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gvhill

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Why couldn't you use a preformed CF tube and glue in acrylic or ebonite inserts? No molding or fussing around with resins. The wall thickness isn't to bad so you might even be able to put a little shape to it. Adding the inserts won't add much weight. Most of the pens I make using ebonite and/or acrylics are under 30grams.

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Why can't one mold the tubes with extra resin at the places where threading would be needed? That way it would all be integral and threading would be easy and effective - not digging into the CF fabric.

 

Just a thought.

 

Cheers,

Rich

The epoxies used in compositing CF get their structural integrity from the CF, they are brittle on their own, not what you want for a threaded area.

<em class='bbc'>I started nowhere, ended up back there. I caught a fever and it burned up my blood. It was a pity, I left the city; I did me some travelin' but it's done me no good.</em> - Buffalo Clover "The Ruse"

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Why couldn't you use a preformed CF tube and glue in acrylic or ebonite inserts? No molding or fussing around with resins. The wall thickness isn't to bad so you might even be able to put a little shape to it. Adding the inserts won't add much weight. Most of the pens I make using ebonite and/or acrylics are under 30grams.

 

More or less what I was suggesting -- buy the CF barrel components (e.g. for a "cigar pen") and instead of using a kit, make acrylic or ebonite parts that can be inserted into the open ends.

 

for example: LINK

Edited by duncsuss

Duncan Suss

 

Website: Fruit Of The Lathe

Facebook: FruitOfTheLathe

 

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how can you make a matte finished epoxy... without destroying the looks of the CF

A few ways... you can simply not polish your cured part or even rough it with higher grit abrasive but not follow through with polish grits and polish or you could just give it a clear matte topcoat.

<em class='bbc'>I started nowhere, ended up back there. I caught a fever and it burned up my blood. It was a pity, I left the city; I did me some travelin' but it's done me no good.</em> - Buffalo Clover "The Ruse"

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To brooks and duncsuss, yes, this is what I would suggest, you would still need to bond those parts into your tubes with shellac or epoxy though, to prevent leaks or your pen falling apart.

<em class='bbc'>I started nowhere, ended up back there. I caught a fever and it burned up my blood. It was a pity, I left the city; I did me some travelin' but it's done me no good.</em> - Buffalo Clover "The Ruse"

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"Algester" - I don't dispute your expertise in using carbon fiber and associated resins but I sure have a follow-up question. I having difficulty understanding why you can't create a mold in any shape you want using flexible carbon fiber sheet. Even if the sheet is "pre"-resined, but still flexible, it seems that creating a tube with additional epoxy (or whatever) would not be difficult. What am I missing here? Just a question.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

Edit: Didn't see some of the posts while I was composing - This may turn into a "philosophy of assembly and design." I understand that carbon fiber sheets mostly already have a resin present but since the objective is decorative and not structural I think there are things that can be accomplished in spite of the structural component of the material. All I'm saying is one could create a "tube" mold, slide a cylindrical shaped wrap of carbon fiber sheet into it and pour resin into the mold. Any machining, turning, threading can be done in the excess resin. Hope that's sort of clear. Alternatives, of course, are to sleeve the tube and/or glue stuff in it. Many applications of carbon fiber already put excess coatings of resin on the exterior - why not the interior?

 

Rich

Edited by Rich L

Classic Guilloché ------------ www.argentblue.com ------------Damascus Steel

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"Algester" - I don't dispute your expertise in using carbon fiber and associated resins but I sure have a follow-up question. I having difficulty understanding why you can't create a mold in any shape you want using flexible carbon fiber sheet. Even if the sheet is "pre"-resined, but still flexible, it seems that creating a tube with additional epoxy (or whatever) would not be difficult. What am I missing here? Just a question.

 

Cheers,

Rich

 

Edit: Didn't see some of the posts while I was composing - This may turn into a "philosophy of assembly and design." I understand that carbon fiber sheets mostly already have a resin present but since the objective is decorative and not structural I think there are things that can be accomplished in spite of the structural component of the material. All I'm saying is one could create a "tube" mold, slide a cylindrical shaped wrap of carbon fiber sheet into it and pour resin into the mold. Any machining, turning, threading can be done in the excess resin. Hope that's sort of clear. Alternatives, of course, are to sleeve the tube and/or glue stuff in it. Many applications of carbon fiber already put excess coatings of resin on the exterior - why not the interior?

 

Rich

Rich, hope I can answer properly. I don't work with pre-preg myself, I hate the stuff. I work with raw CF fabric and paint the epoxy on while the part is on the mold (lay up), then vac bag it for curing. The epoxies I use, and this method, create a composite where the outer boundries of the epoxy are only nominally thicker than the fabric. The reason for this is that the epoxies used for this process are brittle on their own, they only give base structure and stiffness to the final product, the CF fabric itself contributes the strength and structural integrity. These resins wouldn't hold threading, the threads would chip and break.You could cast CF inside of Acryllic or somesuch but you can already buy blanks like that.

<em class='bbc'>I started nowhere, ended up back there. I caught a fever and it burned up my blood. It was a pity, I left the city; I did me some travelin' but it's done me no good.</em> - Buffalo Clover "The Ruse"

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Paul,

 

Thanks for that. So it sounds like the type of resin to do the casting is the key and if some such resin exists it might be possible. The OP (gvhill) wanted to know how to approach this from scratch and I sure went to the extreme. :) I typically don't work in plastics so my questions are academic and practical. Aren't there clear casting resins that are threadable?

 

No need to answer as that may be going way off topic.

 

Cheers,

Rich

Classic Guilloché ------------ www.argentblue.com ------------Damascus Steel

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Paul,

 

Thanks for that. So it sounds like the type of resin to do the casting is the key and if some such resin exists it might be possible. The OP (gvhill) wanted to know how to approach this from scratch and I sure went to the extreme. :) I typically don't work in plastics so my questions are academic and practical. Aren't there clear casting resins that are threadable?

 

No need to answer as that may be going way off topic.

 

Cheers,

Rich

very much so most plastics (Resin, "Precious Resin", HDPA, Acrylic) will hold to threading same goes to Ebonite, Celluloid, Horn and such

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One of my first pen I made without a kit was to see it I could do something with feathers like my wife does for kit pen blanks. I used virgin sewer pipe, :rolleyes: green PVC, because it was handy and I have lots. I turned a recess and had Marla wrap it with feathers and she cast it with polyester casting resin. Once cured and out of the mould I turned it round again and then proceeded to make the pen as if it were of any material. The result is that the barrel and cap have the threads in the PVC and the feathers are backed and bracketed by the PVC. The same could be done with a CF sleeve. The CF ends would be a little hard to trim neat and tight to the shoulder but a few wraps of stainless or copper wire might look appropriate as a cover. We also did another with a Japanese paper along the same lines. I'll add a couple pictures of the feather pen, with the proviso that it was an experiment, to illustrate the way it can be done. The finished pen with converter was is about 30 grams and could easily be made lighter by drilling more from inside the ends. Caped is 5.5" long and has a 14mm triple thread. Nib is a 5mm Schmidt.

 

Pete

post-74380-0-87929100-1404466156.jpg

post-74380-0-94160600-1404466175.jpg

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One of my first pen I made without a kit was to see it I could do something with feathers like my wife does for kit pen blanks. I used virgin sewer pipe, :rolleyes: green PVC, because it was handy and I have lots. I turned a recess and had Marla wrap it with feathers and she cast it with polyester casting resin. Once cured and out of the mould I turned it round again and then proceeded to make the pen as if it were of any material. The result is that the barrel and cap have the threads in the PVC and the feathers are backed and bracketed by the PVC. The same could be done with a CF sleeve. The CF ends would be a little hard to trim neat and tight to the shoulder but a few wraps of stainless or copper wire might look appropriate as a cover. We also did another with a Japanese paper along the same lines. I'll add a couple pictures of the feather pen, with the proviso that it was an experiment, to illustrate the way it can be done. The finished pen with converter was is about 30 grams and could easily be made lighter by drilling more from inside the ends. Caped is 5.5" long and has a 14mm triple thread. Nib is a 5mm Schmidt.

 

Pete

this is essentially a lamination technique for CF if you know the Invinvia series by monteverde that is what you will come up with but in the end info is info

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One of my first pen I made without a kit was to see it I could do something with feathers like my wife does for kit pen blanks. I used virgin sewer pipe, :rolleyes: green PVC, because it was handy and I have lots. I turned a recess and had Marla wrap it with feathers and she cast it with polyester casting resin. Once cured and out of the mould I turned it round again and then proceeded to make the pen as if it were of any material. The result is that the barrel and cap have the threads in the PVC and the feathers are backed and bracketed by the PVC. The same could be done with a CF sleeve. The CF ends would be a little hard to trim neat and tight to the shoulder but a few wraps of stainless or copper wire might look appropriate as a cover. We also did another with a Japanese paper along the same lines. I'll add a couple pictures of the feather pen, with the proviso that it was an experiment, to illustrate the way it can be done. The finished pen with converter was is about 30 grams and could easily be made lighter by drilling more from inside the ends. Caped is 5.5" long and has a 14mm triple thread. Nib is a 5mm Schmidt.

 

Pete

 

Pete, that's lovely! Congrats on the innovation.

Classic Guilloché ------------ www.argentblue.com ------------Damascus Steel

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Thanks Richard.

 

I had a thought last night before nodding off to sleep. If one were to go whole hog and make a "structural" CF pen rather than one with a decorative overlay, it should have a pen clip made of the Cf tow / ribbon too. It could be made over a simple form, shaped and polished to suit, and then bonded to the pen. Might as well have the clip match the rest of the pen. ;) Any thoughts?

 

Pete

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Thanks Richard.

 

I had a thought last night before nodding off to sleep. If one were to go whole hog and make a "structural" CF pen rather than one with a decorative overlay, it should have a pen clip made of the Cf tow / ribbon too. It could be made over a simple form, shaped and polished to suit, and then bonded to the pen. Might as well have the clip match the rest of the pen. ;) Any thoughts?

 

Pete

Doable... I think. A piece the size of a clip SHOULD have a bit of springiness to it. As for the 'ball,' just roll the edge.

<em class='bbc'>I started nowhere, ended up back there. I caught a fever and it burned up my blood. It was a pity, I left the city; I did me some travelin' but it's done me no good.</em> - Buffalo Clover "The Ruse"

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  • 2 years later...

I just posted about carbon fiber pens in another thread. But, I thought that I would post here as well since the two threads have different posters. If this is inappropriate, feel free to delete this message.

 

How durable are these carbon fiber pens? From what I understand, the carbon fiber is usually overlaid with an acrylic coating. How durable are these coatings? When the coating wears off and wears off unevenly, wouldn't that ruin the pen's finish?

Edited by Dik F Liu
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If you carry your pen in a pocket with your keys and coins it will scratch up as quick as any other plastic pen. If the scratches are from normal use, a dulled finish can be restored by careful polishing on a buffing wheel. A true structural carbon fibre pen using epoxy that just barely covers the weave may not behave the same way as the decorative polyester made ones and I can't speak to how they would wear or be restored.

 

Pete

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Thanks. So, the carbon fiber largely only aesthetics? Carbon fiber is such a strong material. Why is the coating even necessary? Are there any carbon fiber pens that lack the acrylic coating? Thanks.

 

Dik

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