Dragon Pen Blank I'm working on. WIP

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Superb work, Ted !!!!! . What tube size did you use for the red dragon ? . And what pen kit will you use, if you know yet ?
 
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I used 3/8" tubing, which is what comes with the Dragon kit from PSI. I used a ten inch length of tubing so that I can cast the whole length and then cut it to size for three pens. I promised my daughter one, I'm doing one and I'll have one for sale. I'm doing my daughter's pen stock, but plan on doing a bit extra to mine. Many years ago I had another hobby, scale modeling. I plan on cleaning up this kit considerably and then getting out the oil paints and painting up the Dragon kit in much the same way we did figures for contests. I used to compete in the scale model contests country wide and did a pretty good job of it winning Regional and National events. I was mostly in to modern aircraft, but did do almost all of the different categories at one time or another. I'm not as good at it as I was as it is a perishable skill and I haven't kept up with it at all. We'll see what I have left in it though.
 
I find it a bit odd that you can cut into a pattern and have it look symetrical??? Is that no problem? I am also assuming then that you are not doing a typical rod sequence where you start and end the threads under others and tie them off. ???
 
I do cut them at certain areas of the pattern and on this pattern the starting areas are close together since its a repeat pattern that is small. I start and stop all of my threads off of the tube on the dowel rod that is used as a mandrel. Once the wrap is complete I"ll epoxy the pattern and tube. After the epoxy dries I can cut it off of the dowel rod just about an eighth of an inch past the tube and cast that whole thing at one time. After the casting is dry I can cut it on the sled I have and cut it about a sixteenth long and then square up each end taking off about a thirty second of an inch. When you get the blank it's already to length and squared up.
 
You have opened up the possibilities for me. I have been playing around making fishing bobbers from wine corks. I picked up some thread and bobbins and have been wrapping the bobbers. I have a dragon kit and I am going to try my hand an wrapping it now, lol. I am thinking of making a few small wooden plugs to plug the ends of the tubes (after filling with BBs (to weigh down the blank in PR). Then press in a straight pin on both ends to tie the thread to. I'll see if this method works ;)

Thanks for blazing the trail on this technique
Ron
 
Man this is a cool application for 'wrapping' I built a few fishing rods back in the day, but never thought about taking my wrapping to this hobby(obsession) If you still need the tubes for a Zen pen to wrap I have several extra Zen tubes, if you shoot me your address I'd be happy to send you some.
Is it possible to have a rounded end to either side of your wrapping?? I was just thinking a dragon scale (who really knows) would be more realistic if it had more of a teardrop shape.....I love your stuff and will be anxious to see where you end up on this journey!

Good on ya!
 
Damn brother, if you even get close I would love to get in line to buy a couple of blanks like that for you--preferably for a cigar pen--2 tubes :wink:

Good luck and nice going!!!
 
Ok y'all, I've been steady working on all kinds of things lately trying to get all of the little problems I've been having worked out and I think I'm finally there. In the meantime when things got really frustrating and I had to take a break I started working on the display stand I want to build for the Dragon pen. I'm sure a lot of y'all saw the target stand I made for my bullet pens. Well, I think I have something that will be rather unique for this pen. The pen I'm working on for myself will be a red dragon and for a display base try to imagine a stand that has a pair of dragon wings made in to the base and where the two wings meet will be a clear plexiglas U-shaped cradle for the pen to rest in. The wings will be attached to the base, and the base itself will look like a mountain top. Through the years I've had many hobbies, one of which was model railroading. The mountain part will be easy enough. The wings will have a brass rod skeleton covered with paper towel soaked in a mix of white glue and water and stretched across the skeleton. Anyway, here's a few pics of the wings so far. I've now got them primed and will start airbrushing them after all of the Thanksgiving festivities are through here.
 

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Looking good Ted. I was wondering where you were. Just a little heads up. On this site every Feb. there is a Bash party that happens all month long. There are many different contests and plenty of prizes. This year a new catagory will happen and it is a contest for the best Pen Stand. You may want to save one of your next ideas for that contest and give it a try. The key though is the stand can not be seen anywhere on the net. You may also want to check out some of the other contests and I bet you can do really well in them. I like your way of thinking. Keep posting.
 
Fish30114 said:
Damn brother, if you even get close I would love to get in line to buy a couple of blanks like that for you--preferably for a cigar pen--2 tubes :wink:

Good luck and nice going!!!
Click to expand...

I just got this pattern that I'm going to try for the Dragon scales.
 

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jttheclockman said:
Looking good Ted. I was wondering where you were. Just a little heads up. On this site every Feb. there is a Bash party that happens all month long. There are many different contests and plenty of prizes. This year a new catagory will happen and it is a contest for the best Pen Stand. You may want to save one of your next ideas for that contest and give it a try. The key though is the stand can not be seen anywhere on the net. You may also want to check out some of the other contests and I bet you can do really well in them. I like your way of thinking. Keep posting.
Click to expand...

I've been working out all of the little problems I was having trying to get a good cast consistently. I finally narrowed most of the problems to the color preserver I was using. I have changed over to a new thread (new to me at least since it wasn't around when I built rods) that doesn't need color preserver. This new thread is much thinner than what I've been using so now I have to wrap three times as many windings around a tube as before, but all is good and the color is way more vibrant looking now. Here's a shot of what I'm almost through with on this tube.

Each color band on this pattern is eight threads wide so that gives you an idea of just how thin this thread is.
 

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That last picture shows truly amazing work on your part, Ted. Words are inadequate.
You seem to have the patience of Job multiplied over and over !!!
 
Ted, that last pattern is really cool but then again so are all the rest you have shown. I guess this is a lot like segmenting a pen blank in that the sky is the limit and it keeps your interest. keep them coming. Never get tired of looking at your work. Truely amazing.
 
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