darrin1200
Member
The wife of one of my clients wanted to give her husband a pen for christmas this year. Her budget didn't quite allow for a full custom pen, so I decided to do a modified kit with one of my alumilite blanks. His favorite is black pens.
I used an El Toro for the base, as I picked some up on sale a while back. I like the silver hardware, but not the small length. He likes larger pens. I did a closed end barrel, but ran into problems with the length. Because of the nature of the blank, I needed to use the brass tube to be able to insert the section. I thought, No problem. I'll just drill it out full length for the converter with a 9mm bit, and then drill out a shallow hole for the tube. Worked all the way up to the final finishing cuts. Kabooom. The blank is not strong enough without some kind of support. Normally on my custom pens, I sleeve it with ebonite or alumilite. Since I was working with a kit pen, no problem with these blanks, I never considered that half of the barrel was unsupported.
Second round, I needed a tube that would go the full length for the converter, but let me install the kits front section. I ended up using a Chalk holder tube, but it was a little to big I.D. So I thinned down the outside of the El Toro tube until it just slid in, and epoxied it in place. Turning went well after that.
I forgot to mention, that I used my new metal lathe, to A: thin down the brass tube, and B: make a custom pin chuck to hold the barrel.
Pen is all finished and ready, last step is a quick tuning. I have to admit, that these are the worst nibs I have come across to date, very scratchy. I tried to change it up for one of my Heritance nibs, but it wouldn't fit.
There is no feed holder to screw in and out, and the feed is a very loose fit in this section. When you push the nib in with the feed, it is actually the side edges of the nib that wedge in and hold it in place. Because of the shape of the Heritance nib, it would not wedge in, and would therefore not stay in the section. When I tried to reinstall the stock nib, the feed would not fully lock in, it is fairly easy to slide it out, leaving the nib stuck in place. Not sure how these were originally installed, perhaps a dab of shellac.
About 40 minutes later, I finally got the stock nib fairly smooth, and holding in place. It is a very wet writer, we'll see how he likes it. If he doesn't, then I think I will have to make a new section for it.
Does anyone know the thread pitch for the El Toro section?
Here are a couple of pictures, the pen is going out today.
Comments and Critiques always welcome.
I used an El Toro for the base, as I picked some up on sale a while back. I like the silver hardware, but not the small length. He likes larger pens. I did a closed end barrel, but ran into problems with the length. Because of the nature of the blank, I needed to use the brass tube to be able to insert the section. I thought, No problem. I'll just drill it out full length for the converter with a 9mm bit, and then drill out a shallow hole for the tube. Worked all the way up to the final finishing cuts. Kabooom. The blank is not strong enough without some kind of support. Normally on my custom pens, I sleeve it with ebonite or alumilite. Since I was working with a kit pen, no problem with these blanks, I never considered that half of the barrel was unsupported.
Second round, I needed a tube that would go the full length for the converter, but let me install the kits front section. I ended up using a Chalk holder tube, but it was a little to big I.D. So I thinned down the outside of the El Toro tube until it just slid in, and epoxied it in place. Turning went well after that.
I forgot to mention, that I used my new metal lathe, to A: thin down the brass tube, and B: make a custom pin chuck to hold the barrel.
Pen is all finished and ready, last step is a quick tuning. I have to admit, that these are the worst nibs I have come across to date, very scratchy. I tried to change it up for one of my Heritance nibs, but it wouldn't fit.
There is no feed holder to screw in and out, and the feed is a very loose fit in this section. When you push the nib in with the feed, it is actually the side edges of the nib that wedge in and hold it in place. Because of the shape of the Heritance nib, it would not wedge in, and would therefore not stay in the section. When I tried to reinstall the stock nib, the feed would not fully lock in, it is fairly easy to slide it out, leaving the nib stuck in place. Not sure how these were originally installed, perhaps a dab of shellac.
About 40 minutes later, I finally got the stock nib fairly smooth, and holding in place. It is a very wet writer, we'll see how he likes it. If he doesn't, then I think I will have to make a new section for it.
Does anyone know the thread pitch for the El Toro section?
Here are a couple of pictures, the pen is going out today.
Comments and Critiques always welcome.
