Re BAR Pen

[Peter Hay in Aus]

For some months outside our house a major construction over 4 lanes of road and formed underground stormwater dispersion tank used so many tons of Re Bar. The Construction Crew cooperated well to give us access to our driveway during this time. I made this pen using ReBar from the site to make this pen. I modified a Slimline fitting Brass tubes etc. and gave it to the Steely Contractor.

Regards Peter.:D

[Norman Hitt]

Pretty neat.
Uh......... you ARE calling that "Iron" wood, right?:D

[Rick Markham]

Very cool! I bet he is used to people screaming obscenities at him, not giving him a cool handmade pen... Bet ya made his day! :)

[Tony Zaffuto]

How much time did it take to drill the bore through that puppy?

Nice work!

T.Z.

[Maurice Ungaro]

Wow! Since Australia has banned private ownership of handguns, this just might be the most discreet personal defense weapon! Well....maybe not discreet, but effective and versatile too!

[Michael Peet]

That is really cool. I used to work in a rebar fabrication plant as my summer job in college. Lots of scars from that place.

The pen looks awesome!

Mike

[Don Orr]

Now THAT'S the way to win friends and influence people. Very nice job.

I too would like to know more about the process if you wouldn't mind a few more details.

[Tony Shea]

That's very cool. I bet you went through a few drill bits to get a hole down through that puppy. It truley came out great and I would also love to know a little about the process/headaches you went through to make the pen.

Also, that is an awsome story about your generosity and them working with you to gain you access to your driveway. Wish all people were reading these stories to snap them out of their self absorbed ways.

[Peter Hay in Aus]

Morning here,

There are two types of Rebar at least that I know of in this Country the type that is used for straight runs (harder steel) and the other softer steel used for bending.

Without knowing any better I used the harder steel, same drill as Slimline pen making only normal drills with the Steel held in a three jaw chuck in the lathe.
Now with Rebar you will see the outside shape is contrathreaded (for the purpose of description) so it is not evenly round so caution here in gripping in the three jaw chuck. I judge it is good as it gets by eye aqnd moving in or out a little in the chuck, switch on look etc.Easy to see really. The reason I drill and affix brass tubing as in a Slimline is to enable easy changing of the biro refill. I also use the Centreband of a Streamline pen in all my Slimlines to give me a fatter centre.

Then turning the ends and centres I use my metal lathe with a small only needed taper on each, push comes to shove you could use a file on your wood lathe for this. I use Epoxy glue to hold the brass tubes and ALWAYS rough up the brass tubes first. Then plain sailing.

The pen is pleasant to use not too heavy bling pens weigh far more.

Any more questions?

Regards Peter.

[george wilson]

Some rebar will harden fully. I don't know much about re bar,but found that out while fooling around with some at a friend's forge. He was making flint strikers out of old files. the piece of re bar got just as hard when heated red hot and quenched.

[john brenton]

you mean "Pen/Paperweight"!

[Gary Herrmann]

Peter, you should cross post this on the turning forum. Very cool pen.

[Dan Andrews]

Now I like that. What a thoughtfull and clever gift. Reinforces my desire for an engine lathe.

[Karl Card]

very good imagination.

I am wanting to get a small metal lathe here someday just for making pen bushings, custom pen parts etc...