Pens, Wine Bottle Stoppers & Miscellaneous
Last updated on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 08:59:55 AM Mountain US Time Zone

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Pen Body, Pens, Arbor Press, Wine Bottle Stoppers,
Turner's Cube, Component Stand

The following photos illustrate how to use metal-cutting
equipment & techniques to make wooden pen kits.
WARNING: Always wear safety glasses & breathing
protection especially when cutting & sanding Cocobolo.
Wood dust can be highly irritating to eyes &
lungs or can even cause an adverse reaction.

Pen Body

Euro pen instructions.
Automatic center punch used to
eyeball the center for drilling.

After cutting the wood into two lengths,
they are drilled with a 7mm Brad-point bit.

The brass inserts are lightly sanded to break the
shine & then super glued into the Cocobolo blanks.
Insert & glue the brass tubes so that they are
almost flush to the middle of the wood piece.
This minimizes the amount of wood removed by the
counterbore thus keeping the grain continuous.

A reamer is used to counterbore down to
the shinny edges of the brass inserts. The
brass is barely cut by the reamer. The reamer's
pilot also removes any excess super glue.

A small zero-flute countersink is
used to deburr the brass tubes.

With the original grain aligned the blanks are mounted
onto the arbor with the spacers for a Euro pen kit.
Use of a live center is mandatory.


Cocobolo pen bodies being turned on the Jet 9x20
using a (OEM Taig) round-nose tool bit & power feed.

A 10.5mm diameter x 5mm long tenon
was made using a cutoff tool bit.
Setting the lathe DRO to metric units
made cutting the tenon quite easy.

 The wood has been waxed.

Claro Walnut (Northern California.)

The lathe's compound was used
to cut the two different tapers.

Animation showing how the pen tip is pressed in using
the bench vise. Aluminum jaws do not mar the parts.

The twist ink cartridge mechanism is inserted
into the body using the arbor press.
It's an iterative process of press & test to make
the ink cartridge tip protrude properly.
The assembly order is important so
follow the instructions carefully.

Animation showing how the pen top is pressed in
using the bench vise. Red Loctite secures the insert.
The cap is loose (screwed out 1/2 turn) so as to
push the top plug slightly below the end's surface.
The top nut with the clip are then attached with some red Loctite.

Animation showing how the pen ring is pressed on using
the bench vise. I also super glue (gel-type) the ring.

Pens

Aluminum, Corian & Cocobolo pens.

Arbor Press

1/2-ton arbor press used to assemble pens & other things.
Delrin, Teflon & brass faces for the working
surfaces (ram & anvil) are interchangeable.
Softer surfaces eliminate/reduce damage to the part.
The lower arbor plate can be removed for more clearance.

The mounting plate was modified to allow a
two-position bolt-down to hard points on the bench.
It has six adjustable metal feet. The front of the
press can hang over the bench edge for long parts.

 Wine Bottle Stoppers

Retro 1930s car knob shapes.

Used the ball turning accessory. Tagua (vegetable ivory)
is easy to machine but often has internal cracks.

Left three are aluminum & the right two are stainless steel.
Incorporated SS fender washers as shields.
The washer hole was too large (thus off-center) so there is
a small, shallow collar turned onto the shank for centering.
The washers were burnished on the lathe at the same time
as was the sphere. Blue Loctite secures the threads.
The stub is 1/2" dia. x 0.84" & the ends are chamfered 45 deg.
Used the 5C collet depth stop for speed & consistency.

Low-profile stoppers: aluminum construction
with SS 1/4-20 bolts & washers, silicon seal.

Reduced down to simply four parts with no threading:
top disk, stopper core, a rivet, & the silicon seal.

Materials: Black Delrin (small) & black nylon (large),
anti-corrosion SS washers, aluminum & silicon.

Turner's Cube

A 2-inch square CNC-produced
turner's cube using cocobolo.

Cocobolo block locked into the CNC mill vise.

Setting router bit's Z-depth
for the Mach3 control software.

CNC mill cutting a series of circular pockets.

Component Stand

A component stand to raise a DVR 3" higher for better
remote control LOS. The rubber feet fit into the tubes.
The rods are held to the tubes using 10-24 set
screws in tapped holes but the last two attachments
required small access holes in the back so a
hex wrench could be used to tighten the bolts.

Adapted audiophile component adjustable brass feet
by modifying them to be a press-fit into the tubes.
One-inch anodized tubes with 3/4" ID. The component
feet are 0.785" so the ID had to be bored out.


For this 10-24, I disconnected the fine down
feed so the screw section could pull down
the spring-loaded quill lever. Mill turned at
110 RPM. Always use proper lubrication.

Infrared (IR) photo of the Hub for the Logitech
950 universal, programmable remote.
I wanted to see the locations of the IR emitters.
Looking closely through the IR clear cover,
domed LEDs can be seen: 1-left, 2-front, 1-right &
2 on top. It really blasts-out IR energy.
The very dark red (black looking) plastic
housing is, of course, invisible to IR {nice}.
The unit's (2) wired remote IR units (not shown)
have 3 LEDs each & put out quite a blast, too.

Pen Body, Pens, Arbor Press, Wine Bottle Stoppers,
Turner's Cube, Component Stand

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