# Making Progress



## btboone (Sep 11, 2005)

I made a prototype of the base of the pen I've been working on.  I had to prove out the difficult programs needed to cut the spiraled grooves in what will be a titanium pen.  The grooves are filled with wood.  These are not just veneers, but they are relatively thick, and are laser cut in spiral forms to match the grooves so the grain will be continuous.  The prototype has cherry and I intend to try olivewood for the real pen.  I was originally going to make the entire pen shape from wood and then laser cut the spirals from that shape.  It would work, but there were going to be manufacturing difficulties of making such a thin trumpet bell shape on the lathe.  For one, the hydraulic tailstock of my lathe would crush the part.  For another, this meant having an 8" long x 1 1/4" diameter wood piece that everything would be taken from.  It is expensive and wasteful for the highly figured wood that I'll be looking for.  I was able to get all the spirals and the spirals for the upper half of the pen (not made yet) from a single 3/4" x 3/4" block 3 1/4" long.  The spirals all nest together so that the grain will match on the upper and lower parts.  The base ring is now cocobolo, but again will be olivewood.  There will be an upper ring as well.  The pen will have the spiraled wood on the back portion and the front portion will have spiraled grooves.  The upper wood ring will have internal splines that fit the grooves so that they act as threads.  On the inside of the base is an O-ring that seals off the nib.

My progress has been slow because I've been unusually busy with the rings.  Last month was a record month.  The upper pen part has its share of challenges as well.  One is that the nib end and the back end both have an angled cut.  It was a challenge to figure out how to orient the darn things. Another was to be sure that when the pen is set down in the base that the grooves all line up.  There's still fixturing and manufacturing stuff to figure out before I can make that part.

Just wanted to show that I am in fact working on pens when I can!


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## arjudy (Sep 11, 2005)

That surely will make an interesting pen.


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## Thumbs (Sep 11, 2005)

Bruce, I read this twice and I'm pretty sure you know what you're doing.  That's good, because I have no idea!  LOL![]  
As long as you're having fun that's most of what counts!.....[]  Good Luck with your project and its progress![]


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## rtjw (Sep 11, 2005)

I agree with Thumbs. I have no idea what ytou just said. But I basically put it into laymans terms. Your going to put us all to shame again.


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## btboone (Sep 11, 2005)

Sorry.  A little background first.  Here's what I'm working on.  It's a fountain pen where the base stays on a desk.  The big concept was to have mirror finish titanium with a nice wood in spirals going up the sides.  It's a very challenging project to put it mildly.  It took several hours of hand writing 3 dimensional code to work out the spirals.  The code for the laser had to compensate for the beam width and the flaring of the base.  It also had to nest with the other sprials for the other pen part.  The code for the endmilled spirals had to compensate for the tool width on the flared part as the groove changed width and diameter and rotation.  I wasn't sure if they would work or not.  As rough as the plastic part looks, (in part to hand drilling the deep 1/2" hole), I was very pleased that the spirals seemed to work.  It took about 8 different programs and several fixtures and lots of hours to get the part to this point.  The other pen half, where the spirals don't change diameter much should be cake compared to this part.  This was a tough one.


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## knottyharry (Sep 11, 2005)

Hi Bruce,
This is very interesting. And I will be awaiting the final project.
Very nice work.
Harry


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## btboone (Sep 11, 2005)

Thanks Harry.  The biggest thing is to figure out how to hold and turn the parts.  The base has a 1/2" hole that goes through.  Since the chuck needs to hold onto a stalk, the piece is about 4" long to start.  Drilling that deep in titanium is drill suicide, so I have to drill halfway into it from the backside and half from the front.  Even that is too deep to get coolant to the tip, so I have to drill about an inch deep and make a funnel shape with the boring bar to get coolant to the drill as it goes deeper.  It's the little things like those that make it difficult.  It all needs to really be thought through beforehand.  Because it's a CNC lathe, I generally get a good part the first time if I've done my homework on the setup, fixtures, and programming.  The program usually takes final tweaks, and that's the purpose of doing the prototype in acrylic.  I can see the internals and clearances inside the part as I go.


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## chigdon (Sep 11, 2005)

That will be amazing.  I can't wait to see it!


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## woodscavenger (Sep 11, 2005)

Hey, that looks amazing.  How about throwing a quarter or something in the photo for scale?  First glance it looks huge.  BTW, I wish I were smart enough to follow your description.  I'll have to wait and see.  How is your FP twist holding up?


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## btboone (Sep 11, 2005)

The new pen will be slightly larger than the twist pen, but still not too bulky.  The overall length of the pen without the base is 6.09" x .64" diameter.  With the base, it's 6.28" tall and 1.20" diameter at the base.  For comparison, the twist pen is 5.61" long with the nib extended as shown and .58" diameter.

This one was designed to sit on a desk, so I wanted a bit more of a commanding presence.  The wood also worked better if there was a little more thickness to the pen.  The main issues of the twist pen are the fact that it is stored upright and the designed (but yet to be built) trapdoor might leak air and cause the pen to not write.  This would be a show stopper.  As a test, I tried to see how long it would write without a trapdoor, and it was only a day or two.  In such a high end pen, I wanted to skew the odds better in favor of always working. 

In starting with a clean slate, I decided to do away with the trap door and increased potential for the pen to not work.  I also got rid of the clip that many people were not crazy about.  It was extremely difficult to make and never would work as well as a clip that was stamped.  This left the gripping portion of the pen unobstructed.  I still wanted to get rid of threads that most pens have and so I kept the grooved slots that were on the other pen.  I like the feel of the slots in my hand.  They also lend some much needed cool factor.  I reversed the direction of the grooves because they will act as high helix threads to orient the pen when it is seated in the base.  It just feels more natural to have a right hand thread than a left hand thread to slip it into and out of the base.  The seal inside the base is actually not a normal O-ring (MSC carries all the usual sizes EXCEPT for the size I designed for!) but a metal washer with an internal rubber flange.  It is actually a better solution because unlike an O-ring, it can't squirm out of position.  It is trapped in by a cylinder of bronze.  The bronze is cheap and heavier than the titanium, so I used it to help get the center of gravity as low as possible.

The picture shows the wood spirals.  Some are still attached on the wood tube.  As you can see, there's not much room between the spirals!  The spirals still needed some careful persuasion to seat into the slots of the flared base, but I soaked them in oil to help soften them up.  When they were glued in, they stuck out of the base, and I was able to put the part back in the lathe and kiss them back to flush.  They were finished with CA and sanding from there.


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## scubaman (Sep 11, 2005)

So you decided to cut the spirals out of a cylinder rather than a trumpet?  Or is the barrel you show for the pen body spirals?

I find the design of the base extremely attaractive!


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## btboone (Sep 11, 2005)

Hi Rich. Yes, I tried to see if I could get both the long upper pen body spirals and the shorter pen base spirals out of a smaller diameter. The parts actually nest with one another with no room left over.  Since it will be olivewood, it would save a lot on the wood cost.  I wasn't sure if I could do it or not since the shape was not the same.  It took a lot of trial cuts to get the wood to fit.  I had to keep tweaking the shape.  The other issue at hand with cutting them from the trumpet bell shape was that I would need to use a long and slender boring bar to get inside and the part would be fragile.  It would also need a special fixture for the laser.  Another technique I looked into has the wood drilled at different diameters on the inside.  You can see the cut view of that in the CAD drawing.  The issue with that is the wood spirals change thickness, so I was afraid that I would have to use more laser power and mess up the thinner sections.  

The wood would definitely fit better in the slots if it came from a trumpet bell shape, but it would add a lot of time, complexity, and cost to make it that way.  As you can see on the CAD drawing, I toyed with the idea of making all the spirals and attached upper ring from one wickedly cut piece.  It would have been a technical wonder, but didn't look to flow as well as the separate spiral pieces.  

The base looks better in person than the photo allows.  You can see all the internal glue spots and drill marks that won't be visible on the real part.  The pen part will flow seamlessly from the base when it's in position, so I'm looking forward to trying that.  Because the upper part is pretty thin, I might go ahead and try it in titanium the first time out.  I need to make a tap for the nib and make a brass sleeve that it screws into so that it can be reoriented to match the angled cut at the front of the pen.  The back part of the pen will then be made with an angled cut that needs to match the front part.  Doh! [:0]


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## woodscavenger (Sep 12, 2005)

Thunk!! That was me falling off of my chair.


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## Paul in OKC (Sep 12, 2005)

Awesome stuff, Bruce.  If I had your toys .......


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## PenWorks (Sep 12, 2005)

Nice.....................[]
I like the metal/wood combo []
Should be a WINNER !


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## nilsatcraft (Sep 12, 2005)

Great to see some more innovative and one of a kind work, Bruce.  It's gonna be an incredible pen.  Thanks for sharing!


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## btboone (Sep 12, 2005)

Thanks guys. I'm using one of Anthony's small gold nibs.  It should look very nice in the pen.  Paul, I could have used one of your vises the other day; I drilled my first blank for the wood tube and had the wood slightly angled in my milling vise.  I got a little thin on one side.[:I]  I knew that the shorter spirals were surely not going to work properly the first time.  I had to add something like 3/8" to them to get the proper length for the fluted base.  It took several more tries, so I got more practice at drilling the blanks.

Nils, hopefully it won't be one of a kind.  If it works well, I would hope to produce a lot more just like it! []


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## Doghouse (Sep 12, 2005)

cannot wait to see the final result! OUTSTANDING so far!


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## btboone (Sep 12, 2005)

Unfortunately, I need to get back into ring making mode.  It may be around Thursday night before I get on top of rings if it's like it has been for the last few weeks.  Slow progress, but progress none the less.  I can keep doing updates whenever I have something to show if people are interested.


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## MDWine (Sep 13, 2005)

Yep!  We're interested!!


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## btboone (Sep 13, 2005)

I rehashed the way to orient and hold in the nib last night.  I came up with a much better solution than what I had in mind before.  I'll made a small cylinder of brass that the nib screws into.  In the front body of the pen the hole chokes down in size so the nib can't slip any further from the front.  This new brass piece serves as a nut to hold it in.  I'll make some screwdriver slots in it and make a special screwdriver tool that can tighten it down from the back while the nib is held in proper orientation from the front.  This will allow for fine rotational orientation the splines or morse taper or other techniques I was considering had issues with and is a lot easier to implement.  I'll try to make that tonight if I can get ahead of the ring orders.


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## btboone (Sep 13, 2005)

<br />
Here is the brass nut that the nib assembly screws into.  It's a tiny little thing.  I had to make the M6.5 x .7 tap for the threads.  The part is extremely thin so that the ink cartridge can plug into the nib without crashing into the brass walls near the screwdriver slots.  I'll make a cylindrical screwdriver tool that can go in from the back side of the pen that's exactly the diameter of the tiny screwdriver slots.  This will allow the nib to be rotationally oriented to match the angled cut on the front of the pen.


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## rtjw (Sep 14, 2005)

Looks nice. Cant wait to see the finished pen. Is it sold yet are being kept?


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## btboone (Sep 14, 2005)

I don't have a buyer for it as of yet.  I was wondering about taking Anthony's route and placing an ad in a mazazine or trying to get an article on it and making a limited batch of them.  Once I finally work out the manufacturing details, making other ones won't be as tough.  I just need to be sure it works well and looks the way I hope it will.

It's putting the cart before the horse a little, but I would be interested in hearing people's opinion on pricing and marketing for such a pen.  Just sell direct?  Go through dealers?  At what cost?  Number of pens in a limited edition?  What about if I add a rollerball, how does that affect a limited edition?  How is it presented to the customer?  One train of thought says just wrap it in bubble wrap to show that it's truly a hand made piece; another says to buy as fancy a box as money can buy.  There's lots of stuff I don't yet know about this market.


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## rtjw (Sep 14, 2005)

I would put it in a magazine. As great as it looks it would sell. 

I know anthony does limited editions. I would email him about that. I wouldnt say more than 100. 

I wouldnt put it in anything but I nice presentation box.

As far as pricing, I will start the bid at []$50.00[]


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## ashaw (Sep 14, 2005)

Bruce 
If you look at mag like Pen World you are beginning to enter the $1,000.00 price range.[]  You need to come up with a box as unique at the pen.  I would try to get into the mag route.  I know it is difficult not impossible.  The big manufacture have the spot light in that type of media.  Also talk to Fountain Pen Hospital in NY.

Alan


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## JimGo (Sep 14, 2005)

Bruce,
I agree...I think a limited edition is the way to go.  The price point for it will determine how many to make, IMHO.  If you're looking at $1,000 a piece, I don't think I'd go with more than 100.  If you're in the $500-750 range, then you might be able to bump that up some (maybe 200-250 @ $500).  I'm <s>cheap</s> frugal, but if I had the cash on hand, I'd be willing to pay at least $250 for that pen.  I'm not suggesting you actually sell them at $250 each; rather, I'm suggesting that as an absolute low-end for the pens.  As Johnny pointed out, Anthony has experience with some limited edition pens that were made by a big pen manufacturer.  He can probably give you an idea as to what the market is like at different price points.

Good luck!


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## btboone (Sep 14, 2005)

Pen World is exactly who I had in mind.  Obviously, the quality and function will have to be dead nuts for that to happen.  I'll need to figure out the time it takes to make them, but I was thinking possibly in the $1500 range.  I've probably spent about 80 hours on the design and few parts I've done so far.  I assume dealers would pay around 65%, or $975.  I guess the lot size has a lot to do with how many would sell.  I would think a definite upper limit of 250, but I don't really know the lower limit.  It would be nice to have a sliding lot scale depending on orders. [] I'll try to see what Grayson Tighe is doing and copy similar numbers.  I can laser engrave the serial numbers on the bottom of the base.  I still wonder if it's a good thing or bad thing to venture away from the expensive boxes of the big guys.  I'll need to think about what's possible there.  Maybe leather and fur lined boxes?[]  I suppose there are specialists for that.


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## rtjw (Sep 14, 2005)

So what are you saying bruce. I cant get that pen for $50.00!


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## btboone (Sep 14, 2005)

I didn't say that Johnny.  The fur lined box is what adds the cost.[)]


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## CPDesigns (Sep 14, 2005)

Are you kidding? For that pen, anything less than a diamond-lined titanium bank vault is doing it a disservice. Seriously, I think you're definitly in the ballpark of $1500 if you're satisfied that the details and mechanics are spot on. I'll be happy to give a prototype a test run for you. I work in a very busy ICU and I write all day long.[] A week in this place is at least a year anywhere else...[]


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## btboone (Sep 14, 2005)

We'll see if the details are spot on with some testing.  They should be close.  I probably will get different people to check it out and give me their feedback.  I've been testing the O-ring and base with a Sharpie pen for the last week.  It seems to work well with no hint of drying out.  The only problem there is that the plastic base is so light that I sometimes lift it when getting the pen out.  Hopefully the titanium with the bronze insert will be heavy enough.  I can use tungsten if I have to, which is 4X heavier than titanium, but it is very expensive. (~ $800 for a foot of it!) [:0]

The vault idea makes me think of Oakley's aluminum case for glasses. [8D]

One detail I'm concerned about is that the hole in the base has exposed metal and the front part of the pen is polished titanium, so it may scratch the pen when it is put in and taken out of the base repeatedly.  The upper wood ring will help to center the pen, but may not prevent scratching.  Space is extremely tight with the wood inlays cutting into the base, so there's not enough room for velvet or a plastic sleeve as I have it now. I'll need to see if that's an issue or not.  Hmm.. I wonder if some CA and flock material would work.[?]


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## btboone (Sep 17, 2005)

<br />

I have the 3 main parts turned in titanium.  I literally worked all night long last night and all day today to get them to this point.  I've run into a couple issues.  Tapping the main body with an 11mm hand tap proved extremely difficult.  I didn't do it on the lathe because it's not a high performance tap and I figured it would just snap right off.  I can only get a few threads into the body.  Titanium is darned near impossible to tap by hand.  I can shorten the barrel threads a little bit to compensate.  Being titanium, they'll still be plenty strong.  My other issue is that my steel mandrel to mount the base onto the 4th axis machine has a .500" diameter.  The hole drilled was also .500".  It was a clean enough bore that I could press the part onto the mandrel for machining the spirals.  A .501" ream should make it easier.  The same story goes for the hole for the nib.  It's so tight that I could use a ream that's a couple thousandths of an inch larger than the drill I have.  I proofed both parts in aluminum first.  I made a couple tweaks to ease up on the slot depth on the front barrel, but other than that, they looked to work well.  I have something like 20 programs now.

Tonight I need to write the code for machining the spirals on the long back side.  It's every bit as much of a chore as the flared base ones were.  The part changes diameter while the spirals go around and get wider at the same time.  I use a calculator and a CAD screen to calcluate all the hundreds of coordinates by hand.  Did I mention that I also need to orient them to match the lower barrel!?  Doh!  I'm getting a little punchy.[|)]  I need to go ahead and write the code before the ring orders flood again tomorrow night.

I still need to hash out the middle wood ring that has the insides splined.  It will be tough to make because as it's designed, it needs turning from both sides as well as lasering for the splines.  I won't be able to regrip on the wood for turning the backside without destroying it.  I had a new idea that I'll persue for that after I write the code for the long barrel.


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## woodscavenger (Sep 18, 2005)

Bruce you are awesome.  Keep it up.  Need a Jolt cola?


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## btboone (Sep 18, 2005)

I finally got the coordinates done.  It took a while to remember how I did the calculations for the base spirals.  In the hundreds calculated I only missed two.  I was able to run a toolpath simulation on the computer and two of the lines looked out of place.  I'll run the part tomorrow.  I need sleep!

Yesterday, I actually did drink a Coke around 7:00 pm because I knew I'd hack on it all night.  I went to bed after the sun started coming up. [|)]


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## rtjw (Sep 18, 2005)

Looking really good.


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## btboone (Sep 19, 2005)

I got the spirals cut on the back barrel.  I had to make the first cut on the aluminum prototype and see how the spirals lined up and adjusted the code accordingly.  The spirals and the two ends match up well.  What looks to be an angular difference in the picture is just from parallax from the tight shot.  I turned the middle wood ring and the small plug that goes in the end from the remaining part of the pen blank that the spirals come from.  I do both in one program.  I just clamp the hydraulic chuck on the square wood, crushing it, and turn what sticks out of the chuck.  I chose the nice looking turned blank in the pic as the final attempt wood.  It looked best of the ones I did.  

I needed a blind turned slot on the back face of the ring to attach it to the stepped shelf on the base.  I made the trepanning tool that's shown.  It didn't work well with flat teeth so I sharpened them like a saw blade.  It worked fine.  I spun the tool in the manual lathe and held the wood ring by hand.  I realized after I made it that I can round the back of the splines by hand with a special cutter that works just like the trepanning tool.  This was my original design intent.  The rounded splines will fit better into the slots of the front barrel that way.  The first ones were a bit tight.  This was caused by the difference in the straight laser cut splines and the helix angle of the splined grooves on the pen body.  This is a project for next week.

Another thing occured to me after it was made; it is heavier than my other pen is.  I realized that I can probably take out some more metal on the inside if I switched to a larger diameter thread.  I may be able to use a 1/2-20 tpi thread, and some high performance taps are available that should be able to withstand the lathe torque.  This will save around an hour or two of time and make better threads and make the whole pen lighter.  The back half of the pen can have a slightly larger drill as well for more weight savings.

I think I'll keep finishing this "beater" pen to see what else I can learn before tackling the "real" pen.  Every time I run it, I tweak the programs to be faster and better.


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## btboone (Sep 20, 2005)

<br />

Here's the back of the middle ring with the trepanned slot to fit the boss on the pen base.  The inside also has a radius.  Both were done with the new tool I made.


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## btboone (Sep 20, 2005)

Here's the ring with lasered splines in them.  Getting it to line up with the laser is tough, and some good fixturing will come in handy.  Notice the splines extend downward a little from the upper ledge.


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## btboone (Sep 20, 2005)

Here's the base with the middle ring in place.  This prototype was made in cherry.  After putting it in place, I kinda liked the contrast in woods between the bottom and middle rings. Hmm...  I might keep it olivewood because there will be a plug in the upper barrel that will get laser engraved, so it will show up better on the lighter olivewood.

It took several tries to get the ring to work.  They kept getting crushed as they came off the lathe, so I slowed the cutoff speed way down.  I also added a stopping point where I add CA to the part then turn it back to flush.  It fills all the pores and strengthens the wood.  I still need to figure out how to best get the "laser tar" off of it and final sand the delicate splines.  Maybe sandpaper on a toothpick or something.  I'd like to get better consistancy there.


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## btboone (Sep 20, 2005)

Here's a picture of my two pens side by side.  They won't fit into the Image Dome, so I had to improvise.  The middle ring gets glued to the base in such an orientation that the splines look to continue from one part to the other.

Next up is a total redesign.  A bunch of little stuff.  I'll add a lot more weight to the base to make sure it stays in place as the pen is removed.  I'll try a slightly wider base and a large 1" diameter bronze insert.  If that's still not heavy enough, I'll probably have to go with tungsten, which is a bit more than twice as heavy.  Changing the curve of the base will affect the splines slightly, so they will need to be dialed in again.  I'll look into adding some kind of funneling type of plastic sleeve at the bottom of the hole in the base before the pen gets to the o-ring.  Every now and again, the pen can catch on the o-ring.  The funnel should prevent that.  I'll lighten the upper barrel by switching to a wider diameter thread.  Doing this means that the lower barrel will also have to be remade so the threads fit.  At least I have a good start, and redoing all 3 pieces shouldn't be as bad the second time around.


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## woodscavenger (Sep 20, 2005)

All I can say is wow.  You're to cool.  I think I should have paid more attention in  math class and gone into some engineering field instead of medicine.  I can't wait to see your continued work.  Hey, what did you do with those aluminum prototypes...?[]


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## btboone (Sep 20, 2005)

I still have the aluminum ones.  The splines and ends don't completely match up as they are tighened together.  I essentially had to make one and see how "wrong" it was and compensate by that amount.   Rather than trying to match the aluminum parts together, I tried to match the aluminum back to the titanium front part.  Being that each pen has different threads, I needed to dial in the pack portion to a mark on the front part that corresponded to 0 degrees rotation when I cut the splines.  I added a small dot in the land between the threads and the front barrel body.  I screwed the parts together, and marked that same spot with a magic marker on the back part.  I aligned that mark with zero rotation on the machine when I cut the splines in that part. 

By seeing how much the aluminum back was off from the titanium front, I was able to nail the titanium back the first time I tried.  The titanium is so tough to work with I decided to not risk it by trying both aluminum pieces together.  I had the titanium front as the new "master" that I had to match the back to.


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## scubaman (Sep 20, 2005)

I don't care what everybody else says - these pens really aren't bad!  [][][]

Nice going.  I must have missed the significance of the splines...  are they little springs that keep the pen centered in the base?

If I had the second pen I ever made (probably a prototype slimline) I'd offer it up in trade for yours.  Before you throw it out []


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## JimGo (Sep 20, 2005)

Bruce, those are AMAZING!  I can't wait to see the finished pens.


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## btboone (Sep 20, 2005)

Rich, the splines orient the top and the bottom so that the splines line up when the pen is resting in the base.  You pull the pen out of the base with a slight twist.  It's really just a cool factor, make it different type of thing.  The shape of the wood ring is somewhat like a funnel, so that keeps it centered on the matching contour on the front barrel.

Before throwing it out, I'll still probably try the wood spirals just to learn from them.  It's hard to see, but I really screwed up the top of the pen.  I'm going to go to larger internal drills to lighten some weight, and I tried to open up the upper hole with a larger drill.  Well, duh! the drill walked because of the cut angle and just scooped out one side of the hole.  I had to sand the tip down to keep it from being nasty and sharp.  I was going to make a plug drill to make the wood plug in the end instead of turning it on the lathe like I did a few pics back.  By doing that, I can bore in the side of some choice olivewood pieces where the grain is going across the part rather than in line with it as the lathe would cut it.  I will then make a fixture for the lathe where I can mount the wood plug and turn an offcenter three dimensional hemispherical cut on the end.  The lathe fixture then needs to become a laser fixture to lean the part over correctly to laser it perpendicular to the face.  It's a lot of work for a 5/16" wood plug, but it will be pretty slick if I can pull it off.  Needless to say, my plug drill and lathe fixture will have to wait until I make a new back barrel with the correct hole diameter. [xx(]


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## PenWorks (Sep 20, 2005)

Sorry Bruce, I read nothing that you wrote, but had a blast looking at your pictures [] What a dynimite looking pen.


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## btboone (Sep 20, 2005)

Anthony, I may have to lean on you or Rich (or both!) for your photography skills when the time comes.

My lathe was filled with super fine wood chips tonight.  I don't push very hard on these thin parts.  They reminded me of fall leaves.  The colors were similar with the oranges and browns in thin leafy chips.


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## scubaman (Sep 21, 2005)

Ah, only the spirals on the base are wood filled?  I thought they all would be!  I'm wondering how well these fingers will hold up.  They are CA'ed down, are they?  And even though they aren't angled the shape is such that they catch the spiral grooves in the lower body?

OK, I'm impressed. [8D][8D][8D]  I mean <u>_<b>I'm impressed [8D][8D][8D]</b>_</u>  (Is this really the biggest font available here?

I empathise with you on drilling into an angled surface...  been there...


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## btboone (Sep 21, 2005)

Rich, the outside parts of the pen, the upper barrel and base will both have wood.  If done well, the wood should look like it continues from one part to the other.  The lower barrel, the inside part toward the nib, has rounded bottom grooves with no wood.  The spiral grooves there are just something fancy to grip onto.  I do plan on CA gluing the whole middle ring including the splines right to the metal base.  Hopefully they will be strong enough.  I tried pulling hard on one of the prototypes and actually couldn't break the splines.  The glue should add some backup support as well.  

Yup, the shape is such that they catch the spiral grooves even though they aren't angled.  That's where the new corner rounding/ trepanning tool came in.  [] I'm impressed that you used your biggest font! []


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## btboone (Oct 8, 2005)

I worked on the wood insert for the top of the pen last night.  I decided to make a plug drill instead of turning the wood on the lathe for the plug because it would be easier to find a piece of wood with a nice grain that way.  Of course, the size I needed was nowhere to be found in a commercially made plug drill, so I had to make my own.  It worked OK, but the flutes clog up pretty easily with the oily olivewood, so I needed to stop the drill and clean out the flutes a lot.  I made a lathe fixture where I can put two wood plugs in it, and it will bottom out on my chuck.  I then turn the off axis spherical cut on the wood parts.


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## btboone (Oct 8, 2005)

I used the lathe fixture in a new aluminum fixture to be used in the laser.  The square corner of the block with the 0's stamped in it goes into the corner of measuring rulers on the laser table.  The fixture tilts the holder of the wood plugs such that the face of the plugs is perpendicular to the laser beam.  I just bought a finer focus lens for the laser to make an smaller beam.  This one should give around .0015" resolution, whereas my other lens made a spot around .007".  I lasered my logo "B" into the wood then rotated the fixture so that the next wood piece could be lasered.


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## btboone (Oct 8, 2005)

Here's the result of the lasered plugs.  Keep in mind that this is still the prototype pen, and the drilled hole at the end of this one got all messed up when I tried to drill it larger.  I was able to hand fit the wood to fit OK on this one, but hopefully it should look a lot better on ones where the hole is made to the correct size beforehand.  I'm still on the fence as whether to darken the engraving for more contrast or leave it raw and subtle.  I like the fine textured hatching in the logo, so if I color it, it would have to be done with something very watery to preserve that look.  I can experiment with dyes or a magic marker and see how it looks.

I'm in the midst of remaking all the tubes with larger bores to cut down on the weight.  I'm also changing over the machining to do it on my big machining center rather than my tabletop machine.  This allows the use of coolant, so I can run the parts faster.  I had an issue on the small machine where the Z axis (up and down axis) was losing counts due to friction, so the slot accuracy was affected.  It would ruin the part that took several hours to get to that point.  My big machine was not set up to do long thin rotary axis parts, so I needed to change it over and take off a large perminently mounted pallet fixture to make room for a tailstock.  I think the change will be worth the effort for productivity and repeatability for production.  

The pen constantly amazes me at how much work it is.  Hopefully all the work I'm doing now will make it easier for more to come.


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## ashaw (Oct 8, 2005)

Bruce

Very Nice....Nooo Really Nice[8D].  You are taken pen making to the next level.  I like what you have done.  

Alan


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## Randy_ (Oct 9, 2005)

Bruce:  On the final pen, will the wooden plugs be flush with the end of the pen or will they be inset slightly as shown in the picture??


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## btboone (Oct 9, 2005)

Hi Randy, I planned on having the plug slightly inset.  I have the side view on CAD way back on page 1 of this thread.  As I mentioned, I think it will look better when the plug doesn't have to be refit for the hole.  What's your opinion on that?  Do you think it might look better flush?

I'm not sure why the plug looks so skewed in the side view shot; it is very slightly cocked to one side, but not nearly as much as the side view shot seems to show.  Must be a trick of parallax and photography.  It actually looks pretty straight in person.


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## wdcav1952 (Oct 9, 2005)

Hey, I thought this was a pen turning forum!!   [][]   Damn Bruce, like others have said, I don't understand a thing you are saying, but I like looking at the pictures.  For Anthony and me, please keep posting lots of pictures.[8D]


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## woodscavenger (Oct 9, 2005)

Make it flush.  I think since the other wood inserts are flush it will look nicer.


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## btboone (Oct 10, 2005)

I just made my final end plug tonight and darkened the engrave with dye.  I tried doing the whole thing coated in CA, filling the engraved area, which actually looked good.  It looks almost like a cabochon.  I'll check both height positions when I finish cutting the titanium barrels on the machining center.  I'm waiting on a special collet to hold the parts in my 4th axis.  

I also laser fired ceramic engraving the bottom of the bronze base piece.  I made a simple L shaped fixture to locate it in the laser.  I applied some lacquer to the part when it was done.  It looks good.  The tighter focus on the laser makes a difference.


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## rtjw (Oct 10, 2005)

very nicely done. I think it would look nice flush, but heck, I aint no where near your work.


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## Randy_ (Oct 10, 2005)

Bruce:  I was kinda leaning towards flush; but the photos can be very deceptive.  I'm sure you have a better feel for the best option since you have the pen in hand.


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## btboone (Oct 11, 2005)

Well, Mr. Murphy made a visit to the shop last night.  I was able to work on the pen all day yesterday, and I was machining the last spiral of the last part (the long barrel), and broke a tool.  No big deal.  Just replace it and continue, right?  Wrong.  The new tool immediately went to the land between the spirals and dug in there.  It seems that I lost rotary feedback sometime during machining my part.  The rotary axis is totally out of control, and machine doesn't know where it is.  I stayed up half the night checking wires and the mechanical connector between the servo drive and the encoder and anything else I could think of.  No go.

I need to remake that part from scratch, which takes several hours and rewrite the new code back for the little machine, so it can do the spirals again.  The cost of getting someone out to fix the machine will negate any profit left from the pen, assuming it sells at all.  To add insult to injury, I got 2 rings last night that need the rotary axis to complete them. [B)]

Mr. Murphy, go home!


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## JimGo (Oct 11, 2005)

Sorry Bruce!


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## btboone (Oct 12, 2005)

<br />

I worked half the night last night on the machine and finally get it working properly.  I completed the back barrel.  I had a tool break at the same location today!  I checked the code and everything looks good.  I think the tool just wears down and gives out at that spot.  I was able to complete it with a sigh of relief.  I just need to do the wood inlay and assemble it.  Here are all the parts so far.

I still need to make a special screwdriver to mate with the brass nut to lock in the nib at the correct angle.  These will be sent with the pen.  I might do them in either brass or a stainless drill rod.  I also am getting in some really nice sample boxes from Rocket Box.  The one I have in mind has burled wood on the outside and has suede on the inside.  It's around 7.5 x 7.5" x 1.75" and made for a necklace.  It looks awesome.  I'll see if I can laser out a custom insert to nest the parts in that.


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## rtjw (Oct 12, 2005)

Looks like it is going really good. Cant wait to see the final product.


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## JimGo (Oct 12, 2005)

Wow, that's going to be a beauty!  So, should we all get in line to be testers for you? []  If so, the line forms behind me!


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## btboone (Oct 12, 2005)

Thanks guys.  Hopefully, I'll complete it tonight.  I realized this morning that I'll need to make a special mandrel to hold the back barrel for remachining after the wood is glued in.  I did it all by hand last time.  It will have threads for the barrel to screw into and also have a long mandrel to hold the part and get supported by the tailstock.

It looks like I will do the wood plug buldging up from flush on the top angle.  I was concerned about having to get the seam perfect, then I realized that I could glue it in with CA, overflow the glue up top, and just sand it back to the metal surface.  Since the whole part has a curved blob of CA up top now, I should be able to blend it in nicely with micromesh.


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