Hi all,
Still have lathe problems so limited to making small items only currently. I just made 3 pens, and then had them ruined by sub standard pen kits. One kit had the pen twist mechanism bend under very light pressure and then get thoroughly lodged in the tube, another kit came with the wrong sized gold tip and center divider, that one had the ink cartridge snap and spill ink all over the place, and finally the third kit just didn't twist at all, and was lodged so tightly inside the tube that it broke on pulling it out.
Its annoying to finish the actual turning bit very well, just to have the mechanisms break.
These kits were from either Stiles and Bates, or Axminster, not certain which.