's a bit big, but since it's a prototype, and made for me, it had to fit my hands. At the widest point on the cap, it's about 11/16" - maybe a hair over. The body is a touch over 5/8" right near the front section. For someone of average hands, I'd slim it up considerably.

Dave: Yes it's ebonite. It was the logical choice for me. :biggrin: The only down side to ebonite is that a big hole like the cap tends to smell like freshly drilled ebonite for along time afterward unless you leave it open to air out. It's a very strong smell if you're not used to it. I'm a bit desensitized, so I don't mind, but your average person might find it offensive.

I didn't create a blog entry on it yet, but I will tomorrow morning. For now, it's beer-thirty.

And no, I'm not falling for that one. :wink:
 
I think the pen is beautiful. But either it's about 1/4 inch too short or the angle you photographed the pen from is causing some foreshortening. Or maybe both. anyway, if you can do work like that you have every reason to be pleased with yourself.

Marc
 
Thank you again, guys!

I'm ashamed to admit that the cap threads are bog standard 1/2"-32. I used the lathe as a tapping machine with a jacobs chuck in the tailstock, and I also have a die holder that I rigged to the tailstock as well. The process is pretty simple, and is the best way I know to keep everything perfectly centered.

I wish I could afford a multi-start tap and die set, but it's just not in the cards for me right now. It's a shame really, since I feel that's the one piece that would take this pen to the next level. As it is, it takes 6 full turns to fully seat the cap. It's within the realm of "acceptable" for me, but today I'm going to try something out that should bring that down to about half that - if it works, and the cap remains secure, I'll be very pleased.
 
Thank you, Mark!

As I posted in the advanced pen making section, I reamed out the first three rows of threads, and it now closes with three complete rotations. If I just pick it up and open it without thinking about it, it feels on par with the Jr Gent that's sitting on my desk next to it. While the Jr Gent is 1.5 full rotations, it actually takes two to three twists to get the cap free. This pen takes three to four twists to remove and seat the cap. It's not ideal, but it's great considering my tooling.

If I have time after working on todays marching orders, I'll see if I can squeeze in another pen taking everything into account.
 
Reminds me a lot of another one that was on here recently, it may have been one of yours too. Very nice.
 
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