Behind the Scenes at Edison: Making a Menlo Pump Filler!

[bgray]

Enjoy!


http://youtu.be/mxRVKUw4_Pw

[Jon Szanto]

Brian, you do such spectacular work - thanks for sharing each step of the way on this beautiful pen!

[kaisnowbird]

Now, that's serious pen porn!

[trhall]

Love these kinds of videos, Brian.

[Bogon07]

Thanks Brian. Fascinating to see the manufacturing process in such detail. Interesting to see the drill bits remain stationary while the object turns.

Do some materials have higher failure rates & do you have favourite materials to work with ?

[caribbean_skye]

I was doing so well resisting one, now I need to start saving up. Thanks for sharing the video, it was great to see all of the work going into the pen.

[bgray]

Thanks Brian. Fascinating to see the manufacturing process in such detail. Interesting to see the drill bits remain stationary while the object turns.


Thanks! It's funny - to me, the concept of stationary drills is so rudimentary since i run a lathe all day, but you are right. Most people think of drills spinning and the workpiece being stationary.

Just so you know a little machining trivia - there's two main tools in the machining world. A Mill and a Lathe. With the lathe, the tools are generally stationary, and the workpiece spins. With a Mill, the workpiece is stationary and the tools spin. There are minor exceptions, such as live lathe tooling, but that's the general concept. We do use a mill to cut our clip slots, but I didn't film that part, as the film was already getting long!


Do some materials have higher failure rates & do you have favourite materials to work with ?

Great question...generally speaking, I'll give you a rundown...

1. Standard Cast Acrylics - great material, TONS of choices, machines great. Very durable. The gold standard for a pen material standpoint in all aspects. My personal favorite.

2. Ebonite - also great. Not nearly as many choices, however. Since it's extruded rather than cast, it comes in patterns that is not possible with cast acrylics, and vice-versa. It's unique, and since it's a rubber, it feels a little more "organic" or "warm" for lack of a better term. Very durable, and will outlast all of us if it's well loved and taken care of. However it is more susceptible to UV rays and will fade if left in sunlight. There are some ebonites that I will not use, as I've found them to fade unacceptably, even when you take great care of them. If there's an ebonite that is prone to fading, I'll let the client know about, and generally will never use them. But there are plenty of great ebonites out there. I've just found a few bad apples in the last 3-4 years. Bottom line - if it's no good, I won't use it. It does have a sulfuric smell when freshly machined that will fade with time.

3. Nitrous Celluloid and Cellulose Acetate. Great material, but very tough to find. There was a supplier who was distributing nitrous, but their stock is all gone, and they only had about 3-4 choices to begin with. I can get it, but only by the metric ton, literally...that's a bit much. So I really have no supply, except what I can scrounge on eBay, or what my clients can find and send to me. It has a low melting temperature, so you have to be very careful. Shallow drill pecks/depth of cut and lots of coolant. Smells like camphor. Great material, but I just can't acquire hardly any of it anymore. There's no reason why standard acrylics are worse than celluloid, which is why you see them being much more prevalent. Standard acrylics are just as good, and less expensive to manufacture.

4. Cebloplast (mostly known as old Sheaffer stock). Similar in every way to nitrous celluloid and cellulose acetate in nearly every way, except for a few exceptions. 1. It's even tougher to find. 2. It's melting point is even lower, so even more care must be taken during maching. It's a real pain to work, but in the end is worth it. Pretty cool stuff, but no longer made, that I know of.

5. Polyester Resin. I won't use this. There's lots of weekend warriors who "home-brew" this, but I've never found any of this material that is not way too brittle, let alone consistent in appearance. This will generally work fine for people making kit pens, but those pens do not require cutting of threads. Every time that I've used this material, the threads are way too brittle, and easily break apart, no matter how shallow the cuts. It's possible to get the threads to form, and I've accomplished this with lots of care, but I would never feel good standing behind the pen, as I'm convinced that a drop that an acrylic pen would stand up to would simply demolish the threads on these poly resins. That being said, I've heard of some guys having success, and I haven't played with any of the new poly resins for a couple of years, so maybe I should re-evaluate.

6. Wood. Generally can't use it for the same reasons as Poly Resins, but it's even worse. Even the densest of woods will not hold up to the threads that I need to cut. I've considered attaching acrylic or metal portions to the wood portions and then cutting the threads in the acrylic or metal...but then you've basically made a kit pen, which I'd rather avoid. Nothing wrong with kit pens, but they are not unique, and I'd rather not make a pen that emulates them, as they are very commonplace. And not only that, but sawdust is not good for for my machines. Dust can get into the controllers and electronics and create problems. The way to avoid this is to spray with coolant, but this will make the wood expand. No good.

7. Metal - while we do manufacture lots of parts (centerbands, trim rings, overlays, etc) out of metal, I don't foresee us using any metal (even precious) as the main pen components anytime soon. It just doesn't fit our style or business model. Maybe a section from metal someday, but no plans right now. Metal machines totally different than acrylic and each metal machines very different from another.

Sorry if I got long winded, but I suppose I got on on a roll! I think that's pretty well all material options, but if I missed one, let me know.

[kaisnowbird]

Brian, what's your turn around time these days for a signature line (assuming that the design and measurements are all agreed upon and the material is in stock)?

[cwent2]

Brian

Thank you for your outstanding craftsmanship and design, not to mention the photography and video work

great presentation

Thanks

Carl Wood

[bgray]

Brian, what's your turn around time these days for a signature line (assuming that the design and measurements are all agreed upon and the material is in stock)?

An order placed today will be made and shipped in about 4 weeks. Throughout the year, our timeline rarely gets shorter than 2 weeks or longer than 8 weeks. Thanks!

[Crazyorange]

Brian,
Thanks for the video. It was fascinating to watch. You sent me my custom pen about 2 weeks ago. I absolute love it and now I can appreciate the workman ship that goes into it. I'm coming back for another pen for the holidays. What's the turn around time for Xmas?

[bgray]

Brian,
Thanks for the video. It was fascinating to watch. You sent me my custom pen about 2 weeks ago. I absolute love it and now I can appreciate the workman ship that goes into it. I'm coming back for another pen for the holidays. What's the turn around time for Xmas?

If you want a custom pen done in time for any given holiday, birthday, etc, make sure to contact us about 8 weeks in advance, just to play it very safe.

Of course, at any given time, we always have around 200-300 pens inventoried that we bring with us to pen shows. If you need a pen quickly, we can ship any of those immediately. You can see them here...
http://edisonpenco.smugmug.com/Pens/Current-Inventory/13897930_VJqnP7#!i=2803510907&k=pRJJ3WR

Or of course, you could always get a pen quickly from one of our retailers who carry our Production Line.
http://edisonpen.com/page.cfm/Production-Line-Main-Page

Thanks!

[reprieve]

Loved the video (and the intro music--Buildings and Bridges is a great song). It gives me even more appreciation for all the work that went into my tortoise lucite Menlo. I knew that these translucent materials required polishing on the inside but I never quite realized how labor-intensive that is.

[bgray]

Loved the video (and the intro music--Buildings and Bridges is a great song). It gives me even more appreciation for all the work that went into my tortoise lucite Menlo. I knew that these translucent materials required polishing on the inside but I never quite realized how labor-intensive that is.

Ha! I was wondering who would recognize that song! Another Ani fan! :)

Thanks for the kind words!

By they way, I haven't forgotten about your request to see more photos of double ended pens. Hopefully this coming week, we are going to get all of our inventory galleries updated, and get all photos uploaded to the right galleries. I will probably also add a completely new section to the website devoted just to double ended pens, so stay tuned...there's a good amount of photos to share, but we haven't had time to get them organized yet. I'll announce this on the blog when those photos are all set.

[trhall]

I will probably also add a completely new section to the website devoted just to double ended pens, so stay tuned...

Looking forward to a dedicated section on Double Ended pens. Loving mine!

[Lince]

Great video, thank you so much for taking us on a production tour to Edison.
Sure is a sweet pen!

[Waski_the_Squirrel]

I think my favorite thing about the Edison Pen Company is the revival (or maybe creation) of unique filling mechanisms. My itch to own an Edison was scratched with an ordinary Collier, but these different filling mechanisms may bring me back!

[trhall]

Great question...generally speaking, I'll give you a rundown...

(Snip)

Sorry if I got long winded, but I suppose I got on on a roll! I think that's pretty well all material options, but if I missed one, let me know.

This would be a great article on your website, Brian.

[bgray]

Great question...generally speaking, I'll give you a rundown...

(Snip)

Sorry if I got long winded, but I suppose I got on on a roll! I think that's pretty well all material options, but if I missed one, let me know.

This would be a great article on your website, Brian.

Not a bad idea. I had an article like this up on the site at one time, but it needed updated badly, so I removed it. A freshly written version is probably in order.

[Bogon07]

Great question...generally speaking, I'll give you a rundown...

(Snip)

Sorry if I got long winded, but I suppose I got on on a roll! I think that's pretty well all material options, but if I missed one, let me know.

This would be a great article on your website, Brian.

Not a bad idea. I had an article like this up on the site at one time, but it needed updated badly, so I removed it. A freshly written version is probably in order.

Brian, thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed & informative reply. As Trhall it would be useful to have on your website.

[snedwos]

How do you decide what pens to make to keep in inventory? How many do you make at a time? Is it just a whim ("I feel like making this model out of this material today") or do you plan carefully what you will make?

[bgray]

How do you decide what pens to make to keep in inventory? How many do you make at a time? Is it just a whim ("I feel like making this model out of this material today") or do you plan carefully what you will make?

A little of both. We know what's popular, and what sells consistently. We'll always make plenty of those. And then it's always worth it to take chances on unorthodox materials and set-ups.

Anytime that we are prepping for a pen show, customers can also put in requests for what they might want to see with no obligation. As long as the request is not completely crazy, and would only appeal to a real small crowd, we will honor the request and give it a shot.

As far as how many we make - it varies. We take anywhere from 6 to 8 racks that hold 48 pens each to each pen show. We usually make enough pens to make those racks look mostly full. So we'll make roughly the same amount that we sold at the last show, combined with that might have sold online since the last show.

Thanks!