my first rollerball

allen levine

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Location
new york city burbs
only cost me 2 tubes and 2 blanks so far. Still not nailing down this pen making process, but turning out enough, its just costly when I waste a 3.50 blank and another tube.

I wont give this one away, not that its something special, but Ive been wanting to turn myself a rollerball style since I purchased a lathe.

I tried to make two vortex rollerballs, I ruined both blanks.

this is a presimo etched top.

I know its baby stuff, but its fun for me, and new for me.

I purchased this assorted pack of blanks at the show, unfortunately, I threw out the wrapper and dont know the name of most of the species in this bunch.

26 dollars for the pack, enough for 30 blanks of the one tube style pens.
 

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Allen, pm me your address and I'm sending you some blanks, with about 4000 in the shop, I can spare 'em! I'll be back on Sunday and will get them out Monday. You are gonna have some fun!!
 
Now thats a cool looking pen....looks just like the pen the dudes in downtown Manhattan would use. Real New Yorker looking pen. :)
Now Les and Mack better watch it.

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
 
Nice work - good looking pens. However, I must express some disappointmnet as the title of the thread led me to believe that you had posted pictures of aggressive athletic females skating in circles and knocking each other over the guard rails.
 
not yet, no where ready for the big time kits, but Im knocking out 4 or 5 pens a week in between the shop work.

Within 3 weeks, the lathe goes back into the garage, but I think Im going to build a small stand on wheels so I can turn outdoors this summer under the tent whenever the mood strikes.

I turned a table leg last night for practice out of maple, and my wife almost divorced me when she saw the amount of shavings all over the floor. I made sure first thing today I got the shop vac and cleaned up the finish room very nicely.

Another green acrylic is gone already, someone took it, I wasnt thrilled, but I wasnt home when it was taken.

the light colored wood, wasnt the best, but I made the pen anyway for me to use while I do jumbles and crosswords. Ill pull it apart when I cut down some 10 mmm tubing.

I dont know what kind of woods they are, ca glue finish followed by some polishing. Like I said, I still need to work on my technique.

I damaged a silver casing on one pen, and found using wooden dowels, I was able to knock the pen apart without damaging any parts.
 

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these are vertex magnetic rollerballs. My favorite style so far.
the magnetic caps are a nice item.

both of these blanks were sent to me by jim burr.

the lighter blank, after I turned it around 75%, I noticed it had small holes, gaps, so I filled each hole with CA glue, and let it dry overnight. Did the trick.

I ruined a couple of other blanks jim sent me, and used another for a presimo.

Im keeping these rollerballs, intentionally left them a bit thick in the middle, I just like the way it looks and feels. Usually I turn the one tube pens down a bit thinner.
 

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Very nice Allen...I still haven't turned a pen, but my dad does all the time. Will tell him about the Vertex magnetic rollerballs so he can try them out.
 
only cost me 2 tubes and 2 blanks so far. Still not nailing down this pen making process, but turning out enough, its just costly when I waste a 3.50 blank and another tube.

I wont give this one away, not that its something special, but Ive been wanting to turn myself a rollerball style since I purchased a lathe.

I tried to make two vortex rollerballs, I ruined both blanks.

this is a presimo etched top.

I know its baby stuff, but its fun for me, and new for me.
It's not what I'd call baby stuff. Looks like big boy stuff to me!:wave:
 
not yet, no where ready for the big time kits, but Im knocking out 4 or 5 pens a week in between the shop work.

Within 3 weeks, the lathe goes back into the garage, but I think Im going to build a small stand on wheels so I can turn outdoors this summer under the tent whenever the mood strikes.

I turned a table leg last night for practice out of maple, and my wife almost divorced me when she saw the amount of shavings all over the floor. I made sure first thing today I got the shop vac and cleaned up the finish room very nicely.

Another green acrylic is gone already, someone took it, I wasnt thrilled, but I wasnt home when it was taken.

the light colored wood, wasnt the best, but I made the pen anyway for me to use while I do jumbles and crosswords. Ill pull it apart when I cut down some 10 mmm tubing.

I dont know what kind of woods they are, ca glue finish followed by some polishing. Like I said, I still need to work on my technique.

I damaged a silver casing on one pen, and found using wooden dowels, I was able to knock the pen apart without damaging any parts.
Allen, my friend; Get yourself a set of machinest's transfer punch set.
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=54892&cat=1,43456,54892
It's got all the sizes you'll ever need to dismantle any pen, at least that's what penturners tell me. I don't know if that's true or not, since I've never had to dismantle a pen ever!:rofl:
 
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