Aluminum Pen
I had discovered a twist in my 7x lathe bed and it was due to a crack in the casting. Harbor Freight was not willing to help since I couldn't find the receipt. I decided to order a bed extension kit from littlemachineshop.com since it gave me a longer bed and was only a little more expensive than a stock replacement bed. Due to UPS destroying my first shipment, my lathe was down for many weeks. When the kit finally arrived, I rebuilt the lathe and was itching to make something. I designed a pen in AutoCAD and turned it from aluminum bar stock.
I started by threading the tip and drilling the hole for the pen refill, but did not turn the cone. Next, I turned the body of the pen and cut threads for the cap on both sides. Drilling out the pen was a bit challenging because my drill bit was barely long enough. I tapped the body since the hole was too small to single point thread. With the body still in the chuck, I screwed the tip into the body, turned the cone and filed it to blend the two pieces. As a result, it is difficult to see the split. I turned the cap out of another piece of bar stock, drilled it out and single pointed internal threads to match the ones I cut on the body.
I'm happy with this one day project, but I should have reduced the number of threads on the body. The cap takes too many turns to remove. I also need to be careful with this pen since the aluminum will scratch easily.
I started by threading the tip and drilling the hole for the pen refill, but did not turn the cone. Next, I turned the body of the pen and cut threads for the cap on both sides. Drilling out the pen was a bit challenging because my drill bit was barely long enough. I tapped the body since the hole was too small to single point thread. With the body still in the chuck, I screwed the tip into the body, turned the cone and filed it to blend the two pieces. As a result, it is difficult to see the split. I turned the cap out of another piece of bar stock, drilled it out and single pointed internal threads to match the ones I cut on the body.
I'm happy with this one day project, but I should have reduced the number of threads on the body. The cap takes too many turns to remove. I also need to be careful with this pen since the aluminum will scratch easily.