I love using Pilot Parallels (descriptions here, here, here, and here) as highlighters. As much as I love the "nib" assembly, however, I hate the pen body. The pen is ugly, unwieldy, and cheap. Plus, the lousy design gives up the ability to post the cap in return for the quill-look.

So I'd like to replace the barrels with something better. I'm beginning to learn about turning (both with a manual lathe and via CNC), but I've come to the conclusion that I won't be proficient any time soon, and I'd like these pens to be more useful. Perhaps some of the experienced pen-turners around these parts can help. Would anyone consider working with me to produce a handful of replacement barrels?

Other than fitting the threads of the existing section (or alternatively fitting the nib and feed into a custom section), I have few requirements. However I can express some preferences:

1. The finished product must use a cap, but I don't care if it retains the crappy existing cap or gets an upgrade;
2. I'd love clear acrylic for the barrel (this is the biggest reason I'm not waiting to try making barrels myself; I plan to stick with a progression from basic wood kits first);
3. The pen should be average in length--no specific requirements, I just want something likely to fit comfortable into most pen cases;
4. It's not terribly important, but I'd enjoy it if the cap could be posted.

That's it! I'd love to hear about very simple, affordable designs, and I'd gladly consider suggestions that incorporate greater quality/detail and are priced accordingly.

Please post suggestions, comments or questions in this thread, or feel free to PM me if you'd like to discuss things more specifically.

(I apologize if this topic, because it considers a sale, should be in the "WTB" category. If so, I hope the mods will let me know and/or move it accordingly)

PM sent

Actually, a similar desire led me to start turning pens. I wanted to make a nicer barrel for a Pilot Petit.

Here's what I came up with, along with a section/nib salvage job I did on a cracked Pilot Crystal, for reference of what is possible when re-using existing parts. They aren't pretty, and were more "proof of concept" than "finished masterpiece"

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I think I will try to make a Pilot Parallell pen barrel/conversion, just to try it.

-George

Strunk, did you just LET AN RFP FOR FOUNTAIN PEN BARRELS?

You're awesome, man!

George, that's pretty slick!

I'm glad to hear there's some enthusiasm for this project.

For anyone who wants to try their hand, let me know how I can help. I have a few Pilot Parallels I could part with temporarily for measuring/prototyping. The down side is that, if I send you a pen, I'll likely be unable to resist pestering you about progress.

Alternatively, let me know what measurements you need and I can take them myself. I'll need some instruction, however, in getting accurate thread measurements.

Dan

Well, as you can see from the time of this post, I'm up late, and it is for a reason! I've made a prototype for a Pilot Para//el pen re-barrel.

What was that? You wanted to see pics? Okay!


Here it is posted.
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And here it is artfully arranged.
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And with an original cap.
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It looks different in real life, of course... the barrel is so thin that it is translucent, and has some dark sections where I cut and used the original barrel and threads in the new barrel, and where I used about half of the original cap inside of the new cap. Oh, you can see some of that in the pics. Good!

The Parker '51 vac is there for scale. I could make the barrel shorter by 1 1/4 inches, and I just may do that, it is a tad long when posted. I was shooting for a 3" long barrel, but the Parallel is oddly shaped, there is about 1/2 inch of cartridge in the section, so the barrel actually needs to be shorter to result in an average length pen.

The next one will be better. I may even put a clip on it (I don't carry my pens in a shirt pocket, but in my bag or in my jeans pocket, so I don't care about clips all that much.)

Is this something that you'd be interested in, Strunkl? Any suggestions for the next one?

-George

Awesome topic Dan! My Parallel tends not to get too much use because I find it to be too awkward/ugly (what's with that weird cap shape anyway?), but the prototypes that George has come up with look very promising!

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread

wow, neat! what choice of colours/materails for the barrel do you have for this/

QM2

Pretty much anything you want that I can get a hold of... I want to do one in black ebonite, and any hardwood or plastic blank is possible. I haven't yet found a clear blank in the local Woodcraft store, they stock many colored plastic blanks, but no clear ones. I think I saw a clear one on www.pipemakersemporium.org, and that's where I got some ebonite, so I'll go back there and order some.

My only real limitation is my tools and willingness to destroy a perfectly serviceable plastic barrel. I do destroy the stock barrel and cap to make the new one, so it isn't like I can crank these out...maybe if I got a hold of a tap and die to do the threads...which are plastic molded threads, not cut ones, so they may not be perfectly reproducable.

There are more ways to skin this cat, I determined that the Parallel body can fit inside the brass tube of an El Grande kit, which is another approach I could take, and that may eliminate the gray threads showing...I'll try that one next.

- George

Nice work, George. Dan sent me one to play with, but I've not been able to contact him since. I didn't want to destroy his pen to try out my ideas without his permission. The thread needed for a new barrel seems to be 10M x .75 - not a common thread. I can find a tap to do it, but it is very pricey. Your process does away with that problem, but as you say, it destroys the original.

Dan: If you are reading this, please get in touch.

I took a Think rollerball and drilled out the stop on the cap to allow the section to go in further but stop before it hits the screw that holds in the clip. I turned the section so I could add another half inch of threads and now I have a really nice looking pen. I can still use the old parts but at this point why. I will try to get some pics posted tomorrow

Pics of the converted Think pen. Sorry about the quality.

Awesome job with the Think pen conversion. How did you thread the inside of the barrel to match the Parallel pen section? Have a tap/die?

-George

The think pen has the same thread m10 x 0.75 threads. I just had to add more threads on the Pilot so it would sit deeper in the body of the pen. The plastic was very soft so I only needed hand power to thread it. Going to really screw up some pen collectors in the future with some of my matings of parts. Tap was $12 and die 14 so not bad money wise.

Cheers

If you need a cheap supplier if taps etc let me know as I picked up 2 taps today m10 .75 $11.75 $85 at my reg supplier
m8 .75 7.40 and 65 at reg supplier. I am sure that the quality is not up to everyday production but on plastic how can you go wrong.

Chris

I just received two taps and die sets, in M10x0.75 and in M8x.75 ... and the M10x0.75 DOES fit the pilot parallel pen. Yesterday saw the arrival of two bars of clear lexan, and some more ebonite.

Look out world, here comes the second prototype!

- George

Here is my attempt at this. I did not need to cut or modify any of the standard parts. The barrel is threaded to accept the threaded section from the stock pen. The cap is threaded to mate with the threaded part of the section on the new barrel. The cap does not post, but the end of the barrel could be threaded to accept the cap.

Dan had hoped to fill this as an eyedropper and that may be possible. I've not tested it for leaks, but I would think that silicone grease or teflon tape would seal any that there are.

This was a fun project, but very time consuming. The clear barrel adds many complications over using a solid pen blank.

Critiques are welcome.

Wow, that looks awesome! Do you plan on selling these?

It's not yet good enough for the market, and I'm not really certain that I'll try to take it any further. I am not convinced that the costs of producing these could be recovered.

I'm grateful for your compliment, though, and should I decide to try to produce these for sale, I'll post that information in this forum.

I had to try one more. I believe that this one is an improvement over the first one, if for no other reason than the orange acrylic took threads better. The cap will post on this one, as the end of the barrel has external threads.

That's some nice work! I have not yet got the gumption up to make another attempt (last one didn't turn out right... clear acrylic on my lathe doesn't look good when I drill out the blank, can see tool chatter... and my threading attempt failed.)

Out of curiosity, what tap/die size did you use for the cap? Did you find that 1.0x0.75 worked for the section?

- George

Thanks much, George.

The barrel of mine is not turned and drilled. It is 1/2" OD clear acrylic tubing. I turn a tenon on each end to bring it down to 7/16 OD, drill the coloured acrylic pieces to 7/16 and glue them up. Then I turn the coloured ends down to 1/2", so that there is no step where they join the clear.

I tapped the barrel to 10M x .75. That is the same thread as the stock section, so that it just screws into the new barrel. There is no mod needed to the stock section. For the cap, I used a 12M x .8 triple start tap. That, too, is the same as the stock cap. I have the matching die to cut the threads on the barrel to accept the cap, and on the barrel end for posting the cap.

All in all, it's a lot of time and work. I like the result, but doubt that there is much market for it.

Good luck with your work on this. If I can be of any further help, feel free to ask.

gwilki, that's a very beautiful piece of work, thanks for posting.

You said that you did not need to modify the standard parts. What kit was this one based on?

Another question, I apologize for my ignorance, but I'm quite new to this and trying to catch up. When you say 'section', do you mean the nib holder?

Deckard

This is not based on a kit. The nib holder (section?) and the nib are stock from the Pilot Parallel. Dan Strunk, who got me into this mess :-) wanted to retain the Parallel nib, but change pretty much everything else. So, the rest is custom. There are no kit parts.

Sorry about the terminology. If I'm going to do this, I should learn the proper terms. When I say "section", I mean the plastic part (in this case) that holds the nib and the feed, and that threads into the barrel. I've heard this called the "grip", too.

Thanks for the explanation. Looking very good indeed.

I'm awfully impressed with the efforts here. As mentioned above, Grant has been working with me on this project. So far we're having trouble reducing his very nice work to something that isn't a financial boondoggle--all that hard work isn't free, you know.

It may simply be that a simple, inexpensive product like a parallel nib simply wasn't meant to be mated to a high-quality barrel and cap. Seeing the efforts of the turners here has me very curious to learn more. I'd love to be able to turn my own, but the barriers to entry (cost of even the most basic tools, including lathe, isn't exactly an impulse buy) are steep. Add to that my preference is for the high-tech (manual dexterity was never a strong suit), and I'd really prefer to try out a CNC mill--but that's many grand just to start.

Anyway, thanks again to all who have taken up the cause.