Two pens - advice on curves??

[Newton Pens]

Curves on a curved, round surface are a pain in the butt. The black pen is delrin, the clear polycarbonate. Delrin cuts easy but the ribbons and chips don't, uhm, chip away - I have to pull them off with tweezers. The polycarbonate is REALLY tough. I'm sure my tools not being perfectly sharp doesn't help.

Curves on the curved surface are a real pain. I'm surprised at how different these materials cut compared to the ebonite I cut a while back. Huge difference.

The design is not mine. It's a C inside some flowery stuff.

I'm using a square graver with the tip ground on my bench grinder (white wheel), no clue on the angles. Working on the edge of a sandbag on the edge of the table. So my hands and arms aren't on the table at all. That's been the most comfortable position for me to sit and work. I'm getting cross eyed looking through those magna visor things.

 

[monk]

only practice will eliminate your problem. practice on anything that's got a similar diameter. i could suggest using cheap, store-bought pens for practice. they will likely have slightly different cutting characteristics, but this will help solve your lack of practice.

 

[Dave London]

Yep as Monk said practice makes perfect, nothing else will do. Also a correctly sharpened graver , is as important.
I would use a bench stone after the roughing on a grinder to finish the work YMMV.

 

[silverchip]

I'd like to get my hands on those nibs to build some out of silver, Might consider that idea for a canvas??

 

[Sam]

I would suggest perfecting your design and cutting on a flat surface first. Once you have that in order you can move to round shapes. In my opinion you are not quite ready.

 

[Marcus Hunt]

HeeHee, ain't life a female dog!?!?! LOL. Seriously though, it's one of the things that makes a gun engraver quite a special entity - the ability to cut on any odd shaped surface. Like Sam says, concentrate on getting it right on the flat first. After that try a radius that isn't as tight as a pen; a piece of pipe for example. Then you have to learn to keep the angle of attack constant no matter where you are on the radius and this isn't easy. It's just continuous practice until you free float your wrist without even thinking about what the graver is doing. Good luck!!!

 

[K Frei]

Ok so where do you get pens; that are engravable ?

 

[Newton Pens]

Thanks everybody. I'm liking this forum more and more with straight up honest advice like this.

Wanna hear something crazy? The customer is ecstatic. I sent him these same pics and asked if he wanted me to continue and he very enthusiastically said YES, which honestly surprised me.

But it's more practice. So that's good I guess.
I will say the second clear one I finished this morning is better than this one pictured above.

 

[Newton Pens]

Ok so where do you get pens; that are engravable ?

For the first couple of pens I engraved, I just used ones that I made. These are from a small pen company called Conid. I've gotta get em done and mailed out tomorrow afternoon at the latest.

As for practice pieces - I'd think ordering acrylic rods meant for pen turning would make for good practice pieces. Just have somebody with a lathe turn them round and smooth and off you go.

Or get some small pieces of PVC pipe to practice on?

 

[JJ Roberts]

Pen Engraving

Newton,Working on a sand bag is not going to work or gravers that are not sharp,if you can set your pens in a watchmakers lathe you could turn the pen body by hand while engraving with no problem,thats what I use. J.J.

 

[Newton Pens]

That's an excellent idea - thanks.

 

[Gemsetterchris]

I was about to suggest a microblock & attatchment from Jura like this.....

But.. it doesn`t open enough for a pen I think 70mm would be your max length).
If you can fix something similar to a larger block you`ll find things alot easier + with abit of thermo-loc.

Not sure how practice on flat things will help (it`s the way for most) but if your only doing pens, you might as well just keep at it & get better in time.

 

[Newton Pens]

what a cool looking clamp! Thanks for sharing that with me.
I finished up the last three pens last night. Even though the clear pens were much harder and more difficult to cut, I think they turned out better in the end. I'll attach some pics soon.

 

[dlilazteca]

Newton,Working on a sand bag is not going to work or gravers that are not sharp,if you can set your pens in a watchmakers lathe you could turn the pen body by hand while engraving with no problem,thats what I use. J.J.

JJ could you post some pictures

Carlos De La O III

 

[Newton Pens]

Finished.

 

[dlilazteca]

What silver paint did you use?

Carlos De La O III

 

[Newton Pens]

rub n buff - from hobby lobby. it's cheaper on amazon.

 

[monk]

marcus got it right ! if you have to 'think' about the cut as you do it, you likely have'nt had sufficient practice. as one practices sufficiently. the tool just does its' job without much
thought involved. this is also my thought on drawing your designs. i checked a number of the pens in my pencil box. most would lend themselves to practice work. when done. you still have a pen that works ! i rarely do this type work, but when the call arises, i made a set of holding jaws for my ball vise.

 

[Arnaud Van Tilburgh]

Newton Pens, I saw your engravings on those pens you show here live. to be honest, it didn't look so good.

arnaud

 

[Beathard]

Develop some graver control on flat pieces before complicating your life with cylindrical pieces.