From Trash to Treasure Turning a Metal Can Into a Pen

In this Instructable you or a team of friends can create a metal dip pen from old recyclable materials that'll usually get discarded and cause pollution. All the wasted plastic pens, cans, and pencils cause and increase in pollution on a daily basis and will continuously cause more and more pollution as we don't recycle. But not only YOU can help prevent pollution, you can save lives by sustaining the ecosystem, discarding choking hazards for aquatic life, and maybe even prevent the death of a small child from ingesting that harmful can.

So Share and Vote for me

Step 1: Gathering Your Materials

Materials you'll need:

• Metal can (soda can or energy drink can)
• Scissors
• Exacto knife or box cutter
• Sand paper
• 1/4 inch drill bit
• 7/64 inch dill bit
• Pencil
• Cinder block(s)

Step 2: Flatten Your Metal

For this step you can use two cinder blocks to flatten the sheet of metal to help reduce the amount of curve in the metal sheet.

Reminder:(Does not need to be perfectly flat as it'll be rounded later on)

Step 3: Cutting Out Your Piece of Metal

For this step you are cutting out a piece of metal approximately 2 cm wide by 6 cm long.

Step 4: Drilling Your Hole

For this step you will use your 7/64 inch drill bit to drill a hole 1.5 cm up from the bottom middle of the piece of metal.

Step 5: Shaping the Metal

In this step you'll be bending the recently drilled metal around the 1/4 inch drill bit to get the curve to the best of your ability.

Reminder:(Does not need to be perfect)

Step 6: Cutting the Slit

Using a pair of scissors cut a slit from the bottom to the metal.

Reminder:(Cut from the side closest to the hole)

Step 7: Cutting the Nib

Measure about 2 cm up from the bottom on the opposite side creating a diagonal cut.

Reminder: (.5 cm above the hole)

Step 8: Reshaping the Metal

When you cut the metal it may get deformed and if so just take the 1/4 inch drill bit and reshape it back to the best of your ability.

Reminder: (Now is a good time to sand off any paint if necessary)

Step 9: Now to Finalize and Write!

Now, taking your piece of metal, tape, and pencil slide on the metal to the pencil and tape the two together.

Finally, Dip the pen in ink and WRITE AWAY!!

Reminder: (If the pen does not write immediately try running the pen across the paper a couple of time to straighten out the the slit & make sure it doesn't over lap the drilled hole)