Multi-Use Pen Kit Press

In this Instructable I would like to show you how I designed and 3D Printed this press for putting together the popular Inexpensive slimline pen kits.

I must stress at this point that I'm not a Pen maker by any means, I did make a one piece brass pen once with the same kit.

The Concept:

I have seen some of the pen presses you often see on Youtube videos etc and some of them look a bit unwieldy where they have the big lever to push the components together when what you ideally want is precision, especially with the twist action component of the pen, this only needs to be pushed in so far, this is the component that pushes the refill through the pen nib, and its pressed in so far, removed, refill inserted to see how much nib is showing and then adjusted to suit.

I have titled this Press Multi-Use because it can also be used with the clamp blocks provided to hold the pen blanks in place whilst a hole is drilled centrally through to accept the tubes that come with the kit, these blocks can then be reversed to be used as a standard vice.

This Press is fully 3D Printable and only uses 1 piece of hardware in the build which is a 5mm x 8mm Grub screw, this is used in the slider which houses the screw turn, it screw in from underneath and is used when the slider is retracted.

We will now look at how the Pen Press is designed and assembled, I don't have any access to woodworking machines anymore so for the purpose of this Instructable I designed some very simple pen blanks for demonstration purposes only, the STL files for the Pen Blanks are included in this Instructable should anyone wish to have a go at making a pen without too much expense.

For this build all you will need is a decent 3D Printer

In my case I use the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon

The filament I used for this build is mainly ABS for strength the grey components are PLA

Hardware:

1no 5mm x 8mm Grub screw.

Slimline Pen Kits(Ebay UK)

CA Glue(Optional)

This press was designed with Fusion 360, I have designed a number of vices and the STL files for all of these are available on the Bambu Lab Maker World, site, I didn't think they warranted a full Instructable as there is no end product so to speak, they are simply hand tools, with this press you have an end product with which you can make something and use on a daily basis which is always fulfilling.

There are numerous Fusion 360 tutorials online, these are far better at explaining the design process than I am, so anyone setting out with Fusion 360 should look at some these tutorials, it worked for me.

Starting out one should have a basic idea of what they want to achieve, this is usually in the form of a sketch, I looked at some of the presses available to purchase and how they worked and that was my starting point.

I ordered one of the slimline pen kits in a gold finish, these are readily available in a number of finishes.

I am now at this stage ready to put a design together, I can take dimensions from the pen kit and start sketching the main body of the press, this is very much similar to a vice but I wanted the sliders to be functional in other ways as well.

The body had to be long enough to accept both the sliders and the pen components so with everything measured out the main body of the press was designed, I incorporated a slot to use when drilling the blanks and also 2no countersunk holes to screw the press to a suitable plinth, I cut a hole into the end of the plinth to accept a 16mm threaded screw, I always off-set the threads as I'm going through the modelling process, they would be too tight otherwise.

As you can see in the main body image, there is a recess at each side of the body length, these are for the sliders to run along when in situ, these are filleted ready for when the sliders are designed and off-set so they slide easily along the length of the body.

If you look at the image of the body, you will see 2 holes along the body, these go all the way through side to side and accept a pin which is pushed through the end slider to lock in place.

With the main body now designed we can move onto the slider which accepts the screw thread.

Slider 1 is the slider which accepts the screwed thread, the slider needs to be retracted to open the press so to achieve this I sketched a hole into the bottom of the slider, the hole is 5mm and threaded, and a 5mm x 8mm grub screw is used, this in turn screws into a groove made in the thread screw turn and screwed in and then backed off until the thread rotates easily.

The main hole in the slider is made deep enough to accept enough of the screw allowing for the recess in the screw as well.

This is a good time to move onto the threaded screw turn.

This 16mm threaded screw turn is designed to use the full length of the body or thereabouts, the thread is off-set when modeled or it would be too tight.

If you look at the image you can see how the thread is recessed to accept the grub screw, I incorporated a t bar to turn the thread, the end cap is a push fit but can be glued with CA Glue if deemed necessary

As you can see from the image, the End Slider has the hole going through it this accepts the pin used to lock it in place when the slider is locked in place in the main body.

And you can see there is another hole in the End Slider just below the centre on the face, this is a conical hole to accept the pen nib and is a good aid when assembling the pen components to make alignment easier.

The pin and nut are both 8mm and are screwed up finger tight through the holes in the body when going through the pressing stages.

The 2no Clamp "V" Blocks are what makes the press multi-use, they can be used to hold a pen blank in place vertically to aid in drilling a hole centrally through the blanks( Untested)or reversing them allows the press to be used as a vice.

As I mentioned earlier I'm not in anyway a Pen Maker but I will take you through what I know or more to the point how I put this 3D printed pen together.

Initially I 3D Printed the 2 blanks, these in turn have a 7mm hole through them, the 52mm tubes were really tight in the holes and I filed both holes out bearing in mind that tubes are glued in.

With the tubes glued into both blanks we can begin the first press, the first process is to press the nib into the nib blank, the blanks are pretty much tapered the same so its not important which one you use.

With the End slider in the first position, Insert the nib into the conical hole on the end slider and align the blank whilst you tighten the screw turn, I modeled a sacrificial spacer to insert in between the screw end slider and the blank, this is purely to protect the surface of the slider, turn the screw until the nib is fully inserted.

Whilst in this position we can now get the 2nd blank and insert the end cap through the clip and using the sacrificial spacer again we can press the end cap until it's fully tightened and the pen clip is tight.

The end slider can now be moved to the 2nd position, pin inserted and tightened, once again place the nib blank into the conical hole, the twisting mechanism can now be pressed into the blank, the twisting mechanism is inserted with the brass end going into the tube, ensure blank and twist mechanism are aligned and gently screw the screw turn until the brass part is fully inserted, remove the blank at this stage, fit the refill and twist to ensure enough of the refill is poking through the conical nib, place the blank back into the press if a tweak is needed.

All that is left to do is fit the refill, tighten up and push the clip blank onto the twist mechanism, that's it, we have a 3D printed pen, made with a Slimline pen kit.

Note, all the 3D Printed components should be printed out of ABS and the main body should have 100% infill for strength, the remaining components ideally will have an infill of 60%

So there we have it, a Multi-Use Pen Press, a really nice project from the initial concept taking it through to a fully working model.