Messing around with a slimline

I have a bunch of these slimline kits to make so I thought I would experiment a little. I had to powdercoat a few things yesterday and thought that I would give coating pen pieces a try while I had my coating rig set up. I had a candy green color handy which I thought might match the new blanks that I just cast, so I used that.

This was definitely a learning experience and it is far from perfect.

1) I have never coated such small parts before and it is very easy to over-coat them, which I did. There is a sag at the widest part of the tip. I will have to be much more careful in the future.

2) I masked off any pieces that were going to be pressed into one of the tubes however the over-coat on the tip caused a bulge on the mating surface which in turn led to a small gap between the tip and the lower tube. This should be solved with better control of how much powder I apply.

3) In an effort to remove the gap between the tip and lower barrel I was a bit aggressive when pressing the pieces together, which in turn caused a chip up at the top part of the lower barrel. Again, solved with better control over how much powder I put down.

Is it perfect? Hell no, but I did learn a lot so I will call this an overall success. I will definitely be attempting more powder coating in the future as a way to spruce up an otherwise somewhat boring slimline.

Making slimlines unique is a fantastic hobby in itself.
I'm impressed and inspired by your project.
Thanks so much for sharing!
- Cullen

Reminds me of a 'pet' iguana one of my sons had. Colorful, (but nasty). . But, very nice experiment with much potential.

I like the pen and the stand

Painfullyslow said:

I have a bunch of these slimline kits to make so I thought I would experiment a little. I had to powdercoat a few things yesterday and thought that I would give coating pen pieces a try while I had my coating rig set up. I had a candy green color handy which I thought might match the new blanks that I just cast, so I used that.

This was definitely a learning experience and it is far from perfect.

1) I have never coated such small parts before and it is very easy to over-coat them, which I did. There is a sag at the widest part of the tip. I will have to be much more careful in the future.

2) I masked off any pieces that were going to be pressed into one of the tubes however the over-coat on the tip caused a bulge on the mating surface which in turn led to a small gap between the tip and the lower tube. This should be solved with better control of how much powder I apply.

3) In an effort to remove the gap between the tip and lower barrel I was a bit aggressive when pressing the pieces together, which in turn caused a chip up at the top part of the lower barrel. Again, solved with better control over how much powder I put down.

Is it perfect? Hell no, but I did learn a lot so I will call this an overall success. I will definitely be attempting more powder coating in the future as a way to spruce up an otherwise somewhat boring slimline.

Click to expand...

very nice work, even the imperfections add character, it looks genuinly handmade

Thanks for doing and showing this. I have not yet gotten into powder coating but for a long time had that in my mind. I hope this pushes pen making and creation forward in this direction. It might me the impetus for me to give it a try in the near future. Thanks for sharing!

AND, I like the colors and how well they turned out. Please do more!