Stuart Ablett
Member
- Messages
- 15,917
- Location
- Tokyo Japan
I'm gearing up to make about a dozen or so pens, I think I've advanced far enough to make them to sell, and there even seems to be some interest
Up until now, I've been using my wood vice to press together my pens, but a week or so ago, while ordering some bearings for my Hitachi M12 router, I need to get my order over the 3000 yen mark ($25) to get the free shipping, Monotaro, had the toggle clamps on sale, I got one good for the pen press for about $15.
I looked at the ones for sale online and came up with this......
I turned a round knob for the outside end of the shaft to adjust the distance that the stop block went to, and I turned the stop block as well. The stop block has a very slight indentation turned in it, to make it easier to put everything in line.
Some size shots
Sorry, it is in cm, just divide the cm by 2.54 to get inches
Pressing in the cap and clip
Pressing in the tip
And the results...
The wood is Curly Koa, a blank I got from a guy over at SMC, Barry Stranton.
Sure like the look of this wood, not quite as much chatoyance as the Keyaki, but pretty, just the same!
BOY did the press work slick, man, I should have built one of these a lone time ago! Took less than an hour to build it, including some head scratching. The block of wood is some Akagashi that I had, hard, hard, and free
I put a threaded insert in the block of wood to hold the tighten down clamp on the shaft of the stop block.
Cheers!
Up until now, I've been using my wood vice to press together my pens, but a week or so ago, while ordering some bearings for my Hitachi M12 router, I need to get my order over the 3000 yen mark ($25) to get the free shipping, Monotaro, had the toggle clamps on sale, I got one good for the pen press for about $15.
I looked at the ones for sale online and came up with this......
I turned a round knob for the outside end of the shaft to adjust the distance that the stop block went to, and I turned the stop block as well. The stop block has a very slight indentation turned in it, to make it easier to put everything in line.
Some size shots
Sorry, it is in cm, just divide the cm by 2.54 to get inches
Pressing in the cap and clip
Pressing in the tip
And the results...
The wood is Curly Koa, a blank I got from a guy over at SMC, Barry Stranton.
Sure like the look of this wood, not quite as much chatoyance as the Keyaki, but pretty, just the same!
BOY did the press work slick, man, I should have built one of these a lone time ago! Took less than an hour to build it, including some head scratching. The block of wood is some Akagashi that I had, hard, hard, and free
I put a threaded insert in the block of wood to hold the tighten down clamp on the shaft of the stop block.
Cheers!
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