Better, Easier, Cheaper Knock Out Blocks

[Greenie]

With apologies to those who make beautiful blocks and sell them as part of their pen business......

 

 

Plastic electrical junction boxes are sturdy, smooth, readily available and inexpensive. Just flip it over, and drill holes whatever size you want. Missing the right size? Drill another hole!

 

My favorite is slightly more expensive. Sturdier. $4.45

 

 

And the absolute budget line. I forgot to take a picture of the price!!! Take my word for it. 25 cents. Yes, 0.25 USD. Hard to beat.

 

[carlos.q]

This is a very creative solution!

[masterguns]

Nice! I've been using a piece of oak, but this appeals to me. Thanks.

[OCArt]

Very good idea. Thank you for sharing.

[pen lady]

Cut off the mounting lugs to save some space and then you can store things inside too. What a great idea. It beats my old first one which was an empty tuna tin with holes punched in it using a nail set!

[pajaro]

An excellent solution. I drilled some holes in the board for my electric trains. Uniting two hobbies.

[mhphoto]

Excellent idea!

[the_gasman]

I, too, baulked at the cost of available knock-out blocks so I just drill an appropriately sized hole in a centimetre-thick piece of wood and prop it between two thick books. I use a sawn off piece of freeby wooden chopstick as a punch. When tapping out a nib/feed with a tack hammer, I put some foam under the block to cushion the landing if the nib falls out.

 

Cheers,

David.

[Vintagepens]

I'd opt for a chunk of wood over a junction box. Takes up less space on the bench, and much more solid.

[Greenie]

David,

 

For you, I could pick one up and mail it to you. You just might like the more solid feel of this approach. As Mom always said, how do you know you don't like it if you never tried it! This could be the Kale of pen blocks. Some will love it, and some will hate it. Me, I hate Kale. But that is besides the point. At least I tried it.

 

Actually, this is more solid than most scrap wood. You would need a quality piece of a hard wood to get equal support. I hear childrens blocks are great, but I did not have any of those around. The pieces of wood I was getting from the moulding department at Home Depot just weren't that hard and the edges of the holes would wear down. This is probably why the commercial sellers (pendemonium and pentooling) put metal plate or PVC on top of the wood (the new $23 block from Pentooling is half way down the page of "files, brushes, odd tools" and is PVC over wood). And then you need to prop up/elevate the wood. I would think that two books and a piece of wood are at least the same size as a box.

 

The box comes with its own built in "stand" and is more stable than propping up wood on something. The idea was for an all in one solution that was not wood, and not the potentially unstable combination of wood propped up on something else.

 

The other bonus is that you can then flip it over and put the parts of the pen in it to keep them together after you knock out the feed.

 

I would give everyone some typical parental advice, mixed with a Dad pun. Don't "knock" it till you try it.

[FarmBoy]

I like Kale.

[kirchh]

No need to "prop up" a wood block. Just drill holes in it. I'm not sure what could be simpler than that.

 

--Daniel

[The Write Pen]

That is very clever. However, I'm still a fan of the ones I build for Pendemonium from the model Fr. Terry build years ago. Aluminum plates drilled with concentric holes and fastened on a sturdy block of oak with 4 punch rods stored in the block. The picture on the website is a horrible one from the first batch.

 

Regards,

 

danny

[pajaro]

That is very clever. However, I'm still a fan of the ones I build for Pendemonium from the model Fr. Terry build years ago. Aluminum plates drilled with concentric holes and fastened on a sturdy block of oak with 4 punch rods stored in the block. The picture on the website is a horrible one from the first batch.

 

Regards,

 

danny

 

That's a great idea and a fine way to remember a well loved figure.

 

The average person might only knock out a half dozen nibs in a lifetime, though.

[JonSzanto]

That is very clever. However, I'm still a fan of the ones I build for Pendemonium from the model Fr. Terry build years ago. Aluminum plates drilled with concentric holes and fastened on a sturdy block of oak with 4 punch rods stored in the block. The picture on the website is a horrible one from the first batch.

 

Regards,

Danny

 

Ok, Danny, now you're going to get it! I just saw Sam and Frank at the LA show, and I told Sam I think of them on a regular basis: first off, because the only ballpoint I carry is a special Jotter they sold, and second, I think of them every time I use the knock-out block.

 

And now I see it traces back to you, and even further to Fr. Terry? Wow. Thanks, Danny! Now I have a whole crowd of people in my head whenever I use the tool!

Edited February 21, 2016 by JonSzanto

[PAKMAN]

Don't use mine much but boy is it handy when you need it! Mine is the Fudge/Pendemonium model.

[ac12]

How much bounce does the electrical box have?

[Greenie]

The gray box has minimal bounce. Go to the electrical aisle and pick one up, take it to the tool aisle and tap it with a small hammer. Compares favorably to wood, but without the deformation of the hole when the feed is really stuck and you have to keep working on it for a while.

 

The cheap blue one works well, but has too much "give" for my taste. But you can't beat the price if you are just starting out in the hobby.

 

I like my Pendemonium block with the metal top, but I like really old pens, and sometimes the holes were just too big for the sections I often work on (not flared). And the metal plate at times seems a bit too hard.

 

Everyone has their own preferences, and over time, those can certainly change as well.

 

I also take a certain satisfaction in making my own tools and in finding novel solutions to issues at hand. I loved the post about the tuna can, and someone also posted somewhere about using a socket that happened to have a hole the right size for the pen he was working on.

[ac12]

The reason I ask is because I used a wood dowel for a punch...once. The wood absorbed too much of the impact from the hammer requiring me to hit the dowel HARDER. I now use steel punches. I figure a flexing box would have a similar effect of absorbing the impact from the hammer.

 

I might just try making one, just to see what it is like.

Edited February 24, 2016 by ac12

[Vintagepens]

Depending on the task, I use either a block made of steel or oak. In either case, I only use metal punches.