Custom engraved finials for Jr. series pens

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jsolie

jsolie

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I was hoping that someone could point me in the right direction for this one.

My wife's boss really likes pens and he tends to give them away as Christmas presents. Last year, I made (cast and turned) a bunch of cigar pens with his different company logos. Then he saw a pen that I cast for my wife and decided he needed two rollerballs. He loves them.

I've been hearing from my wife that he wants to give out pens for Christmas again, but this time he'd like his logo to be on the cap finial. I don't think that casting a label will be the way to go for doing a bunch of custom cap finials.

So here's where I need the direction: I need to find someone who can etch or otherwise engrave his logos on a small piece of metal that can be used to replace the stock finial on a Jr. series pen. Each finial would have one logo, but there would be three different ones with different quantities per each. And yes, I know they would be tiny. And no, I'm not expecting them for free.

Thanks for any tips.
 
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Sounds like a cnc project.

Perhaps a conversation with Fred Weissen (pt subbie) would be worth while.

Expect the upfront setup and programming costs to be significant with either cnc or metal printing. Finish will probably be better with cnc
 
John

CNC is capable of repeating very fine detail with engraving burrs. Lots of detail wears burrs. But trying to get a large complex logo into a very small space means the lines become very fine and it is hard to get visual detail sans magnification. Monograms are a snap. Small size and simple graphics are a good matchup.
 
Minimum order quanity makes a huge difference in unit cost. 5 vs 500 vs 5000 translates to very different processes and very different unit costs.
 
Laser engraving a logo into the existing finials should be possible. Take a cap finial assembly (as you get before pressing it) to a few trophy places and see what they can do for you. Knock one apart so they know how thick the inserts are. It won't have the depth of engraving you get with the previous suggestions but for a small batch might be the most cost effective.
 
KenV said:
Minimum order quanity makes a huge difference in unit cost. 5 vs 500 vs 5000 translates to very different processes and very different unit costs.
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Hi Ken,

I totally get that. Many moons ago, I had to create a number of costing programs for a medical procedure tray manufacturer. The order quantity will be less than 100. Ain't no way I'm making 5,000 pens by myself by Christmas. :biggrin:

-- JS
 
Curly said:
Laser engraving a logo into the existing finials should be possible. Take a cap finial assembly (as you get before pressing it) to a few trophy places and see what they can do for you. Knock one apart so they know how thick the inserts are. It won't have the depth of engraving you get with the previous suggestions but for a small batch might be the most cost effective.
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Thanks! I'll keep that in mind should I have to go that route.
 
Followup

Just wanted to post a follow up to this thread. I found something that works great as finials: lapel pin flats!

After contacting several custom pin manufacturers, I finally found one who wouldn't just dismiss me as someone wanting them to make pens for me.

The company I worked with is US Pin (Custom Lapel Pins & Emblem Jewelry - U.S. Pin). I worked with Cassie Lennox there. We had a number of back and forth emails, confirming what can be done, pricing and sizing. My client liked the design, and I placed an order for 100 finials. The first batch didn't quite fit the cap on a Jr. Gent, but they worked with me and I have 100 really nice little Jack in the Box logos.

The cost was $120, which included the die fee and such. One way to think of it was that each finial cost me 12 cents.

The lead time was about 2.5 weeks or so.

IMG_3105-L.jpg


What's cool about these is the back has a hatch pattern which helps with the epoxy in holding them in the cap pieces.

IMG_3107-L.jpg


You don't need much epoxy to hold these in

IMG_3113-L.jpg


It also helps using a good structural epoxy. Just give it some time to cure.

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And the squeeze through forms a nice little plug to help with holding the finial in place:

IMG_3120-L.jpg


On the finished pens, they look quite striking.

IMG_3086-L.jpg
 
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Nice work around on that project and thanks for following up on it here. Many times things like this get discussed but we never get to see the final results. This is good info for others too. Thanks again for showing. Great choice on epoxy.
 
jttheclockman said:
Nice work around on that project and thanks for following up on it here. Many times things like this get discussed but we never get to see the final results. This is good info for others too. Thanks again for showing. Great choice on epoxy.
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Hi John,

That's one of the main reasons I wanted to follow up. I know someone is going to need to do something like what I did and if I can pay it forward, even if just a little bit, I'm for it.
 
CrimsonKeel said:
Love them. but your math is off a bit. 100 finials divided by 120 dollars is 1.20 each not 12 cents
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I are gud at maff. :biggrin: You're absolutely correct, a buck twenty. Still, not that much per pen, especially if you factor that into your pricing. And use something other than my brain to do the arithmetic.

Dan Masshardt said:
So, is it safer to say that if others of us know work with the same seller, they will know the exact size based on their experiences with you? Thanks for posting and sharing so much information.
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I'm sure if you contact Cassie, she'll remember our conversations -- especially if you tell her they are finials for pen caps. I did send her the top piece where the finial goes so she'd have something beyond just my measurements. The finial size might be different for other pens that take the same tubes as the Jr. Gent II.

CrashmanS said:
I wasn't going to say anything, but since you brought it up. Simple mistake. He got carried away moving the decimal over. [emoji2] [emoji2] [emoji2]
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Yeah, that! :biggrin: :biggrin:

thewishman said:
Sweet idea! Did the boss like them! I would have been over the moon about how great those look!
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He's thrilled with them.
 
duncsuss said:
Did you knock out all the buttons from the kit finials yourself? (I wonder if CraftSupplies have the components with no button in them.)
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Yes, I did. It didn't take too long once I got things sorted out. The 10K gold ones tended to be much tighter and harder to knock out than then chrome ones.
 
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