Pen assembly press and Slimline disassembly tools.

Number of images: 6
Created on: Friday 08 June 2007

The stop block holes for the pin I made too short as well as the pin in the block itself. Ended up tearing out the holes as the block would tilt when pressure was applied.

Took off all the parts, turned the board over and drilled the holes out to just over 3/4" depth and made a longer pin for the block. Reattached the ram and guide block and that seems to have taken care of the problem rather nicely!

I wanted to build a pen press for several reasons. The ones I see for sale strike me as very expensive and the only one I found that didn't look like a hassle to operate I have not been able find again since (Bookmarks Dear, Bookmarks...). It was still expensive though and I do have all this woodworking stuff in the closet.

Found this Pen Press onine and decided to have a go at it!

I scaled the dimension off the pictures and mostly got it right except for the interface block between the handle and the ram, but fortunately I was over so it was easy to cut it back.

I will say that doing this with a belt sander, cheap Chinese drill press and jigsaw was a job. Had a hell of a time getting the ram squared up and getting the clearance on the guide blocks tight.

The pins that things rotate on are just some 1/4" CRS I had around and they worked out just fine.

Had some small rounds of a hardish plastic that I glued on the end of the ram and stop block to keep from digging holes in the ram and stop block and that worked out well.

The first pen / pencil set I made had a pretty abysmal finish compared to the last one (the one done with Brasso) and I wanted to take them apart and refinish them. Ended up turning down a small piece of welding rod to the size of the refill ink tank and tapering the end to go into the nib.

Knew that metalworking lathe was going to be handy :-).

The tool to remove the transmission and clip end cap is just a threaded rod that happened to fit inside the tube with the end ground flat and tapered slightly.

With these a quick solid smack on the anvil and the nib, transmission popped right out as did the cap. quite pleased!

Now I get to clean up the mess. Doesn't take much sawdust to make a real mess in the apartment :-(. Between clean up and getting stuff out and putting it away I probably will spend as much time as I did building stuff. Still worth it!

All in all quite pleased with the effort! Feels good to be able to make the tools you need :-) :-) :-)!

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