Gluing pens

[Rich Stewart]

I got a quick question for the pen turners here. If you glue the tubes into a piece of cocobolo wood and later the glue turns loose, will the pen come apart or will the pressed in fittings prevent it from falling apart?

Rich

[Jon Shively]

Depends. Have had nib points that I glued in because they seemed loose. So if you had that scenario also, might come apart. Seems like it might be hard to write with loose.

[David Walser]

Rich,

Like almost all important questions, the answer to yours is "It depends." Some turners modify their pen kits so there is not a metal cap on top of the pen. In that case, if the glue fails, the wood can come right off of the tube. However, if both ends of the wood/brass tube has a force fit metal fitting, the failure of the glue will not cause the pen to come apart. Instead, the wood will spin on the brass tube. Does that make sense?

[Mark Hulette]

It's possible that the fittings could keep the assembly together for a little while but eventually the tube will spin in the wood blank.

CA is the biggest culprit for this in my experience. Had it happen last night as a matter of fact... the tube was just small enough that it really needed poly glue but I just had to try it~:rolleyes: Yep- broke loose twice then I put some Gorilla to it and I'll turn it tonight.