I like the free form shape that I can make with one piece pens and have about 200 Cigar kits on hand so I went back to see how others have made Cigar pens with one one piece blanks. I tried what they did and for the most part I was able to make them like others had using two step approaches with small tube from the Cigar glued in and a larger tube from a Sierra or Wall Street II glue in the blank. But glue ups were a little finicky and I wanted to figure out a fast and easy way to make them in large numbers.
I wanted a fast and easy way to get around the two different size tubes. I drill a hole all the way through the blank and glue two Sierra (Wall Street II) in the blank. Trim to size and turn to final size. So instead of two different size tubes glued into the blank I use two Sierra (Wall Street II) tubes.
Then I take both tubes Cigar and press them onto the center band that joins the top and bottom on a Cigar pen. Put them in a chuck on my lathe, hold the other end with a 60 degree tail center and using a file trim the center band until it is the same size as the tubes. Press the nib and top onto this. Unscrew the top finial and take off the clip. Now I have the Cigar pen guts, which slide into the Sierra tubed pen blank. Holding the top and the bottom of the pen works the transmission. If you need to take the Cigar pen apart just unscrew the clip end and push the cigar pen out of the blank. The easiest way to reload the pen is to unscrew the nib end and load the refill when needed. Point is that there is no two step drilling or glue up required and the pens work beautifully.
Other things I picked up was that I could add a little extra lengthen to the pen if I used two longer Cigar tubes with the center band. A couple blanks I wanted to use were thirty part inserted segmented blanks which were just a little too long for the normal tube configuration. I know .20"-.30" does not seem like a lot but cutting a segmented blank short destroys the effect. Also I like longer pens in my big, fat hands. You can find longer Sierra type tubes to get extra length if needed for the blank.
Hope this is explained well enough for others to get my point. One piece Cigar pens can be made without two step drilling and the hassle of having glue two different tube sizes into the blank. It take two extra tubes and a Cigar kit. My next step is to see if I can locate 10" tubes the proper size so my two tube glue up becomes a one tube glue up. I need to see if any long tubes have the proper internal diameter that duplicates the Sierra size tubes.
I wanted a fast and easy way to get around the two different size tubes. I drill a hole all the way through the blank and glue two Sierra (Wall Street II) in the blank. Trim to size and turn to final size. So instead of two different size tubes glued into the blank I use two Sierra (Wall Street II) tubes.
Then I take both tubes Cigar and press them onto the center band that joins the top and bottom on a Cigar pen. Put them in a chuck on my lathe, hold the other end with a 60 degree tail center and using a file trim the center band until it is the same size as the tubes. Press the nib and top onto this. Unscrew the top finial and take off the clip. Now I have the Cigar pen guts, which slide into the Sierra tubed pen blank. Holding the top and the bottom of the pen works the transmission. If you need to take the Cigar pen apart just unscrew the clip end and push the cigar pen out of the blank. The easiest way to reload the pen is to unscrew the nib end and load the refill when needed. Point is that there is no two step drilling or glue up required and the pens work beautifully.
Other things I picked up was that I could add a little extra lengthen to the pen if I used two longer Cigar tubes with the center band. A couple blanks I wanted to use were thirty part inserted segmented blanks which were just a little too long for the normal tube configuration. I know .20"-.30" does not seem like a lot but cutting a segmented blank short destroys the effect. Also I like longer pens in my big, fat hands. You can find longer Sierra type tubes to get extra length if needed for the blank.
Hope this is explained well enough for others to get my point. One piece Cigar pens can be made without two step drilling and the hassle of having glue two different tube sizes into the blank. It take two extra tubes and a Cigar kit. My next step is to see if I can locate 10" tubes the proper size so my two tube glue up becomes a one tube glue up. I need to see if any long tubes have the proper internal diameter that duplicates the Sierra size tubes.