Thread: Prototype pen box

Al, that is beautiful, a great way to display and sell your pens. The curly maple has some lovely grain to it.

Anther way might be to make your foam insert and use some flocking powder. I will leave that to the experts to comment on.

I like the design of your box maybe small hidden barrel hinges as well.

Top marks first class effort. Look forward to the next in the series

That is amazing how you can make that box in 90 mins. It would take me that long just to set the hinge.

Beautiful box and lovely timber.

Timberbits

Al, that is a great start, if I could make that I would, also consider the colour of the insert, white satin, or some other colour. White, may reflect the colour of the pen more, just ideas in my head.Amos

Very nice box love the shape. In an 8 hour day you should be able to do a few. So we can look forward to see 5.3 boxes very soon

very nice. i like the shape of it

IMHO, i think you need to look at other hinges, and i agree with sam about looking into flocking.

I like it.

While better hinges would improve the look of it when making a close inspection, the cost could be prohibitive for what is essentially an accessory to the pen.

Depends if good quality hinges are cheaper where you are, because I haven't found any here.


Mike

a very simple elegant design - looks stunning
another hinge might work better
and I think a bit more work on the insert is needed as it is hiding that superb pen, and that is what is on show.

Noice!

The only problem I can see there is that I'd ask as much for the boxes as I would for the pens.



(On a similar note, or displaying a variety of pens at once I've been thinking about building myself a customised version of TTiT's egg-display stand. Maybe with eight trays for storage, but it'd still display four. Lovely! Now if only my meagre skills will allow me to put my plagiarism^H^H^H ideas into practice...)

Thank you all for your comments. That's why I post my stuff here. I quite agree with the hinge comments. This was a prototype and roughed together prety quickly. (There's nothing but two coats of BLO on it) The hinges were two pair in a bubble pack at a large hardware store and they were being clearanced priced so I bought them out. I do have some barrel hinges and will no doubt give that a try. A thought occurred to me while shaving this morning that the sides are such that a pivot hinge will also work. I have some brass round bar and will try some blind pivot hinges this weekend. I save my Brusso hinges for my more serious boxes.

The comments regarding the insert are deserved as well. I took about ten minutes to rough that thing out. I purchased a rather large sheet of squishy foam for this. While I can cut it to size easily with sharp shears, I have no idea how to form the pocket for the pen. I'm afraid my first attempt is rather crude. I will ask some of the girls in the office who are into crafts. Perhaps they have some suggestions. I also purchased from the same craft store a sheet of rigid styrofoam. I may be able to machine that a little better. I may also be able to apply flocking powder to that. I don't think flocking on the squishy stuff would work very well.

As for the felt, this particular craft store has sheets of it (approx. 12" x 12") for $0.29 each! They have about a dozen colors and I purchased royal blue (pictured), white, black, camel, kelley green, and gold. At only twenty nine cents each, I figured I couldn't lose. I'm afraid these inserts are going to give me the most trouble. If it's not made of timber, I'm all thumbs. In any case, I feel I'm heading in the right direction and only need a few more under my belt to achieve some form of success. Thank you all for your suggestions!

Good job on the box. You could sell them with your high end pens for the extra bucks.
David

Beautiful!

I agree on the hinge, too but it is a matter of taste.
I'm sure there's less expensive ones out there, but at $.80 a hinge, these
aren't too bad. And if Woodcraft is $.80, then someone else is $.50.
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=1076

I don't mind an expensive box for a good pen. It is all about perception, and
a quality box confers a sense of quality to the pen before the customer even
sees it. I wouldn't put my slimlines in this box, but I'd certainly put the better
kits in it.

Nice job!

I noticed with a Lamy in a pen box given to me for a speaking engagement that the insert was folded cardboard. Folded in such a way as to cater for one pen and if flipped over could cater for two pens - might not be up market enough for this penbox. But if the board had say felt or velvet glued to it?