# Custom pens



## avbill (Mar 28, 2008)

Many of you are starting custom pen designs. Fore whatever reason.  Has anyone thought about not using the brass tubing in the kits and  then making all the pieces such as the clip, the centerband all from the material you selected. It would take some thought and design thinking and execution on your part. It would difficultly be a modified kit to custom type pen.

I am no where near this point but always thinking in the further

Any thoughts 
bill Daniels


----------



## ldb2000 (Mar 30, 2008)

In most cases you will have to use the tubes and at least the transmission but these dont have to come from a kit they are both available as seperate parts from many of our suppliers .
The tubes you need in most cases to hold the different parts that assemble the pen as for clips and centerbands that what this fourm is all about keep reading it and at some point someone will come up with an idea that seems to work
Hope that helps
Here is an example of a kitless slimline (why?..Because I have extra 7mm tubes and slimline transmissions and way too much time on my hands...) that I'm working on , was gonna save it till I got the clip idea worked out.
I'm not happy with the final shape yet (I like the upper barrel but not the lower) ...made this 1st prototype to test my drilling stepped holes on the lathe .
Posting it here cause it's nowhere near ready for the SOYP fourm .




My Kingdom for a spellchecker [xx(][:0][}]


----------



## ashaw (Mar 30, 2008)

All of my new Rollerballs and Fountain Pens will contain no brass tubes.


----------



## btboone (Mar 30, 2008)

My titanium Euros contain no brass either.  It takes some careful drilling to get the hole just right.


----------



## leehljp (Mar 31, 2008)

Steven (aka skiprat) makes his on clips. See it here:
http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=35502

Others make pens without tubes on occasion.


----------



## ldb2000 (Mar 31, 2008)

yes rollerball and fountain pens and pens turned of metals don't need the brass tubes because the stresses of the transmissions in ballpoints are absent and the fact that metal barrel pens are.....metal??? 
A Koa wood ballpoint pen turned without a tube would not grip the transmission tight enough to stay in place and would soon fail and that holds true for acrylics too .
Since the majority of my sales are ballpoints of one kind or another the tubes and transmissions stay .
When the Taps and Dies come in I think there will be alot of tubeless and kitless pens being made .


----------



## Blind_Squirrel (Mar 31, 2008)

If weight is the consideration in removing the tubes, why not cut the tubes down so they only extend in far enough to support the transmission?


----------



## DCBluesman (Mar 31, 2008)

I've made many roller ball and fountain pens without tubes.  It saves about 5-6 grams of weight overall.  You do not need any special tools, just precise measurement for drilling and the components need to be glued in rather than pressure fit.  Even for twist-activated transmissions, you can reduce the length of the tubes required and save several grams of weight.


----------



## Blind_Squirrel (Mar 31, 2008)

Lou, 

Are you still using bushings when turning tubless?  If so, what do you do to account for the gap?


----------



## bosipipes (Mar 31, 2008)

you have to drill to the size of the busing dia.


----------



## gwilki (Mar 31, 2008)

Bill: As with many of the others here, I make FP with no tubes - no kits. Centre bands are not difficult to do in whatever material you want. Clips are another matter. I've done a couple of wooden ones that were OK, but not up to sale quality. Others in this group are doing unbelievable work in PMC. To get them looking good and able to put up with the abuse that clips are subject to is not a simple thing.


----------



## bobkeyes (Apr 2, 2008)

Here's the start of a new clip. It is not yet squared and has just been rough cleaned. It is sterling and will look nice on a custom pen. I am thinking about plating the design gold, ala Emperor??


----------

