I’ve been working on fountain pens

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Alchemist

Alchemist

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
Messages
554
Location
Central Valley, California
This is a personal favorite of mine…
Alumilite Clear Slow custom blank for the cap and body.
Black ebonite for the section.
Bock #6 nib

The process:

Drill the section with a 7mm, cut the tenon down to 10mm and chase with a 10x1 threading.
Flip around on a delrin mandrel I made. Shape it. Then drill and chase with the appropriate sizes and tap it for a Bock housing.

Body was squared off, a tenon cut for a 14mm x 1 thread chase, drilled with a "U" drill to the appropriate depth for a converter and tapped for the section. Flipped on a mandrel and shaped.

Cap was drilled and tapped with a 14 x 1 tap and flipped on the mandrel to shape.

Pen was roughed with carbide tools and final shaping with files. I like files for handling chatter and shaping smooth… sanded from 320 to micromesh. Buffed using Tripoli and dimaondcast. Given a warm bath of Dawn and ultrasonic.

C & C is welcomed

Thanks!
Dave
 

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Excellent job, Dave.
I like that you have just a minimal step from cap to body.

Don't understand the 'Dawn and ultrasonic'. I assume that Dawn is washing up liquid, but what is the 'ultrasonic' bit mean?
Alan
 
alanemorrison said:
Excellent job, Dave.
I like that you have just a minimal step from cap to body.

Don't understand the 'Dawn and ultrasonic'. I assume that Dawn is washing up liquid, but what is the 'ultrasonic' bit mean?
Alan
Click to expand...
Dawn liquid soap and an ultrasonic cleaning machine. The vibration helps get the crud out of the threads and any other gunk that may have stuck to the surface of the pen. I have a jewelers ultrasonic from harbor freight for cleaning small things. It uses tiny vibration to knock crud off.
 
That's a great looking pen Dave.
Single start threads are fine, only real downside, as you say, plenty of turns to uncap. Though you can still cut that down to 2 turns, which feels a lot better than 4. I use double start threads, and aim for 1.5 or 2 turns.
My first kitless pen has about 4 turns, I use this pen most days when I am at home, it bothers me a little, but not so much that I have gone to the trouble to modify it.
 
Ironwood said:
That's a great looking pen Dave.
Single start threads are fine, only real downside, as you say, plenty of turns to uncap. Though you can still cut that down to 2 turns, which feels a lot better than 4. I use double start threads, and aim for 1.5 or 2 turns.
My first kitless pen has about 4 turns, I use this pen most days when I am at home, it bothers me a little, but not so much that I have gone to the trouble to modify it.
Click to expand...
Triple start leads are far too pricey for me, although, I'm not opposed to get them in the future. I will get the turns down. I have a pen I use at work that has 7 turns. It's utterly annoying, but when people see it, the cap is already off 🤣
 
Alchemist said:
Triple start leads are far too pricey for me, although, I'm not opposed to get them in the future. I will get the turns down. I have a pen I use at work that has 7 turns. It's utterly annoying, but when people see it, the cap is already off 🤣
Click to expand...
Nice pen! I like the section shape.
triple lead threads only effect how easy it is to engage the threads. 3 spots vs 1. Once engaged the pitch and where it comes to a stop will determine total turns. The easiest way for me to effect turns is simply drill away cap threads (bit same as the thread size) until its where I want, keeping pattern alignment in mind. I'm happy with anything that's between 3/4 and one. Much less and there wont be many threads engaging.
 
PatrickR said:
Nice pen! I like the section shape.
triple lead threads only effect how easy it is to engage the threads. 3 spots vs 1. Once engaged the pitch and where it comes to a stop will determine total turns. The easiest way for me to effect turns is simply drill away cap threads (bit same as the thread size) until its where I want, keeping pattern alignment in mind. I'm happy with anything that's between 3/4 and one. Much less and there wont be many threads engaging.
Click to expand...
Yes, thanks Patrick! This is what I plan on doing in the future. My larger chuck and bits should be arriving soon. Thanks for the tip!
 
Alchemist said:
This is a personal favorite of mine…
Alumilite Clear Slow custom blank for the cap and body.
Black ebonite for the section.
Bock #6 nib

The process:

Drill the section with a 7mm, cut the tenon down to 10mm and chase with a 10x1 threading.
Flip around on a delrin mandrel I made. Shape it. Then drill and chase with the appropriate sizes and tap it for a Bock housing.

Body was squared off, a tenon cut for a 14mm x 1 thread chase, drilled with a "U" drill to the appropriate depth for a converter and tapped for the section. Flipped on a mandrel and shaped.

Cap was drilled and tapped with a 14 x 1 tap and flipped on the mandrel to shape.

Pen was roughed with carbide tools and final shaping with files. I like files for handling chatter and shaping smooth… sanded from 320 to micromesh. Buffed using Tripoli and dimaondcast. Given a warm bath of Dawn and ultrasonic.

C & C is welcomed

Thanks!
Dave
Click to expand...
Very nice work, bravo. Even the stand you used is awesome.
 
Alchemist said:
This is a personal favorite of mine…
Alumilite Clear Slow custom blank for the cap and body.
Black ebonite for the section.
Bock #6 nib
Click to expand...
is there a reason why most penturners use ebonite for the section/nib part?i wanted to ask whether ebonite or epoxy materials can take threads better, cheers
 
Alchemist said:
This is a personal favorite of mine…
Alumilite Clear Slow custom blank for the cap and body.
Black ebonite for the section.
Bock #6 nib

The process:

Drill the section with a 7mm, cut the tenon down to 10mm and chase with a 10x1 threading.
Flip around on a delrin mandrel I made. Shape it. Then drill and chase with the appropriate sizes and tap it for a Bock housing.

Body was squared off, a tenon cut for a 14mm x 1 thread chase, drilled with a "U" drill to the appropriate depth for a converter and tapped for the section. Flipped on a mandrel and shaped.

Cap was drilled and tapped with a 14 x 1 tap and flipped on the mandrel to shape.

Pen was roughed with carbide tools and final shaping with files. I like files for handling chatter and shaping smooth… sanded from 320 to micromesh. Buffed using Tripoli and dimaondcast. Given a warm bath of Dawn and ultrasonic.

C & C is welcomed

Thanks!
Dave
Click to expand...
I appreciate that you describe your process with thoughts on how and why you are sequencing your steps. Kudos and nice pen
 
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