When was the last time you’ve thought about pens? They’re usually disposable objects many people use daily, but probably don’t think too much about aside from when you accidentally steal one from the bank. Here’s a pen that would probably be the most fun you’ve ever had writing. A YouTuber has milled a six-speed manual pen out of copper and the coolest part is that the pen works, with each gear deploying a different color pen or a pen eraser.
If you’re feeling a sense of Deja Vu, it could be because you may have seen something similar to this before. A couple of years ago, YouTuber W&M Levsha made a different pen with a manual transmission. That pen is also a work of art, but the “transmission” portion wasn’t functional outside of being able to retract the pen.
YouTuber Maker B has taken this concept further. This pen not only has a manual transmission where each gear is attached to its own pen color, but you have to use the cutest clutch pedal in the world to change “gears.” Writing has never been so engaging.
Maker B is a channel run by a person who goes by Jony. The channel is refreshing in that it doesn’t serve up 20 minutes of people messing around and 5 minutes of actual content. Jony gets right into the project at hand and you get to watch something new get made in awesome detail. There’s no clickbait, no annoying music, and not even fancy graphics. There isn’t even any commentary to spoil the sounds of machinery and hands at work. It’s also not just for show, either, as Jony has a website where technical drawings of the projects are sold. That way, you can make your own version of whatever object you saw get made. The pen isn’t there yet, but hopefully, it will be there soon.
The pen starts life as a tube of copper. Jony slices it in two with a saw before milling little pieces of copper into the pen’s body. It’s deeply satisfying to watch how the threads on the pen’s case get made and how you can turn a cylinder of copper into the cone at the bottom of the pen.
The real magic starts happening after when Jony turns a small piece of metal into the most adorable gated shifter. The detail is incredible here from the engraved gear numbers to the use of a paint marker to make each gear in the shifter pop.
The clutch pedal is even more amazing. It started out as a coin-sized piece of metal. A bunch of milling later and just look at the little guy!
With the body, shift gates, and clutch pedal made, it’s time to make the pen’s internals. As I said earlier, Jony does not explain anything in this video. Jony next makes a slender shifter complete with an impossibly tiny shift knob.
It appears the shifter acts on one of six shift pushrods. There’s also a locking pin to keep the chosen ink color in place as well as a cap with six holes in it to align each ink refill. With all of that finished, plus other small bits, Jony puts the pen together.
Here, you can see how things work. Jony arranges ink refills of five colors, plus an eraser. Each refill gets a pushrod, a spring, and what appears to be a small locking ring.
The ink refills are then sent into the internal structure of the pen, the “clutch pedal” is connected, and the shifter is sent through the gate. The pen’s function appears to be straightforward. Choose a gear and click in to set it. If you want to change gear, hit the clutch to release the locking pin and unlock the shifter. Then, choose your next gear (color) or reverse if you want the eraser.
When I was a kid, I had several funky pens that deployed several different colors. This is exactly like one of those pens, but far more fun to play with and beautifully crafted out of metal.
Sadly, Jony won’t be putting these into production, but the YouTuber provides a list of tools used in each creation and hopefully, the plans will be made available. Honestly, you could just ignore everything I’ve written here. Watch the video, it’ll probably be the best moment of tranquility you have all day.
Hat tip to VanGuy on our Discord!
(Screenshot credits: Jony of Maker B)
This was even better than a This Old Tony video. It is so enjoyable watching someone with that kind of skill.
Very nice. That made me have a look to see if there were any others like it on Etsy. Did find these:
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1294827015/gear-shift-pens-various-wood-and-metal
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1065732334/car-enthusiast-pen-gear-shift-pen-car
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/271327624/pen-gear-shift-5-speed-with-reverse-gray
This is beautiful. I would buy one for sure.
One of my friends has his own craftwork business, and made me one similar to this, just one color ink and no clutch pedal, but it is still fun. This one you found looks awesome!
TAKE MY MONEY!
I’ve “played” around with a mill and a lathe and they are not easy! I love watching professionals like Jony create beautiful objects out of “nothing” but small rods and chunks of metal!
P.S.
More Torch Drives videos!
I will buy this. I will buy this so hard.
“That’s a nice pen.”
They should make it a different color for each gear!
In the first paragraph, “with each gear deploying a different color pen or a pen eraser”
oops 😐
Having one of those 4 color pens years ago, that was the first thing I looked for!
This is awesome! Even better than the space pen…”TAKE THE PEN!!!”
What manner of wizardry is this? A lathe that can pivot the motor? Wicked!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002BK37M/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0002BK37M&linkCode=as2&tag=makerb-20&linkId=10b0309217e473fa68545674c52fa492
Baaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmm… whaaaaaaaaaa… brrrrrmmmmmmm. brrrrmmm… brrrmm. BRRRRMmmmmmmm….. BWHAaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAA…. brummmmmm……
Oh yeah… I would drive my coworkers nuts with one of these. All day, just me at my desk making cars noises.
I mean, I do that anyways, but at least the pen would give me a reasonable explanation for making all the noises.
Videos like this are so relaxing to watch but I’ll never find the time to make anything like that.
Great, another YT channel I’m going to get immersed in.
Why are you doing this to me, Mercedes? You show me this thing that I NEED, but do not have the tools and skills to make, but that I also cannot purchase.
Do you hate me? I thought we were friends…
Oh dang, that was so satisfying to watch being built. I miss making things on manual mills and lathes. CNCs may be better in a lot of ways when it comes to production, but man are they bloody boring to run.
The Pelikan M800/1000 machined brass piston actuator assembly is pretty awesome for a production pen, but the complexity and detail on this project are incredible.
I love this! It looks like something Adam Savage would build.
That would be nice, however… 🙂
I was really hoping that would be the case, though it couldn’t really be anything else, I guess. Next I’ll have to watch the video to see if neutral retracts all colors so you can safely put the pen in a pocket.
Spoiler alert, but effectively, yes.
Hold clutch whilst selecting a gear and plunging shifter in, release clutch and there’s a locking mechanism to hold selected pen out.
Then press clutch to release pen and drop back into ‘neutral’, safe for pocket.
Delightful work.
I don’t have it in me to make this, and I wish it were for sale. I recently got into fountain pens, but this would probably pull me right back to ballpoints.
Fountain pens are still more enjoyable in most cases – assuming you have quality paper, but ballpoints, rollerballs, and gel pens definitely have their place.
Someone needs to send this to the guys at Tactile Turn so they can make them out of titanium and sell one to me for $500 because I totally don’t already have enough expensive writing implements.