The first cap pen I made out of aluminum
My most recent twist pen made out of brass
I learned how to lathe my senior year of high school and I thought that making my own pen would be really cool. The two pens here are my personal ones, the aluminum pen being done solely for function and the brass pen being done for both form and function.
A History of My Pens
My first pen used a screw to push the cartridge forward. It was also very thick for a pen which made it uncomfortable to hold. I powder coated it to learn how to powder coat aluminum.
This is the second pen I made, shown above as well. It is a cap pen made out of aluminum. There are two parts that hold the cartridge in place and a fitted cap. It is very barebones with no grips and is left with a machine finish. The nose cone is very steep, it is slightly too long, and the hole for the cartridge is too large, which makes for a sub-par writing experience.
This pen has the exact same cross section as the previous pen except for the addition of the accents on the back of the pen. I fixed a lot of the sizing mistakes I made on the previous pen here. This is also the first pen I made that has grips made by cutting radial slots in the front of the pen. It is made of aluminum and brass. It was hand sanded and then polished.
This is the first twist pen I made. It looks very similar to the previous pen in terms of the accents and grips but utilizes a twist mechanism in the back of the pen. It is primarily made of aluminum, only using brass for the accents. It was also hand sanded and polished.
This is the last pen I have made. It is also a twist pen and has the exact same innerworkings as the previous pen. It is completely brass to increase the weight. The front and rear of the pen are rounded. I achieved this by making cuts at small angle increments and then sanding them smooth. This was designed for machining, taking into account the bit sizes I had available and all of my previous knowledge on the tolerance needed. The grips on this were milled.
