Material for a special ARMY pen....

[MikeH]

Does anyone know where I can get Digital ACU combat uniform material in the Charlotte area? My Brother is deploying to Iraq at the end of November. I want to make him a pen to take with him and I want to make it out of the ACU material. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

I've got to have it made and ready to go by Novemeber 7th when we head to DC to visit with him for the weekend.

Thanks,

 

[DaveO]

You could print out a high quality picture of the pattern off the web, wrap it around the tube and then cast it in PR. Like snake skin balnks are done.
Dave

 

[MikeH]

That's what I'm looking to do, but I want to use actual material. I think I may be able to get some from my sister-in-law. I talked to her tonight and she is going to try and get some without Tim knowing about it. If I can get it locally it would probably be easier. I think I'll check the Army surplus stores around Charlotte too.

Forgive my ignorance......but what is PR?

 

[clowman]

PR is poly-resin.. or Polyester resin. If this is one of the rare instances you want something cast, I think I'd hire someone to do it. In order to do it well, you need... you guessed it... some more tools for the job. I can scare up some links on how to if you are interested.

 

[MikeH]

PR is poly-resin.. or Polyester resin. If this is one of the rare instances you want something cast, I think I'd hire someone to do it. In order to do it well, you need... you guessed it... some more tools for the job. I can scare up some links on how to if you are interested.

If you don't mind Clay I'd like to see what info is out there. Thanks.

 

[clowman]

I got all of these articles from the IAP

Here is one.

This one is really good.

Another one that's pretty good.

Here is one on casting snake skin blanks, I believe you could modify it for your purposes.

I hope this helps.

 

[michaelgarner]

I have a lot of acu amterial, send me a PM and I will get it out to you. Have a blessed day.

 

[MikeH]

Well I uncovered the lathe and played around last night. I had some corian laying around and I figured I would try this. I drilled and cut the corian to length and glued tubes in. I then proceeded to turn the pieces down below the bushings. Then I glued a piece of the bandana on the corian and wrapped it. Soaking it with CA as I went. After the CA set I turned the blank down to an almost finished diameter. These are the pics and the last pic is with the 25th Infantry Division "Wolfhound" Emblem I want to put on the pen. I have both the color and desert monochrome emblems supoerimposed on the picture.


If I can get this perfected I'm going to make a pen and pencil set for my brother and his wife. I will put one emblem on the pen and the other on the pencil.

I am open for any suggestions on how to make this pen look good! Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I have 2 weeks the get this done.

 

[Eaglesc]

IS that dust or flaws in the ca?
I make plenty of pens using fabric, cordage, rope,etc?
I don't bother with Corian, I wrap the material using thin anbd thick CA around the tube as I go.
One concern is the blend of the fabric.
If there is any polypropelene in it CA won't stick.It will encapsulate it but not penetrate it.

 

[MikeH]

IS that dust or flaws in the ca?
I make plenty of pens using fabric, cordage, rope,etc?
I don't bother with Corian, I wrap the material using thin anbd thick CA around the tube as I go.
One concern is the blend of the fabric.
If there is any polypropelene in it CA won't stick.It will encapsulate it but not penetrate it.

It's flaws in the CA/material. It was my first attempt to see what would happen and I'll refine it as I go. I'll post pics of the successes and failures. What I'm working with right now is bandana material so there is no poly in it.

Any ideas on getting the division logo in the pen?

 

[clowman]

AS Eagle points out, I would think that wrapping bandana material around a tube over and over soaking with ca as you go would work out pretty good.

 

[nelsone]

Mike, go through some of these links.

http://content.penturners.org/articles/2004/acrylic.pdf

http://content.penturners.org/articles/2005/casting_polyester_resin.pdf

http://content.penturners.org/articles/2005/embedding.pdf

http://content.penturners.org/articles/2006/snakeskinblanks.pdf