Author: newtonpens

So here I am with LOTS of hair. The orange thing is a t-shirt that my boy outgrew. I cut it up to keep the hair out of my face while working at the lathe.

So why all the hair? Do I like having long hair? No. Not since high school. In my Senior AP English class I’d nod off and my hair would go in front of my eyes so you couldn’t see that I was asleep.

So when you think of hair for money, you’re probably thinking of wigs, extensions, or getting a neograft in Denver or wherever. Well I’m loathed to admit that I have inadvertently found another way in which money can be exchanged for hair. Add this one to the list:

At the end of last school year I had an idea to grow my hair and beard crazy long and then sell raffle tickets. At the end of a period of time or once so much money is reached, I’d draw a ticket, call a name, and let that student cut and color however they please. If we reached a higher dollar amount in that time frame then I’d let them chop up and color the beard too. Yikes.

So first week into school – I didn’t mention my idea to anybody so the kids think I’m just being too lazy to go get a hair cut. Thursday afternoon I mention my idea to one of my classes and before I’m done a girl hands over a five dollar bill. COOL. Okay then, buy 5 get 1 free. Sound good? Yep. Another kid the next day brought me a five. And they’re determined to win. He and a couple of his friends have pledged their next paychecks to the cause. They want me to look like Captain Planet. And they want to turn my beard orange. 8-(
uh oh….

Of course, I told them not to waste their entire paychecks on something as silly as a CHANCE to cut and color my hair – but they won’t have it. They’re determined. Oh lord – what have I gotten myself into? I really hope Captain Planet doesn’t win :’-(

And what’s the money for you ask? Art class supplies. Nothing special – just extra cash in case I need it throughout the year. Last year I think I spent close to a thousand over budget (which is a pretty healthy budget in my opinion). This is my third year in this classroom (hopefully the third of about 20+ more) and I’m working on getting it set up so that it’s MY classroom. I’ve built lockers, tables, and a friend of mine is making really nice wooden stools for me. It’s coming along quite nicely. I can’t wait to see how it looks in a few more years. Hopefully, more murals and an awesome student-made timeline will decorate the room. Maybe we’ll even get to paint the ceiling tiles. The kids are itching to do that. 🙂

So there we have it, the new way in which you can pay for hair. Worst is I told them I’d wear the haircut for a week. 8-|
Oh boy.

I got a triple broad Pelikan M1000 nib in the mail today.

I’ve never used a 3B nib before.

WOW.  Here it is in my Indian made eyedropper I bought about 2 years ago.  It came with the medium nib that was sold in the tortoise pen.  I love this pen.

Pictured with my JEB Nazca.  A pen that is ALWAYS inked.

I ordered some business cards the other day and just received a note saying they shipped.

Yay!

This is the front and back of the card.

Okay – so school starts back on the twentieth, which means I’m going to be very busy with school and not as busy with making pens.  I’ll still be able to get a few knocked out every weekend unless something comes up or I’m just wiped out from the week though.

Remember the artwork and pens I sold over the summer to raise money for pens for students?  Well, I bought 80 pens.  Now that school’s about to start I’m trying to get ready, and part of getting ready means taking 80 Kaigelu 316s and test writing, tuning, and cleaning every one.  I got these to give away to students this year, not so much as a reward, but to expose them to fountain pens.  Yes, these are only $5 a piece, but they’re still damn good pens for $5.  To get the pens writing nicely most only needed a little tine spread.

Here’s the mess.  🙂

I can do it now, folks.

If you want a button filler instead of a C/C just indicate as much on the ordering page.
Getting a pen with a button filler will be $100 extra.

So today while working on a pen I had a bit of a mishap.  Well – plain and simply – I screwed up.  No big deal – happens every now and then.  I decided to turn that oops into an Oooooh.

Here you can see how close I get things and how far off they sometimes are.

Look at the lip of the section where it touches the inside shoulder of the cap.
Also look at the lip on the barrel and where it meets the cap lip.  That’s pretty good. 

Where thing’s AREN’T so great is the distance between end of nib and the cap ceiling.  Yeah, that’s a few mm too many.

So what happened?  The wood chipped out exposing a huge chunk of the insert while I was turning it.  Didn’t look too good.  I decided to cut the cap in half just for grins.

So how big are these pens?

When I list diameter of a pen, it’s at the barrel threads, where the cap screws on.
So here’s a list of my basic pen sizes with the approximate maximum section diameter as well.

Slim – .45″/11mm thick with 10mm thick section.
Small – .50″/13mm thick with 12mm thick section.
Medium – .55″/14mm thick with 13mm thick section.
Oversize – .65″/16mm thick with 15mm thick section.

Real quick – what does that look like?

A US penny is 19mm in diameter – about the same as the caps on my oversize pens.
A US dime is about 18mm in diameter.

An old Esterbrook Jay is 11.4mm at the threads.
Montblanc 146 is 12.2mm at the threads – compare to my Small.
Montblanc 149 is 14.3mm at the threads – compare to my Medium.
1935 Parker Duofold Sr. Big Red is 12.5 at the threads – compare to my Small.
Parker 51 about 12mm at the ring.
Pelikan 200/400/600 all about 11mm at the threads – compare to my Slim.
Pelikan M800 is 12.5mm at the threads.
Pelikan M1000 is about 13.5mm at the threads – compare to my Medium.
1930 Sheaffer OS Balance 12.5mm at threads.
Sheaffer PFM/Legacy about 12.5mm at section/barrel join.

I hope that helps give some better ideas about my pens.

So there was a thread on the internet a while back discussing these flat sheets of Chinese celluloid that’s out there. Well, a guy in Europe who makes pens bought some of that up and made a few rods from it.  He glued the sheets together using solvents of some sort.

He gave me a rod and here are the results.

First – I gotta say when he told me what he was sending I was pretty excited.  Until I saw it.  It was only about 8 inches long and predrilled.  Not exactly how I like to work – but I made due.

Initially I wanted to turn a 14mm pen, comfortable for me, but when I threaded the barrel threads (for the cap) I was left with a mess.  THe threads were gone!  I figured out that since this stuff is SO SOFT, even a tiny bit of forward pressure while twisting the die over the barrel just ripped the threads off.  I turned a couple more threads and it was perfect.  I think you can see that in this pic…

So I’m totally fuming at myself and this stupid soft material.  Of course it is my fault for the threads being ruined.  But it does NOT turn like any other celluloid I’ve turned.  Instead of nice ribbons when turning, I get dust and little strings.  When threading I get no resistance – it’s like cutting into butter.  I can’t feel what’s going on inside the die. Well, at least I have enough material to turn it down and make a 13mm pen.  So I stuck the barrel between centers and started turning off the threads and thinning it down a bit.  The bad thing about turning between centers is that unless you press everything very tightly the barrel will stop as you’re cutting into it.  This was happening here.  I tightened my tailstock up against the barrel a little bit more and got it just right.  I turned some more of the bad threads off and noticed things seeming very off center.  I stopped the lathe and noticed that the strips were coming apart at a seam!  Ugh!!  So this isn’t going to work.

I put the project aside and emailed the gift giver.  I told him the problems I had and how it seemed brittle – which isn’t exactly right at all – but the shavings come off in dust rather than ribbons – which is weird for celluloid.  I also told him how soft it was and how I ruined the threads.  He said NONSENSE!  I thought he was mad at me.  I don’t know, maybe he was.  He said send it all back so he can look at it.

Well – I couldn’t do that.  🙂  So I stuck the barrel in a collet and turned half of it down, then flipped and turned the other half down, getting rid of the split part.  I threaded with 13mm threads, made some end pieces and a cap from the other piece of rod, and finished it!

I’ll send him a finished pen.  It’s not as cool as I was originally planning – but… there ya go.

I think the girls will really like it.  My students were all the time telling me to do pink and zebra stripes.  I have made a couple of pens according to student specs and they have been some of my most popular.  This one for example.

I no longer make or work with micarta style materials.
Yep – Micarta.  Or at least a laminated fabric material.

From April 2012.
Okay – so I made some laminated denim with fiber glass resin from O’Reilly’s. It was about $50 for the resin, $6 for the denim (should have gone to the thrift store and bought big pants), and a maybe $45 for rubber gloves, plastic, squeegee, and some groceries, which don’t really count.
So not that big of an investment really, and I could have done it cheaper if I had thrift shopped.  It is time CONSUMING.

And the torture test.  🙂  (from last May 2012)

Here’s a bit of a quick torture test. No student had picked it, and the year is up, so I’ll have it until August at least. So while I have it, and to easily answer questions, I figured I’d be mean to it. Worst that happens is I mess something up and make a new part. No big deal.

I added more threads to the barrel and changed the shape of the section. I prefer a pinch.  Why’d I add more threads?  Because the cap didn’t engage with the barrel properly at all.  Now it’s perfect.

First test was to throw it across my tiled kitchen floor. Cap on of course. I don’t want to ruin the nib. No damage.

Second test was to flick the cap off my table across the dining room onto the hardwood floor. No damage.

Third test is to ink it. Stained like crazy, but I think that’s kind of cool. Note that this pen isn’t sealed. I don’t think it would stain if sealed with several coats of CA glue.  Just a note – all the Micarta pens I’ll make from now on will have either an acrylic or ebonite section.  So staining won’t be an issue.

I showed one of my students this pen, and as he was handing it back to me I slapped it out of his hand and across the lobby. He was shocked – but then I told him why I did it and he laughed. The converter shook loose.
Still no damage.

Pen in the freezer, on top of the ice. Was in there all night.
Didn’t hurt it. Though I’m not sure what was supposed to happen.
A little frost on the clip and nib. Ink thick – but still wrote.

Well – I finally did it. I cracked the cap.
I tossed the pen again yesterday, about 8 foot up in the air, demonstrating how tough this stuff is to my pen turner buddies, and the cap fell off when it hit the ground. THey all gasped and I just laughed. “FINALLY” I said. It wasn’t so much of a crack in the resin, but a separation of the material at the seam. So where the denim was layered up is where it split. It’s still scuff and scratch free surprisingly – now it needs a little super glue to hold things together. No big deal.  Note – and it did hold together beautifully.  It’s back in my pen case waiting for a student to grab it up.

Note of caution: don’t repeatedly throw, smack out of hands across a room, or toss your denim pens. Eventually it will split or crack.

A review