Prometheus Writes: A Premium 3-piece Executive Pen
Created by Prometheus Lights
Experience writing nirvana: a masterfully machined body designed exclusively for the world's finest Montblanc cartridges.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
"Failure to Cap" & Production Updates
over 12 years ago
– Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 06:51:39 AM
Hi Backers,
Hope all of you are well! Things are plugging along in the shop. Let's get right to the top story.
Failure to Cap:
Properly capping any 3 Pc pen requires a little bit of torque!
My friend sent Wilson me the photo above. A very sad photo indeed. I don't want Alphas to ruin any more clothes so I need to point out: You must tighten the cap if you don't want it to come loose! This also applies to the grip where it threads into the body. Just a little bit of torque will cause enough friction in the threads to prevent them from coming loose. You don't need a lot of torque, just some.
This applies to any object that threads into another, like the screw and bolt in the photo above. No pressure between the threads, no holding ability :) How much is enough? Just try to unscrew the parts...if they come apart too easily it wasn't enough torque. If they take too much force to separate, then you used too much torque :)
The short version: the next batch of aluminum pens will start shipping next Wednesday. Ti and "Twice is nice" will start the next round of shipping the week after. At that point, I should have about as much inventory on hand as I am able to ship in the evenings. Right now my best guess is 80% fulfillment by the end of September.
Nothing earth shaking above, steady progress, but it's still a long slog to the end. So I've finished all of the "Body 1" parts in aluminum. I've been working through the second op on the body. The cycle time is just over a minute (really fast) but each part must be loaded and unloaded by hand...roughly 1500 times. Since the cycle time is only a minute, that doesn't leave me much time to do anything else but sit there. I've had a buddy in the shop helping load the machine so I can do other things like buff threads, load/unload the tumbler, wash and dry parts, run to the plating company, pick up more material, etc.
I did make one change to the production schedule. I decided to run the "Body 2" operation next instead of just switching over to the Ti "Body 1" parts. "Body 2" is finishing the second op on the body; cutting the end where the tailcap "posts." Each tray above holds about 50 pcs. These are Tobiko (fish egg) trays from the Japanese restaurant my friend works at. Turns out they are the perfect size for pen parts :)
So the image above shows why I decided to run "Body 2" in aluminum. I have lots of Alu caps and grips that are finished and waiting for bodies. This way I can start shipping aluminum pens (which I do at home after work) and get a bunch out right away.
100% the aluminum grips are machined and finished, but they all need to be plated. I'll be taking these to they plating company in batches of 300 pcs, along with 120 pcs of aluminum bodies. The reason I'm taking fewer aluminum bodies at the same time is to avoid losing a lot of parts if the thread tolerance is off. If a batch comes back too tight, I can always take down the diameter of the threads on the next batch with the buffing wheel, even though the parts are already machined. Because each body has two threaded parts, that doubles the chance of an error. The body and cap also have larger threads, and larger threads require more force to machine, and this increased force wears the tools faster...compared to a smaller thread.
A technical digression...
So far the Haas ST10-Y has 206 hour on it (cycle start time). This is the amount of the the machine has spent actively running a program. The "feed cutting time" is the actual time a tool has been engaged with the workpiece. This number is much lower because a CNC spends most of it's time changing tools or getting from one place to another...and not actually cutting material.
New CNC machines are a lot faster than old ones in terms of how quickly they can physically move during "rapid" motion. "Rapids" generally occur when the machine is traveling, not cutting. A rapid takes place at the full speed the machine is capable of moving. This lathe can rapid at 1400 inches/minute. My old mill can only rapid at 250 inches/minute.
Machine shops spend a lot of time trying to shorten the cycle time in order to lower cost and increase profit. This is an interesting example where investing in a new machine might actually "save" more money than trying to make an old machine more efficient...especially since about 2/3 of machine time is spent moving around and not actually making the part. Imagine if my lathe could only do 250 inches/minute? That means it would take about 6x as long to make the same parts!
Shipping Update, Process Changes, Tumblr, and Vacation (NOT)
over 12 years ago
– Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 02:21:33 AM
Shipping Update
Hi folks, hope everyone is doing well! So I've shipped about 310 pens so far. I've made a production decision that will create a couple week delay before pens start shipping again, but it should actually mean total fulfillment will be completed more quickly when shipping resumes. Looking ahead, the balance of aluminum pens will be shipped out first, because they'll be ready first. More details below...
Here is the first batch of titanium pens getting assembled!
Each pen has three parts, so at this point I have a lot of "x" parts but I'm out of "y" parts. I've decided to run 100% of each part instead of doing smaller batches of each. I basically waste a full day every time I change the "setup" to run a different part. This involves changing out all of the tools, resetting the part zero for each tool, changing the settings for the bar feed, and then running a bunch of sample parts to get things dialed back in. So, I can save myself about two weeks of work and save you a couple weeks of shipping delay on the back end.
You can see my progress on the chart above. As of today I'm about 67% finished will all of the machining. I'm 100% complete on the grips for both the aluminum and titanium. The negative percentage you see in the "grip" column represents "over run," which means I produced "x" number of extra parts to account for possible losses from damaged or out of spec parts.
You can also see that I'm much further along with the aluminum parts. This is primarily because the Ti is so hard on the tooling that I had to move on to the next part and order more tools to complete the run. I think I'm up to about $6K in consumable tooling costs at this time. Please keep in mind that the chart above is only for machining. All of the parts still need to go through many different finishing operations.
This is the order of my remaining machining processes. We are currently on "Body 1" and I should finish that up with two more days of machining. The Ti bodies and caps are being run back-to-back because I already have a lot of completely finished aluminum caps and I can be shipping those while the Ti is in production. I've been meaning to put together a step-by-step video of the entire process, but that might not happen till the project is over :)
Process Changes:
I'm also making a change to the manufacturing process in order to improve the thread quality in the titanium caps. I've been using a tap to cut the threads in one pass, but the machining conditions aren't producing an ideal result. Essentially the wall of the cap is so thin, and the material is so tough, that the cap actually expands when the tap enters and starts cutting. When the tap reverses out of the hole, the wall of the cap collapses onto the cutting surfaces of the tap. This wears out the tool really fast and produces an undesirable thread finish.
I've had to go back and re-tap about 180 titanium caps by hand and use a very expensive and specialized tapping fluid to get the threads cleaned up.
My theory is: the expansion of the thin wall is the same effect that's wearing out the drills really fast. The expansion causes vibration at the cutting edge and destroys the drill. The solution to that problem is A) eat up a lot of drills or B) I have some ideas but they all take time to test :) I may or may not try to improve the hole drilling based on the amount of relative time saved and cost expended.
So, I think the solution to the threading problem is to use a "single point" threading tool instead of a tap. This process is slower, but it "should" produce a better quality thread. The time savings of not having to re-tap an additional 500 pen caps (by hand) should more than compensate for the slower threading process. These tools were ordered "overnight" from Europe two weeks ago...still waiting...but these caps won't be running until all of the bodies are finished. I'll keep you posted!
Please post your pen pics to Tumblr!
A backer was kind enough to set up a Tumblr page where everyone can post their Alpha Pen photos (link). I think this is a great idea and would love to see some pens with their new owners. There are already a number of photos up, so head on over and check them out!
I'm on vacation...or not!
So the family and I had our annual summer vacation planned for the next two weeks, but the world conspires to keep us (and the dog) out of a beautiful mountain trout stream in Idaho...because it's on freakin' fire! They have actually evacuated about half of two towns in the valley where we were planning to say.
You know it's bad when the call out the DC-10 tankers. Hope all our friends stay safe! Anyway, we'll still be making a couple of short trips to take our little boy to visit some family members instead of being gone for two weeks, and I'll squeeze in a couple of extra shop days. (photos provided by the "incident command" folks on the ground)
I mostly feel bad for our dog who will miss her "once a year" chance to actually be a dog and run over the hills and through the woods sans leash, under poor supervision. Sorry Maisey!
You may now go stand beside your mailbox
over 12 years ago
– Sat, Aug 03, 2013 at 05:53:47 PM
Better late than never!
Right! Right? Come one, who's with me? Hello? ...
All joking aside, I'M SUPER EXCITED! As some of you might have noticed (sneaky right?), pens have started shipping! We are still a long way from the end but I'm shipping pens in the order pledges were made...generally speaking.
Right now more EN pens are shipping than Ti pens. The aluminum is easier to machine, so I can make more parts in the same amount of time, and I have a lot more packaged aluminum pens than Ti at the moment.
You will get a shipping notice when your label is printed! So please don't email me asking if your pen has shipped. If you didn't get the shipping notice, then it has not shipped. There is so much work left to be done, I can't handle a flood of "so did my pen ship?" emails. I'll cry, and the tears make it harder to see my work :P
Your spam filter? The confirmation email will come from [email protected] and have the following subject line: "Prometheus Lights has sent you a package"
This is somewhat unknown at the moment, but I expect shipping speed to increase over time, as I have more finished parts available and refine the shipping process with practice.
(Above) the first 15 Aluminum Earlybirds ready to pack! All of the shipping gets done at night, after I've spent a full day in the shop, put the kid to bed, and scrounged up something to eat. Some nights I have more energy than others, so your continued patience is greatly appreciated. Trust me, I want to have all the pens shipped out as much as you want to get yours in the mail :)
Some process shots
There is still a whole lot of machining to do and a lot of hand work and processing that follows the machining. Right now my latest calculations put me at about 52% complete with the machining process for about 1500 pens total.
52% is based on the "part cycle time" which is the time it takes to get from the start of a program to the end and includes machine motion like feeding the bar and changing tools. This does not include down time for loading the machine, inspecting parts, inspecting tools, and other maintenance issues...purely "machine" time. So, the ST10-Y has 131 hours under it's belt and 123 to go!
(Above) It looks like a lot right? This is about 150 EN aluminum pens, so just multiply that by 10 and the project is done :) The custom made cardboard tubes came out really nice. The fit is just perfect and the thick tubing should do a great job of protecting your pens from the...elements...shall we say?
(Above) this is (one of) my 50 gallon drums full of aluminum chips. The long coils tend to be pretty light and fluffy, so at the end of every day I literally climb into the drum and smash the pile down with my feet...you know like stomping grapes to make wine. I should take a photo of that right?
(Above) The grips actually turned out to be less trouble than I thought, which is about the first time that happened during this project. It looks like I only wasted about 21 parts to land on the first good one :)
(Above) Grrr titanium. Titanium chips do not like to break. There is a titanium grip inside that mess somewhere. We machinists like chips to break because it gets them off of the part and out of our way. This kind of wad is fairly common. Sometimes these get caught as the final "parting" cut is made. The part is supposed to roll nicely down the ramp of the parts catcher, but 30% of them escape. They can fall into the bottom of the machine, which is fine if you can find and extract them from a razor sharp barrel of titanium chips. A fair number get caught up in the machinery if neither of the two previous conditions occur, and get destroyed...which is a bummer.
(Above) Here is a big batch of bodies that came back from the plating company! Fortunately the parts are great. They normally put them into those 5x6 industrial paper egg cartons, and that's easy to deal with. However, this time they bagged them individually and stapled them together 5 at a time. Which (of course) requires me to un-bag every single one. Which (of course) leaves me annoyed and left with a gigantic pile of empty plastic bags.
(Above) here is the final washing step for the hand finishing of the grips.
The small hole in the end of the grip is really sharp and ragged when it is "parted off" from the bar stock during the last cut in the lathe. The hole needs to be "cleaned up" on the manual Bridgeport mill, one at a time.
Next the little black rubber plug is installed over the tip of the grip which provides a handle for the next step
Hand buffing the threads on the scotchbrite wheel, one at a time
Remove the black rubber cap and place it over the threads of the grip to protect them during tumbling
Tumble for 3 hours
Remove from the tumbler and place in a hot, clean tub of water. This lifts off the residue from tumbling, keeps the residue from drying on the part...which will mess up the plating process
Remove rubber cap
Hand dry the part with a microfiber towel and compressed air
place into egg cartons
head off to the nickel plating company! Easy right? Now repeat 1500 times.
(Above) I did take a moment to celebrate the first official pen :)
Thanks again for backing my project, and thanks to Joe for the Pliny!
My shop-neighbor Bill Hoff runs a one-man machine shop two doors down from me. He just launched this awesome Kickstarter project and could really use a hand getting the word out. It's a jack wrench for guitars, amps, and FX pedals that only a machinist could come up with. It's actually revolutionary, and I don't just throw that word around.
Why this plug? Bill is a good guy. He's already applied for a patent. He works way too hard for not enough money. He helps me out when I don't know what I'm doing. He loans me tools. He's been a machinist for almost as long as I've been alive. Just like the rest of us project creators, he's got ideas and would love to see them come to life. Bill has been working on the project for a couple of years and would really appreciate your help to spread the word.
If you don't play guitar, I bet you know someone who does!
Mish-Mash Update!
over 12 years ago
– Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 09:22:36 PM
Hey all,
Very very close now! There is still a lot of production to be done, but that should proceed fairly quickly once I get all of the parts programmed.
But first...a reminder!
This pen does not come with a refill! You must source your own Fineliner or Rollerball refills. I think most people are aware of this by now, but before I start shipping, I wanted to make this point again so there won't be any tears shed at the side of mailboxes around the world :)
The last part I'm working on is the grip:
I expected the grip to be the most challenging part, and it has not disappointed. It's the smallest, but it takes the most time, most number of tools, and the most individual machining operations. It also includes two separate hand finishing operations: buffing the threads and deburring the exit hole for the cartridge point. Then they go through the mass finishing process of tumbling...but each part needs to have a little rubber cap put over the threads (and removed) in order to protect them during tumbling. Oh, then they all need to be washed, dried (and if they are aluminum) sent out for nickel plate. Whew :)
Right now I have it running pretty well in aluminum, but I'm doing some unconventional things that "might" not work out that well in titanium. Basically I'm really pushing the tooling to it's limits and trying to machine the complete part without having to turn it around and hand-load every part like I do with the bodies. In part, this saves time, but it's also a personal challenge.
(Above) So this is THE first "proof" part for the grip. I'm still not happy with it, but it's 90% at this point. I'm going to trim down the taper on the tip just a bit to improve the line-of-sight to the cartridge's point of contact on the paper. Bet you never thought about that before eh? The difference in color is because the proof part is raw aluminum and the body is already Electroless Nickel plated. You'll also notice a little visual "step" at the transition to the taper. I'll blend this out by refining the tool path in the program.
Earlybird Backer Certificates!
Check it, pretty official looking right? Dear graphic designers, please don't hate me :) These are postcard size and printed on 100% recycled, matte card stock.
Behind the scenes: modifying tools
When a tool doesn't work, machinists and fabricators make them work. That's the beauty of having a shop. I bought a bunch of custom-made taps to cut the threads where the Montblanc cartridge threads into the grip. These taps needed to be longer than standard, but the "extended length" blanks they are made from were going to be too long. They were so long that when the tool turret was all the way "back" the tap wouldn't have clearance to maneuver it into the hole without striking the side of the part. I knew this going in, but wasn't sure about the solution until I got right in front of the problem.
(Above) The tap on the bottom was my first attempt. Everything worked out so I proceeded to modify the 5 remaining taps. I used painter's tape to mark off the length, because as you grind steel it heats up. The heat will remove any ink (sharpie) marks. Welders use soap stone, but it doesn't work on smooth surfaces. The other advantage of marking "pipe" with tape is that it gives you cutting guide all the way around the circumference of the part, and prevents you from making an angle when you want a 90 degree cut. This is an old fabricator's trick that I learned working at a special effects shop in LA. This technique is also great if you are cutting anything with a hacksaw; it will give you nice straight cuts :)
(Above) Some quick work with a cut-off wheel in a mini 90 degree air tool and that's that! Another shop trick: high speed steel is very brittle. On a cut like this you only need to score the outside about 1/3 of the way through. A quick tap with a hammer and the shank will break off...basically just like glass. This saves time and prevents heat buildup.
The next stop is the 12" disc sander to square up the ends where I broke off the shank and add a short taper to the back end.
(Above) Turns out this image is a little hard to see, but the final step is to grind flats on the shank to make it square. The collet is a special "tap collet" that has a square bottom. This ensures the tap does not twist inside the holder when exposed to the high torque generated during tapping. Normally a tap collet isn't necessary, but in a high-volume run, I can't take the risk of ruining a large number of parts because the tap moved. This is exactly the kind of problem you won't notice until it's too late.
I ground the flats the old school way; "freehand," meaning no guides or fixtures...just fingers and feel. I was actually a little astonished all six taps came out really well. I did the first one and my machinist neighbor and I were laughing at my beginner's luck on the first one and the five taps I was about to ruin :) Fortunately it all worked out!
Alright folks, that's all for now. I'm hoping that my next update will include some "firm-ish" shipping dates for the Earlybird batch!
Cheers,
Jason
Started programming the grip today!
over 12 years ago
– Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 10:41:09 PM
Hi All!
Hope everyone is doing well. Things are moving along. I just finished programming the Internal Diameter (ID) operations on the grip today. The new drills I got are from a different manufacturer. They have odd size shanks so I had to have a few more collets shipped from the east coast, so that and the 4th of July holiday set me back a couple of days. Enough chit chat, photos!
(Above) It doesn't look like much but that aluminum cylinder will eventually turn into a grip like the two prototype parts just above. The good news is that my custom taps actually fit the threads on the Montblanc cartridge...one of those things you can't really know until you test fit. Whew! Don't have to worry about that at least.
(Above) The ID operations are done, but I still have to program the Outside Diameter (OD) operations. I'll have to spend some time tweaking the exact shape of the tip. Again, it might look fine of paper, but you don't know if it looks or feels "right" until you transfer it to metal. All of the prototypes were machined on my Hardinge HLV manual lathe, and the shape of the tip was finished with a file and a cardboard pattern :)
I do all of my programming by hand, no help from software like CAM (Computer Aided Machining) programs that automatically write the code that controls the tool path. This takes a little bit longer, but I program by hand because I don't own CAM software and I enjoy the mental exercise of the "hands on" approach. Many new machinists have no idea how to hand write code even though they run CNC machines.
(Above) Once the OD and ID ops for the grip are set, I'll run a test batch of aluminum parts, and then send those off for plating. In the photo above, the (test batch) is for the pen body. The other two stacks of parts will go out for plating as a lot.
It's important to run a test batch because the plating process adds a significant amount of thickness to the parts. There is a risk that this buildup will mean the components won't thread together. You can measure and calculate all you want, but there is no substitute for confirming the fit in real life. After verifying the fit I can proceed with the rest of the aluminum parts. One nice thing about the Ti is that it's not plated. So, if the part fit when the come of the machine...then they fit...it's a done deal.
(Above) Sorry for the terrible phone video! All of the parts are tumbled in a vibratory bowl after machining. The aluminum parts (in the video) are processed with a "medium" cutting plastic media for 3 hours. This knocks of any sharp edges and also creates a uniform and very smooth surface. After plating, they will be nice and shiny!
(Above) After tumbling, the parts go into a tub filled with hot clean water and let soak for about 10 minutes. The hot water helps lift the metal residue off of the parts. Tumbling is a "wet" process where water and a surfactant are cycled through to wash away the microscopic dust that is generated. Even though the water is filtered and recirculated, residue remains and can make the parts "cloudy" looking. The hot water heats the metal and makes the water evaporate faster when removed from the tank. I learned that little trick making flashlights :)
(Above) As each part comes out of the wash tank, it is dryed with a microfiber cloth and is blown off with compressed air. It's hard to get "all" of the water out from inside the hole, so this is where the hot metal helps to speed evaporation and drying of the parts.
(Above) This is 150 finished aluminum caps. They are plated and have the pocket clip and brass screw installed. These parts are "done done" and that's pretty exciting! The only thing left is to mate them up with the body and grip and get them in the mail! Of course I still need to make all of the grips :)
That's all for now!
Cheers and thanks again for your patience and support!
