# Kitless, or self made pen parts



## aggromere (Aug 7, 2010)

I've been wanting to try my hand at making kitless pens and/or making my own parts.  I've been making a lot of cigar pens.  I use kits right now, but I don't use anything but the nib, nib coupler, a trim ring and the threaded barrel insert for the upper barrel.

Are those parts that I could make?  If so I guess I would need a metal lathe (which i've been thinking about getting anyway) or can you make a pen without any of those parts.

If I tried to make them all out of wood I would have to thread the wood.  I have a tap and die set, but other than tapping threads in bottle stopper blanks, I've never done it before.  Can you do it with wood?  How do you know which size die goes with which size tap?  Also, how do you know what size drill bit to use with each tap and how do you know what diameter to use with each die?

I know that is a lot of questions, but if anyone knows of a web site or something that would explain all of that, or some kinda of reference chart, it sure would be helpful

Thanks.


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## mredburn (Aug 7, 2010)

If by the threaded barrel insert you mean the transmission coupler that presses in the lower barrel thats the only real piece you need thats easier to buy then make. Trust me. You can buy those along with the tubes and trannies at Woodnwhisies.com 
You can make the nib out of aluminum, wood,r or brass on you wood lathe but whether or not your satisified with the results over a metal lathe... 

http://www.imperialinc.com/pdf/I_Tap&DieChart.pdf 

googled tap and die chart.. some sets have the chart included with them. Most of the threads on current pen kits you will not be able to match from a set. This is the biggest advantage of a metal lathe with threading capabilities.

You can make caps out of anything and glue/epoxie an 8mm tube in it and it will fit over the transmission.

Wood is not a good material to try and thread in the sizes we work in. There have been limited successes.


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## BRobbins629 (Aug 7, 2010)

I'll agree that wood is not a good candidate for threading, but I have been successful making inserts from materials such as ebonite (preferred by me), delrin (good for press fits but nor easy to glue) or even cast polyester or alumilite. You just thread the inserts.

You don't need a metal lathe, but for me its a lot easier.


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## workinforwood (Aug 8, 2010)

Brass and Aluminum thread like champions.  I make my own couplers lots of times.  The cigar pen uses standard metric taps and dies.  Wood is not going to work good.  When you see threaded wood, it's generally a very large diameter with a very aggressive thread range.  Plastics generally thread real easy.  So yea...if you just purchase transmissions only, you can make all the rest of the parts no problem.  If you read the new article on the finial twist parker pen, you can see me make a new cigar nib and the old nib goes straight into the bin.  That's a great start at getting rid of kit parts.  Getting rid of the actual couplers from a kit and making your own..well that's kind a mute point...if you have none then ok, but if you have some, why would you spend time making a new coupler that is doing the same job as the kit one?


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