# kitless nose cone question



## glycerine (Oct 31, 2011)

Those of you making "kitless" rollerball and ballpoint pens, do you hollow out your nose cones or just drill the small hole and leave it at that?  If you're hollowing out, what are you using to do it?  Thanks.


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## mredburn (Oct 31, 2011)

I drill mine. I step drill them to reduce weight and in the case of rollerballs the step is what stops the refill from going to far forward.  (added in) and a step for the spring on the parker style pen refills


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## bluwolf (Oct 31, 2011)

Not quite sure what you mean by hollowing out but... You mean drilling out excess material to make it lighter?

Most of the time you need to drill a couple of steps to get the refill to protude the amount that you want. I guess it depends how fat you make your nib also. If you make it pretty fat then all you would need is one step to set the point of the refill. But if it gets fairly narrow at the tip you're drilling in steps to keep a little meat in the walls also.


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## glycerine (Oct 31, 2011)

Yeah, I mean like this:


 
If the nose cone is made seperately from the section, would you normally hollow it out?  I know at a certain spot you would need the extra meat to support the refill to keep it from sliding down into the cone...  Depending on what type of refill you are using, there may or may not be room to even do this.  
Just curious as to how others are doing it.


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## btboone (Oct 31, 2011)

Different sized drills. No need for anything fancy, just regular 118 degree drills stopping at different depths. It can get mostly hollowed out like your drawing with 2 or 3 drills.


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## Dalecamino (Oct 31, 2011)

For my nibs, I use a number 37 drill bit for the initial hole. The nib including threads is 1.24 inches long. Then I use a 1/4" drill bit to drill .354 inches deep. This accomidates the Private Reserve Easyflow 9000 refill. My .02


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## glycerine (Oct 31, 2011)

Thanks for the input gentlemen!


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## cnirenberg (Nov 1, 2011)

Jeremy,
What I do is measure up the refill that you want to use.  I get mine at staples.  Like Mike said, you will want to step drill the tip.  I end up using a D bit (I use a M7x1 to reverse turn) and a #36 or #37 for the tip, depending on how I returned them to the index.  See attached for a better visual.


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## glycerine (Nov 1, 2011)

cnirenberg said:


> Jeremy,
> What I do is measure up the refill that you want to use. I get mine at staples. Like Mike said, you will want to step drill the tip. I end up using a D bit (I use a M7x1 to reverse turn) and a #36 or #37 for the tip, depending on how I returned them to the index. See attached for a better visual.


 
Cris, awesome visual aid! Thank you.


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## soligen (Nov 1, 2011)

I too step drill.  For me the only notable difference that what is posted above is that I use a #39 bit for the tip hole for a more precise fit.


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## glycerine (Nov 1, 2011)

Hhhmmm, I have a 3/32" and a 7/64" bit and was going to use whichever fit best.  Those two are slightly smaller and slightly larger than the #36, #37 and #39 that you guys have mentioned... I'll see what works!


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