Thread: Austtralia Swap Pen 2014 . . . . . Ummmm Not so fast.

This was a really fun pen to make. Right up until the very end. I did something really stupid. When I was pressing in the coupling on the lower barrel, I got the trim ring on the thread side. Then when I was pressing in the fitting, It wouldn't seat. So I pressed just a little harder not knowing the fitting was as far as it was going to go.

CRACK!!

Normally, I wouldn't bother showing a ruined pen, but this one was different than anything I've done before (right or wrong).

When I selected the blank it looked pretty solid. It was spalted white oak burl. When I turned the cap part down, it kept getting more & more voids. When the cap was close to final diameter, I noticed that the brass was showing through from several of the voids. I wish I'd looked closer at the blank before turning. It had to have a few visible worm holes. But I didn't notice.

Here's the cap unfinished. I started filing the voids, and decided I wanted a before picture. That's why there is a little blue already.


I had a blank made with the same colored mica powder, so I filled the voids with the powder. That part wasn't all that much fun, and took longer than I thought. I know I could have filled it with coffee grounds or shavings, but I thought the blue would add a cool touch. After the voids were filled, I pressed in the cap. As I was lining up the lower barrel, I screwed in the fitting into the cap so I could align it the way I wanted. I noticed the threads weren't engaging correctly. They were too tight. Then the plastic insert in the cap came loose from the fitting, and I had to disassemble the cap to fix the problem. And here's where I learned a new lesson. Always make sure the parts work correctly before assembly. I had to rob another kit for the cap threads. This time I glued them in, and all was well.

So I again line things up, but had the trim ring on the wrong side of the fitting. I'm still not sure how I did this, but it was all my fault. The crack doesn't show on the pictures, and it isn't too bad, but not something I wanted to send even if I could fix the trim ring problem. So after it was assembled, it looks like this.


And here's the pen put together.


I'll probably try & fix the problem, but I didn't want to spend more time on it right now.

On a positive note, I did finish another pen that will be on it's way to my Australian trade partner in the next few days.