Turned Pen Function Question

[Samuel Brooks]

I find that I press down pretty hard when I write and this causes the twist pens to twist back into themselves. Has anyone else come across this and do you have any "quick" fixes to make the pens resist retracting?

I have pen kits from Penn State, Rocker, Woodcraft and they all seem to do it.

Thanks for any comments.

Sam Brooks

[Gary Herrmann]

I write with cigar and streamline twists every day and have not had this happen. Maybe try a gel rollerball insert - the ink will flow more smoothly. It sounds like the nib is catching a bit on the paper and causing the insert to twist back in.

[Brian Goulet]

I've never heard that happen to any pen I've made and I've made about 500 of them. You must press down REALLY hard! What kind of pens are they? Slims? Or is it the same with any twist pen?

[Paul Douglass]

If you mean the point moves back in the pen as you write. The transmission on pens has to turn all the way to stay open. There is a sort of locking point. This may means you have to figure out how to get the top barrel to turn the point out just a little more. I had one do that and I can't remember what I did to fix it. It's like you need to shave a little off the bottom of the top barrel so it can turn further before being stopped by the bottom barrel.

[Lars Thomas]

I have a cigar pen that does this too. My pen does turn all the way open (as you can feel it sorta has a detent). I've used it a lot. I think the pen just turns too easy and the top part of the pen now turns as it rubs on your hand as your write.

Now that you wrote this, I just opened mine up and 'crimped' the transmission down a bit to tighten it up. I think that might just do the trick.

[robert hainstock]

Spme of the first few slimlines I made had that problen, the fix for those was to adhust the depth of the mechanism a little deeper. The cause is usually to much barrel trimming. Check your barrel length before inserting the mech. there is plenty of room for adjustment. I quite often have a 1/32 to 1/16 in between the barrel end and the line on the mech.
Bob

[Samuel Brooks]

This was it. I have been "gentle" with the pens so I just turn until I feel resistance. I just needed to turn past the Resistances about 1/8 of a turn and it locks. Imagine that :-). This is a perfect example of learning 100% from reading and never have anyone show you how to do something so it never occurred to me to keep turning.

Thanks for all the comments.

Sam

[Dean Thomas]

Greetings,

Yes, you are not alone with the pens that auto-retract when pressing down. It really is NOT all that uncommon. I think that it does tend to run in batches, however. First time I ran into it was with a commercial pen, a Hallmark chrome pen that wasn't cheap at the time. Lifetime warrantee, however, so I ended up with a new one. End of bunny trail.

I spoke with a rep of the company that provided my kits. The problem is real, but not terribly common. I had received 400 kits at once for the Freedom Pen Project and was the area coordinator for three turning clubs last year. I took the project on with joy and with an eye to providing something special for the troops. It's amazing what one learns when one handles that many kits in a short time frame.

I was involved in most of the various processes needed for pen making, from wood prep and gluing tubes to wrapping and shipping them. I personally wrapped each pen and included a little thank-you slip of paper with the species involved. As I wrapped them, I checked each pen to make sure that the point of the pen was cleaned off and that it worked. What I found out was that out of 375 pens, I had 14 with the problem described. They did not need a lot of pressure, either. Two bad refills, too, but those are really easy fixes.

Solution: Get yourself a disassembly kit and some extra transmissions. If the transmission is damaged or built out of tolerance, it simply slips. Rather than pitch all that fine work and love and care that was provided by the volunteers, the company rep provided me with enough transmissions to re-fit those that slipped and I bought my own disassembler kit. Tried to make my own but just ended up with really sore hands. Let your pen press do the work. MUCH easier on you and the pens.

Not all of the companies sell spare parts. Find one of the company that sells SlimLine style pens (or whatever your main go-to kit is) and purchase yourself some back-up trannies. You don't want to be giving pens that wimp out for any reason, but especially that one. It's really aggravating and aggravating pens are bad for one's reputation.