Building My First Pen

January 6, 2015

Dear Builder community,

I'm a fountain pen collector, and avid fountain pen user. I use all of my pens, even the pricey ones. I'm also a DIYer and want to construct my first fountain pen. I have some ideas and drawings for more complicated pens, but I wanted to start out with something very simple: A PVC fountain pen.

I want to take some small-gauge 1/4" PVC for the body and a larger gauge for the cap; maybe 3/8" or 1/2". I need to figure out how to get them to screw together. My first design will be an eye dropper, where I use a screwed fitting to seal the other end of the PVC pipe body and cap. I'll remove some PVC from the barrel to form the grip section, and screw in a nib/feed/nib collar into the PVC.

Has anyone tried this before? Am I missing something, or is this a bad idea?

Tom

January 7, 2015

I've used PVC to make a pen before but not from pre-made tube like think you are wanting to do. I used PVC from a new sewer line that was being put in locally. The pipe was 30" plus across and over an inch thick. The green scrap pieces about 3' long were mine for the asking. The stuff comes in other colours depending on the use and locality using it. White, light and dark blue, green and even pink can be found sometimes. On the lathe it cuts with long shavings that don't break so you need to interrupt the cut often or stop and remove them as they wrap around the piece. Threading is easy. If you want some and can't scrounge up any where you live I can send some your way. If going for the sewer pipe I strongly recommend "virgin pipe".

Pete