a blank experiment

[calabrese55]

New to pen turning I like to waste time , money and energy on trying new things. I have been thinking about custom pen blanks and decided this would be my first try.
It is going on a Tactical Pen Kit https://www.woodturningz.com/Tactical_Pen_Kit_-_Chrome.
It is the typical thin blue line concept with text added. My goal here is to get the graphic closer to the outer diameter of the blank. This pen has some limited opportunity for that as the blank is not very thick but the concept so far is working out.
The picture below is the first stage blank . Aluminite resin, (black) is cast and turned around the kit brass tube. The graphics are all added at one time and the intent then is to recast with a clear outer layer and trim to pen diameters. I am hoping it will get the graphic to pop as it lives just below the finished diameter of the pen.
Future versions will involve water slide graphics , possibly some fractal burning decoration.
Like I said I like to waste time , money and energy tomorrow I am leaving to investigate a unicorn citing .
calabrese55

 

[calabrese55]

New to pen turning I like to waste time , money and energy on trying new things. I have been thinking about custom pen blanks and decided this would be my first try.
It is going on a Tactical Pen Kit https://www.woodturningz.com/Tactical_Pen_Kit_-_Chrome.
It is the typical thin blue line concept with text added. My goal here is to get the graphic closer to the outer diameter of the blank. This pen has some limited opportunity for that as the blank is not very thick but the concept so far is working out.
The picture below is the first stage blank . Aluminite resin, (black) is cast and turned around the kit brass tube. The graphics are all added at one time and the intent then is to recast with a clear outer layer and trim to pen diameters. I am hoping it will get the graphic to pop as it lives just below the finished diameter of the pen.
Future versions will involve water slide graphics , possibly some fractal burning decoration.
Like I said I like to waste time , money and energy tomorrow I am leaving to investigate a unicorn citing .
calabrese55

Finished the pen experiment, maybe .
Typically I fall back and re-group when I see something I am not happy with. In this case it was the blue text. Changed the text to silver to better stand out and match the chrome finish on the pen kit.
The pen tubes were recast with a layer of clear , turned and polished.
The pics here show the initial results . Ask any questions.
calabrese55

 

[jrista]

Very intriguing. How exactly are you getting the graphic in there? It looks like it shrinks as it gets closer to the center, which is perfect...but, I'm curious how you actually achieved that.

 

[calabrese55]

Very intriguing. How exactly are you getting the graphic in there? It looks like it shrinks as it gets closer to the center, which is perfect...but, I'm curious how you actually achieved that.

Actually there is no shrinkage. If you look at the pictures of the 3 tubes the brass tube has been cast in black resin and turned to a controlled diameter about .030 below the finished pen kit diameter. The text and the blue line is actually cut vinyl in two colors , silver for the text and blue for the stripe and applied to the black resin coated tube . The application method may be a little complicated for some getting the vinyl processed in 2 colors, aligned, joined and squarely applied to the undersize blank. Seventeen years in the tee shirt and vinyl sign business gives me some transferrable skills. The next step is simply another casting process with clear resin, From there the blank is processed to the finished pen diameter as normal.
the picture here is the second casting result just out of the mold block.
calabrese55

 

[MRDucks2]

Neat idea. Which resin are you using? I have tried overcasting to save some blanks before and found delaminating while turning to final size to be an issue.

 

[calabrese55]

Neat idea. Which resin are you using? I have tried overcasting to save some blanks before and found delaminating while turning to final size to be an issue.

I tried Total Boat 6 months ago on a couple of segmented bowls with very very marginal results .
I bought some Aluminite Clear Slow and can't imagine anything being any easier. Twelve minute working time four hour demold time however I can pull them from the pressure pot after two hours. I let them set for at least 2 more hours before machining.
Check out this guy he does a pretty good job explaining the process. He has a ton of real experience with Aluminite clear slow. His style is a little different but he is IMHO very knowledgeable about the resin characteristics.

Hope this helps
calabrese55