Bolt rollerball pen

[Grant Wilkinson]

It's aluminum, not wood, but it was done on a Jet mini, so I hope it fits with this group. The material was a 3/4" aluminum hex rod and a 1/2" aluminum round rod for the grip. Turned, drilled, sanded and polished on my jet mini.

Tks for looking.

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

That is a cool idea! Great work. How'd you do the threading? With a chaser?

[Jim Burr]

Amazing Grant!! That has Skip written somewhere on it;):D

[Grant Wilkinson]

Thanks much, guys.

Jeff: I did the threading with taps and dies. The one thing that I really need is a die holder for my tailstock. I find that it's a bear to thread straight without one.

Jim: I sent this to Skip before posting anywhere. You're right, of course. Skip did one in wood some time back and I liked the idea. His stainless ones are incredible! He does a far better job on his. I'll chalk that up to experience. :-) This is my first attempt, and close up, it shows.

[Steve Schlumpf]

First time I've seen one of these... and it is really cool! Nice work!

[Bernie Weishapl]

Really nicely done. I have never seen one but is really nice.

[James Combs]

Nice looking pen Grant, been wanting to try something like that myself, someday.

[Doug W Swanson]

That is a cool and unique idea. Love it!

[Rick Markham]

Very Cool! I'd end up losing it in the bolts though :D

[Grant Wilkinson]

Thank you, all.

[Keith Westfall]

Really like that!

A bit of a 'how to' would be nice, for those of us that have no imagination...

[Grant Wilkinson]

Keith: This is the first one that I have done, and the process was hit and miss - more miss than hit, really.

However, all of the dimensions are dependent on what you want and what kind of pen you are making - roller ball, ballpoint, fountain pen. All the drilling is done having taken the measurements of the refill or cartridge. The overall length of the pen and the length of the cap (outer threaded part) is up to the maker, keeping in mind the requirement of the refill and the grip. The grip length is up to the maker, too, again bearing in mind the length of the refill. Even the threads used are up to the maker. I arbitrarily chose threads for the outside of the cap, the inside of the cap and the mating threads on the grip, and the threads between the grip and the barrel - all based on the taps and dies that I have.

I can tell you the order in which I did this one:
I started with a piece of 3/4" hexagonal aluminum rod. I chucked it in scroll chuck, and I turned all but the "head" round, then I threaded the end that would form the cap.
Then, I parted off the cap part and put it aside.
I drilled the barrel, without removing it from the chuck, to the depth that the roller ball refill needed, keeping in mind the length of the grip that I would make.
I threaded the inside of the end of the barrel to take the grip.
Then, I wet sanded and polished the barrel, and finally,I parted it off at the chuck.
Then, I chucked up the cap part in a collet chuck and threaded the inside of it so that it would screw on the grip.
For the grip, I started with a piece of 1/2" round aluminum rod. I drilled it with different sized bits to take the roller ball refill.
Then, I turned it down to a size that would let it fit into the cap.
I turned a tenon on the barrel end and threaded it to fit the threads that I had cut into the end of the interior of the barrel.
I cut threads to match the threads on the inside of the cap.
Using a file, with the lathe running, I tapered the nib end.
Then, I parted it off.

That's it in a nutshell. There is no magic to the order. For me, I just tried to do everything on one piece while it was in the chuck. I didn't know if I could get it back in the chuck exactly the same way twice. This was especially true while I was holding the hex. Removing the round parts from the collet chuck did not pose the same problem, of course.

If you want to see how the guy who I believe conceived of the idea of using bolts for pens does it, go to skiprat-pens.com. Skip has a series of videos on Youtube where he shows how to make a bolt pen from a real stainless steel bolt - on a wood lathe. I didn't follow his process, as I didn't start with a bolt, but it will give you great information on the process.

I hope this helps.