Bending Celluloid Acetate

[KingRoach]

Hi guys,

 

I have a pen made out of celluloid acetate. It's a beautiful pen for me and I would love to keep it and even upgrade it a little bit with a new clip and nib and maybe eventually a section.

 

The problem with it is that the barrel seems bent a little bit. I am not sure if it's off-axis threads or that it was bent after being made, but in any case I wonder if this material can be bent safely at all. I am thinking of a cylindrical manderel in the full thickness of the cavity to go in, and gentle heat.

 

What are your thoughts?

[richardandtracy]

I accidentally heat bent a Kaigelu 316.

 

My sucess in correcting the problem was.. to be kind.. negligible. In truth, I made it worse. Manipulating the hot barrel made things worse, leaving finger & thumb indents in the barrel.

 

Regards,

 

Richard.

[Security-Man2k]

I wouldn't you may over soften it.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Security-Man2k

[KingRoach]

There has to be a threshold for making it softer and ever so slightly pliable. After all, it WAS bent into that form somehow.

This is why I'm suggesting a manderel. Heat bending with hands and fingers is likely going to deform the tube shape of it too.

[Security-Man2k]

Do you have an offcut you could use as a test piece? That is what i do when i need to test a new technique.

[KingRoach]

Do you have an offcut you could use as a test piece? That is what i do when i need to test a new technique.

 

I wish but unfortunately I don't. I could share a photo of the pen if I didn't find the photo sharing functions of this forum to be an abomination with the now mainstream workflow of media sharing. I wish we could just upload a photo straight from phone or something. I often have to come to PC to use the forum because I can't type on phone, so the two streams are broken and copying photos (I don't cloud my photos) between the two just adds to the flow in ways which are too out of my way. I don't know how the other guys do it. they are probably more organised than me or have less on their mind.

[SoulSamurai]

I host my photos on an unused page on my Blogspot blog, then just copy the image address and paste it here using the image icon.

[hemlock]

。。。。。。。。。

[PaulS]

this quesiton came up last year and 'fountainbel' (Francis in Belgium) also suggested the mandrel idea in combination with heat - unfortunately the pen in question then was BHR - which apparently is the easiest material to manipulate using heat - and not celluloid.

Some cheap pens - Platignum and Osmiroid for example - often end up developing the 'banana shape in the barrel.

You'd imagine that if the mandrel was a perfect fit then this would work, but other issues such as lever and pressure bar might prevent the entry of a close fitting mandrel, though these items can be removed if necessary.

Edited June 17, 2019 by PaulS

[KingRoach]

Thanks for adding to this thread.

 

First off, I think I made a mistake in the title. It should probably be Cellulose Acetate, not celluloid acetate.

 

Second, the barrel is just a barrel. No mechanisms in it. It's like what custom pen makers do, as the pen is actually a C/C filler.

 

I think the mandrel might work, but yeah it's not without challenges. I will try something if I find something the right size. Fortunately the barrel is also mostly cylindrical.