SteveAxelrod
Member
I had cutoffs from the pens I entered into the Ballpoint and the Freestyle contests that I thought would look good together and I decided to throw in some brass pins. I'd never made an Artisan Americana from Craft Supplies but the black and gold was a good match to the colors in the Molten Metal resin blank. The cocobolo was also a good match to the dark reds and browns in that resin. So I merrily went about turning the blanks and setting the brass pins and was ready to put it together when the trouble started.
When I read over the assembly directions I discovered that I had to part off 5/16" from the bottom of the cap end in order to install the center band. WTF? Never had to do that before....sheesh! Then I realized that I got the cap end and the nib end mixed up (one is slightly longer than the other), so now the cap end was turned to match the smaller nib end.
After some cussin' and head scratching I realized that by parting off the end of the cap to install the center band I could eliminate the end that had been turned too skinny. I also realized that I had forgotten to trim the ends of the blanks after gluing up the tubes (anybody else forget that step on occasion?). That was actually good news because trimming them meant I regained some needed girth and when all was said and done the blanks matched the diameter of the cap, center band and nib. Even the new location of the brass pins seemed to look okay.
Judge for yourself, but I think I lucked out!
When I read over the assembly directions I discovered that I had to part off 5/16" from the bottom of the cap end in order to install the center band. WTF? Never had to do that before....sheesh! Then I realized that I got the cap end and the nib end mixed up (one is slightly longer than the other), so now the cap end was turned to match the smaller nib end.
After some cussin' and head scratching I realized that by parting off the end of the cap to install the center band I could eliminate the end that had been turned too skinny. I also realized that I had forgotten to trim the ends of the blanks after gluing up the tubes (anybody else forget that step on occasion?). That was actually good news because trimming them meant I regained some needed girth and when all was said and done the blanks matched the diameter of the cap, center band and nib. Even the new location of the brass pins seemed to look okay.
Judge for yourself, but I think I lucked out!
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I've never been called a leftover. Mistakes are just design possibilities, nice save.