Happy Saturday Pen Friends.
I made this pen last week and fitted it with a Bock nib. I usually make Jowo pens but personally I prefer Bock and I had intended to keep this one (but I did sell it in the end).
This acrylic comes in 16mm square sticks which is very close to the finished diameter of the cap. Drilling straight is critical or I would end up going through the wall of the cap.
In a separate thread on here there was a discussion about how drilling off-centre doesn’t matter in the case of kit pens, which is true to a point. But if you drill on the lathe and you’re getting off-centre then it’s a good indication that either your technique or your machine (or both) isn’t quite right and in my opinion it’s worth correcting it. There really is no reason to accept drilling off centre as the norm. It can potentially lead to other issues even with kit pens because if, for example, your lathe isn’t aligned properly then not only will you drill off-centre but you might find you end up turning off-centre too depending on your approach.
I also noted with interest that some use a drill press rather than drill blanks on the lathe. I’m guessing this may be quicker if doing multiple blanks at a time? Other than that I was curious as to why you’d introduce using a vertical drill into your process when you’ve already got a very accurate horizontal one…
Anyway here’s the pen. I put a purple nib in to see how it looked, and it offered a nice surprising flash of colour when opening the pen, but I preferred the steel version.
Wishing you all a great weekend.
Cheers
Ash
I made this pen last week and fitted it with a Bock nib. I usually make Jowo pens but personally I prefer Bock and I had intended to keep this one (but I did sell it in the end).
This acrylic comes in 16mm square sticks which is very close to the finished diameter of the cap. Drilling straight is critical or I would end up going through the wall of the cap.
In a separate thread on here there was a discussion about how drilling off-centre doesn’t matter in the case of kit pens, which is true to a point. But if you drill on the lathe and you’re getting off-centre then it’s a good indication that either your technique or your machine (or both) isn’t quite right and in my opinion it’s worth correcting it. There really is no reason to accept drilling off centre as the norm. It can potentially lead to other issues even with kit pens because if, for example, your lathe isn’t aligned properly then not only will you drill off-centre but you might find you end up turning off-centre too depending on your approach.
I also noted with interest that some use a drill press rather than drill blanks on the lathe. I’m guessing this may be quicker if doing multiple blanks at a time? Other than that I was curious as to why you’d introduce using a vertical drill into your process when you’ve already got a very accurate horizontal one…
Anyway here’s the pen. I put a purple nib in to see how it looked, and it offered a nice surprising flash of colour when opening the pen, but I preferred the steel version.
Wishing you all a great weekend.
Cheers
Ash
