I've lost count on how many we've done..... but here's another one for you. No "right" answers, but the idea is to take an ordinary object and turn it into a pen repair tool. I'll post my use this evening, but you get a chance to chime in with your ideas. The fact that it's bent has no relevance - it's just the one I pulled out of the can.....

Depending on the size of the former nail, it might be useful in persuading dead sacs to vacate a barrel or sac tube.

unbreakable toothpick, for those of us with good dentitition.

-d

With a little bit of work, it's a drift for knocking out feeds.

But not yet

Anything that you would use it for would take a little bit of work.

Ya mean it's not a toothpick??

bummer.

d

What, have we no imagination??? Think outside the box - does the nail have to stay in it's original form??

Your last post gave me the clue I needed Ron.

Nothing said we were constrained to the use of one nail.

Collecting quite a large number of nails, Ernst and myself stayed up all night working away feverishly over the furnace, and came up with this as a possibility.

Don't be too quick to judge - it hasn't been painted yet

Regards,
Ruaidhrí
BTW - while not wishing to sound commercial, I am open to offers from transport companies.

On a more serious note, I regularly use nails in turning.

Banged into a handle, they can be sharpened into a 3-point tool, bent & sharpened to form hook tools, and even made into small skews.
All for miniature work of course, but d-- handy things

Cheers,
R

hmm

Shape it into a hook and then sharpen it to catch Nemo for some sushi lunch?

George

Possible, but in the immortal words of Richard Jarvis "I don't eat bait." * IMO there's a reason why God put fish under water.




*response to David Isaacson at the 2004 NYC pen show when David suggested sushi for dinner.

TOOTHPICK, dagnabit.

d

Look guys, since yall can't figure out what to make of it to play with your pens... I will tell you what to do with it to use for making leather journal covers...
If you heat that head and straighten the shaft... then turn two opposite sides up...and file one of them down a little... you can use it to burnish the edge of veg tanned leather articles to make them look ' finished' instead of having to lace the edge..I have one that is over 60 years old and works perfectly...



LOL

Only if your mouth is big enough.....

The bent end with the head could be used to move a lever into a position whereby it might accept a pressure bar as it is slid into place.

Is there really any doubt?

d

Although a bit primitive, you could use it as an engraving tool...

Warm regards, Wim

I hate to admit that I'm drawing a blank, so I'll make some lame guesses:

1) Round/smooth/polish the tip into a burnishing tool,

2) Really too soft to drive feeds out of sections,

3) Flaten & indent the end to use installing a Vac diaphram,

4) Put it on the end of a long stick to pick up candy wrappers and trash around the shop,

5) Cut off the head, nail into a board to hold any hollow tools or parts.

6) or something else really useful that eludes me...............

Actually Buzz, you have the right idea - take a common item and use it for a different purpose. Any of the things suggested would be appropriate.

Here are a couple of things that I made from nails. The top is a wrench, the bottom is a punch for oversize feeds. I've also used a finishing nail as a pellet pusher. They're ideal because they have a dimple in the end that holds the pellet in place while you seat the diaphragm.




What got me going was having to restore an Eversharp vacuum filler. Eversharp uses a hex nut to hold the piston rod onto the blind cap, where Sheaffer uses a nut that takes a spanner. I couldn't find anyone who sold a wrench small enough and that would do the job that I needed it to do.

So I made one, and while rummaging through the basement, I remembered my granfather showing me how to make a screwdriver out of a nail. I was in my early teens at the time, and thought that it was really cool - he heat treated and case hardened the thing too boot!

In this case I ground off the end of the nail, then heated it with a torch. I flattened the end on the anval of my vise, bent the end and squared it off. Then ground the notch with a bench mounted Dremel, smoothed things and case hardened it. After polishing it I mounted it in a handle made from acrylic rod stock. Purpose made, and about 20 minutes of work. The wrench fits down inside the blind cap, and grips the nut perfectly.

Here's the wrench on an Eversharp vacuum filler.


Maybe it's just a nail, or brake line, or who knows what else, but you may very well be able to modify it to make a tool that'll do exactly what you need to repair a pen. Like the steel crib rails I snagged years ago that have been turned into all kinds of things....

Yah, you'd mentioned few days ago that you'd... finally... gotten.... around.... to.... doing....Wahl plunger fillers.

All i can say (on behalf of me and a good chunk o' the rest of vintage pendom). is... it's about flippin' time!

BTW- for folks not familiar- Wahls plungers are pretty close to Sheaffer plungers, both a pain in the tuchus to restore. That Ron is now doing both, and doing them an elegant and long lasting way, is a very good thing.

cheers

david

Custom tools are cool!

You know Davd, if you stretched some dental floss across that wrench, itta kinda be like a toothpick....

Congratulations, Ron. Very nice little wrench.
Do you still have any of your grandfather old nails? The steel was much better and tougher than what you get from Asia these days. Well, if case hardening is enough...

You use a wrench for a toothpick?

Weird!

How about grinding / filing a taper on one side, and then using it to adjust pocket clips to restore the tension (the taper allows different sized clips to be adjusted), the flat spot (suitably rounded edges) prevents damage to the plastic.

Another possibility is to square off the end, then cut a notch the width of a J-Bar into the squared off end - making a J-Bar insertion tool. While needle forceps work great - they are sort of hard to find, and tend to require force being applied to the end of the J-Bar - whereas this tool would push the farthest end of it, preventing any possibility of bending the J-Bar inadvertently.

Regards,

Gerry

Funny that you should mention the J bar tool. I was thinking about that this morning. The nail is a little short for that though because you need the reach to fit into the big boys. I'd look for about 5"-6" below the handle. And you do need a handle to get the torque to turn the spring.

Daniel Kirchheimer appeared at the Philly show a couple of years ago with a J bar tool that came out of a repair shop. Hand made, it was ideal for the purpose. I just need to make one.

There are lots of ways to approach repairs, and ways to make tools - you just need to get into the habit of seeing materials differently! I know of someone who made a saw for cutting plugs to make Vac jewels from a dead lustraloy 51 cap.

When restoring button-fillers, I press the removed button onto the end of a common nail like this. It makes a great handle when you want to use a Dremel to burnish the button to its shiny brass self before re-installation into the pen barrel.

I like this MacGyver'ing concept -- where one takes "common" items and turn them into tools. I was going to guess the nail was a poor-man's lathe, but I knew that was too far-fetched. I've used wooden chopsticks to remove springs from barrels, by twisting it into the barrel -- but that nail would likely crack the barrel.

I've been using a philips screw driver for this. It'll hold the button and spread the four "legs" at matching gaps.

John

If you've got some square brass tubing, it would provide a provide a visual of the j-bar orientation. Hmmm, you might could have a slot that the long end feeds into for precise rotational(radial?) control. This probably doesn't make sense.

Makes very good sense Buzz. With the right dia, one gets the sides to straddle the J-Bar, you cut back on the top and bottom to provide the depth needed, and heh, heh, Bob's yer Uncle...

Whether one uses a long square tube, or a short one coupled with a rod, dowell, or whatever to provide the handle - it stands to be quite a easy to make tool.

I'll be offering the beta version soon - what cut do you want for the square tube idea Buzz?

Another possibility is to find a long screwdriver with a blade wide enough to be cut to hold the J-Bar, but that's using a commercial tool for part of the McGyver solution - is that acceptable?

Regards,

Gerry

John

Nails usually have pretty good steel in them.. A different technique with regards to heating, working while soft, reheating and quenching and tempering ( slight heating stopping at proper color ) should fix any problems.

However, if that is not the cause of the problem.... use a concrete nail for your next project.... they have to be of exceptional steel...
Greg

I hope I'm not being confrontational Greg, but here, the nails generally aren't as you describe. I've tried working with the ordinary kind, and they are either no carbon or very low carbon content. As temperability depends largely on the carbon content of the steel, other than case hardening, as Ron has mentioned, I have never succeeded in hardening (tempering) common nails.

Like yourself, I then thought that the superhard concrete nails would be great for some applications I had in mind, and I attempted to anneal them to work on them with the intention to temper them after working. I was quite surprised to find them very difficult to anneal, as they retained most of their hardness and usually broke when bent. So not all steel is created equal in that department, and you just have to try and see what works best.

I will say I have had great success with 'drill rod', a high carbon steel often available in some hardware stores at a reasonable price. It's usualy available in many diameters from 1/8 inch to well over 1/2" (not that we'd need stuff that big often..). Anyway, it works well and holds a pretty good edge when tempered. It can also be hardened to be less brittle than an edge might require, say for a wrench. The beauty of the case hardening Ron was talking about is that it hardens a thin outside layer, giving a great deal of toughness to the tool, but the less brittle center part helps prevent it breaking suddenly under use.

Trouble is, case hardening does require more knowledge usually, but since we're just talking nails here and not expensive items, one could experiment with different techniques and materials. I'm aware of things from slow heating while encased in raw carbon, to commercial coatings and heating.

I'd be interested in knowing what technique you used Ron - care to share?

Regards,

Gerry

The stuff I use is no big secret. It's called Kasenet, and I bought it from Brownells, which is a gun smith supply company. (lots of stuff that can be adapeted for pen repair BTW!)

After shaping the material, grinding or whatever, you heat the metal to a cherry red or orange. Immediately dip and stir in the Kasenet. Heat again, dip again, and heat a third time, then quench in cold water. The carbon from the Kasenet penetrates the metal a bit, providing case hardening. You'll have to clean off the surface and polish, it a bit, but the resulting surface is very hard indeed. I used it the steel burnishing tools that I've made with excellent results (very hard surfaces) and also on the wrenches I've made for the nuts on Sheaffer vacuum fillers and the Eversharp vacuum fillers.