Been that kind of week. Finished up three pens. The one on the left is a JR Gent with Black Ti fittings (maybe its gunmetal) and blue royale Conway Stewart. That one turned out real nice. I'm a huge fan of the black Ti JR series kits. The dark gray finish strikes me as very modern, very masculine. And I cannot get enough of the blue CS material. It has an iridescence that seems to dance throughout the pen as you move it. The picture does not do it justice. Takes a great shine as well.
The middle pen frustrated me. I was quite happy with the blank, a red mallee burl finished with pens plus. Has a bit more luster in real life. What frustrates me is that the bushings that came with it did not fit snug within the tube for the cap. The end result: there was maybe 1/32 inch of play, which led to my turning being off center by about that much. And one of the pieces for the lower part of the pen was just a little loose when I pushed it in, so I used epoxy to glue it in which means I can't even pop the fittings out, trash the blank, and start over. Very frustrating. Not sure what I'm going to do. I can't sell it. Don't really want to give it away as the mistake is that obvious. I'll probably just use it around the house here. At least I'll be able to enjoy the great piece of timber.
On an unrelated note--Any thoughts on how to make the bushings useable? I've got two more kits. I was thinking I'd wrap a few turns of masking tape around them to make them fit the tube a bit more snug.
Finally, the third pen, second mistake. I turned the base of the blank maybe 1/64th of an inch too short on one side. Actually, I think it probably happened while I was doing my longitudinal sanding--I think I stayed in one place and sanded too much. Anyway, I've got the other half of the blank that I'd used to make this one, and some extra tubes. So I'm going to pop out the fittings and give it another go.
The middle pen frustrated me. I was quite happy with the blank, a red mallee burl finished with pens plus. Has a bit more luster in real life. What frustrates me is that the bushings that came with it did not fit snug within the tube for the cap. The end result: there was maybe 1/32 inch of play, which led to my turning being off center by about that much. And one of the pieces for the lower part of the pen was just a little loose when I pushed it in, so I used epoxy to glue it in which means I can't even pop the fittings out, trash the blank, and start over. Very frustrating. Not sure what I'm going to do. I can't sell it. Don't really want to give it away as the mistake is that obvious. I'll probably just use it around the house here. At least I'll be able to enjoy the great piece of timber.
On an unrelated note--Any thoughts on how to make the bushings useable? I've got two more kits. I was thinking I'd wrap a few turns of masking tape around them to make them fit the tube a bit more snug.
Finally, the third pen, second mistake. I turned the base of the blank maybe 1/64th of an inch too short on one side. Actually, I think it probably happened while I was doing my longitudinal sanding--I think I stayed in one place and sanded too much. Anyway, I've got the other half of the blank that I'd used to make this one, and some extra tubes. So I'm going to pop out the fittings and give it another go.