I'm not dead!

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TomServo

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Oct 13, 2005
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Grand Forks, ND, USA.
Back from the dead: here's what I've been working (my butt off) on lately:









Noone makes a 3 pen case (especially for el grande) so I had to brew my own, with (very much) help from George! Also, berea (or any reseller) fails to mention that despite shorter tubes, the el grande ballpoint(pencil in this case) is about 3/16" LONGER than the RB/FP! i had to trim the top barrel so it would fit in the box, and had to trim the brass piece the cap screws into to make it all work.

Somewhere I have decent pictures of my wedding, and when I find one I will post it : )
 
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Brian,

A wonderful set! The case seally set the pens off!

Congrats on you getting married..best wishes to both of you [:)]
 
Thanks guys, I invested a lot of time and effort making and finishing the box, etc. I'm not sure I'd do it again unless a significant economic incentive was there. I easily put 10 hours in the making and finishing of the box alone. Partly because I'm inexperienced and we had to figure it all out as we went. George helped me and did most of the routerwork, I didn't want my first time using a router table to screw up such fantastic stock!

The slots are done with a bullnose router bit, with stop blocks on the router table fence. And lots, and lots of measuring. We made 3-5 passes per slot to get them just a bit over 3/8" deep on each half. The El Grande clips make them just a smidge over 3/4" so the extra depth was necessary.

The finish (on everything) is spray lacquer. I tried enduro and WB lacquer on the pens but the depth just wasn't satisfying compared to the OB spray. Interestingly, I prefer enduro on amboyna as it seems to have more depth on that wood than the spray lacquer.

The kits are all El Grandes in platinum, Pencil, RB and FP from front to back. I saved the nicest looking blank for the FP.

The wood all came from the same block, the pens were cut from the wood directly "under" the bottom of the box. The wood is all from Reed, his DI is fantastic, as you all can see!

I still have 2 pens to make for this guy, but they won't be DI - they will be plat el grande, though...

The hinges are soss barrel hinges, my customer wanted them to not be visible from the outside of the box. hardwaresource.com has them as cheap as I could find, which means $2.77 each.

I had a lot of fun, made a lot of mistakes, and I'd like to note - if you mess up a lacquer finish (ie scratch it while it's soft) don't use acetone to just melt it back in - it'll bubble if it's too warm. Try MEK, works like a charm!
 
Did you get the blanks I sent you in the blank exchange, sent an e-mail previously but never heard a word about them. Just curious if they got here and if they were of any use. [?]
 
Brian, that is a great job. Glad to see you back and congrads on the marriage. Reed
 
woodwish: I did! I'm sorry I forgot to email you back, it was like the day before I left for my wedding - they're great additions to my collection, and my wife wants me to make her a pen using some of it :)

Rob: Methyl ethyl ketone. might not be availible (legal) some states. Harsh stuff, but it will melt most any plastic and leave a smooth finish. Dries fast. Makes your heart beat faster (a little) and supposed to be pretty carcinogenic.

Reed: thanks, it was a lot of work but worth it.
 
Brian,
Well, I use lacquer for all of my finishes. How do you use MEK? I make a lot of mistakes, so I would like to find something, other than sand paper, that will help out with globs.

Thanks,
Rob
 
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