# First fountain pen!



## furini (Feb 1, 2009)

Hi all

Still a newbie here but managed to make my first fountain pen yesterday - did manage to destroy a coolibah burl and laceoak blank until I got it right third time lucky - still, here it is:







Made from olive wood - the last nice blank I had. The kit is an Americana from The Turners Workshop. I've managed to get a few scratches on the brass where the pen is held but for £3.45 it's a good one to learn on.

Had a problem with the bushings in that the centre bushing didn't fit inside the pen tube - it seemed to be the same diameter as the tube instead...anyone any experience of this? Is the bushing wrong??

Thanks all

Stewart


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## nava1uni (Feb 1, 2009)

You might of had some glue in the tube.  I use a brass brush to clean the tube.  In my experience it only takes a little bit of glue to make the bushings not fit properly.


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## furini (Feb 2, 2009)

Hi Cindy
thanks for the tip - I tried the bushings before the tube was glued in but it didn't fit then either.  However, I certainly had glue in in later as the tubes ended up being in three blanks until I got it right!


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