Painted Pen Tubes

[Scott Roy]

I have recently started turning a few acrylic pens. I have been using Rustoleum gloss white spray paint to paint the tubes. I let the paint dry for 24 hours and then use two part epoxy to glue them in the blanks. What I have noticed is that after the blank is turned down to size I can see small spots of brass tube where the paint has chipped / peeled while inserting the tube into the blank. Is it possibly bad adhesion of the paint, or maybe the heat from the curing process of the epoxy? Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks.

[Keith Outten]

Scott,

Try tinting the epoxy white and you won't need to paint the tubes.
.

[Dan Hintz]

Unfortunately, the layer of epoxy is generally too thin to impart any solid color and the tube shows through... painting the tube is the only real way to hide it in every case.

Scott, enamels are your best bet... make sure you are spraying a thin layer, and make sure the hole in the blank is wide enough to accept the now-thicker tube/paint combo. It's possible you're scraping some of the paint off when you insert the tube during glueing, so give it a little extra room to move with a bigger hole.

[Grant Wilkinson]

Paint the inside of the hole in the blank, too. If you colour both the tubes and the blank, you will likely need to drill the blank a bit bigger than stock. I colour both the tube and the blank so that the glue does not show through and it works very well.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

Paint the inside of the hole in the blank, too. If you colour both the tubes and the blank, you will likely need to drill the blank a bit bigger than stock. I colour both the tube and the blank so that the glue does not show through and it works very well.

this is the best answer.

you can vary the color of paint you use, and it will show through the blank creating different effects.

[Scott Roy]

Painting the inside of the blank sounds like a good idea. I assume you use a brush for this? Or do you spray paint down through the hole?

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

either way. whatever I have on hand.

[Marvin Hasenak]

Buy a 17 caliber cleaning tip and some small cleaning patches at your local sporting goods store. Slip a cleaning patch in the cleaning tip and dip it in paint, slide it from one end and repeat for the other end of the blank. Let dry and glue tube in. Throw the patch away and drop the tip into a small jar of paint thinner, it will be ready the next time you need it. If you want to be fancy ou can drill and tap the end of a piece of 1/4" piece of aluminum rod and make a fancy handle to screw the tip into.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I just spray mine. It's nothing fancy, but it coats the inside well and has not let me down yet. As Shawn said, experiment with different colours. The final look will change dramatically using black, instead of white, for example. Silver really adds punch to some of the purple blanks. If you want to go with black, you can buy a "blackener" from jewellery suppliers. I think that it is sulfur based. It will actually chemically change the colour of the tube to various degrees of black. One of its benefits is that the coating the forms on the tube is very thin compared to paint. Coloured sharpies works well, too.

[John Brown]

Sand the tubes before painting to give some grip.

[John Terefenko]

One thing I would like to add. Whenever using acrylics it is always a good idea to sand the inside of the blank to get rid of the drill marks. I wrap a piece of sandpaper around a dowel and have at it. This will also open the hole sightly to allow for the build up of paint. I recomend only painting the inside of the blank. I would also add a tinge of color to the epoxy and this will also help. I also like to sand the tube to give it some tooth for gluing. Have never had a failure. As mentioned using different colored paints can change the look of a blank dramatically.

[Len Mullin]

I disagree with drilling the hole bigger, the hole is large enough. If it isn't, your using to much paint! I've turned many pens, and I've never drilled one blank larger than suggested by the directions. Especially, if your drilling any of the plastic/poly resin blanks. The amount of material that is left from when you drill the blank and turn it is minimal as it is. I turn a lot of items that require the use of the 7mm brass tubing, such as, pens, styluses, and I like to turn them thin so that there's not a lot of the blank left on the brass tube about 1/6", plus I turn to the bushing size. So, if I were to drill the hole larger, I wouldn't have any of the blank material showing, all that would be left is the brass tube and the paint.
Len

[John Terefenko]

I disagree with drilling the hole bigger, the hole is large enough. If it isn't, your using to much paint! I've turned many pens, and I've never drilled one blank larger than suggested by the directions. Especially, if your drilling any of the plastic/poly resin blanks. The amount of material that is left from when you drill the blank and turn it is minimal as it is. I turn a lot of items that require the use of the 7mm brass tubing, such as, pens, styluses, and I like to turn them thin so that there's not a lot of the blank left on the brass tube about 1/6", plus I turn to the bushing size. So, if I were to drill the hole larger, I wouldn't have any of the blank material showing, all that would be left is the brass tube and the paint.
Len

Len you evidently make alot of slimline pens or pens of that type. When you start getting into some of the larger kits the drill bit sizes sometimes are tight. When drilling wood ( I know he mentioned acrylics) you can have expansion because of heat build up. There are definetly times when stepping up a size in bits is needed. This is more evident if painting both tube and blank. This is where a complete set of drill bits is handy. One of those sets that has letter as well as numbers. You may have not had to but there are many people such as myself that have had to make adjustments. That is why I suggested sanding the inside with a rolled up piece of sandpaper because it serves 2 purposes, gets the drill marks out and also enlarges the hole ever so slightly. Drill marks are noticable when as you mentioned the blank becomes very thin. This is also where you see huge differences in color of the blank if not painted. Also the glue used can now be seen if the blank is not reverse painted.