Am I the only one with refill quality probs?

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rjenkins

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I've made 40 or 50 pens, having great fun. I've been carrying around and putting to normal use both slimline and cigar pens. I've discovered the CA + shellac finish I had been using simply will not hold up to everyday use. Have recently started trying spray polyurethane and it is tough as nails; but looks too "plasticky" to me. Am going to give the Target water-based lacquer a shot next ala William Young. (Thanks for your R&D William).

The biggest problem I'm having is with the (lack of)quality of the refills. The Cross style in the slimlines is the worst, with the Parker style in the cigar pens being a little better. It's a bummer to spend a lot of time making a nice pen that doesn't perform as good as it looks. How nice would it be to make a pen that writes as well as a 39¢ BIC?

Any advice/experience would be greatly appreciated.

Rodney Jenkins
 
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Doghouse

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If you want quality, you will have to replace the inks. Cross inks are worth the extra. Parker's are very unusual. I find you and find some realy good inexpensive inks at walmart. Just stick to high volume stores as age appears to cause some problems.

I have problems with some pens having the ink already leaked out around the tip. You have to replace the ink right out of the kit. Sorry there is no magic answer here. I liek the gel rollerball inks myself, the only problem is they do not dry fast enough for my left handed grip.
 

baldysm

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Anyone know if the refill for a PSI Mini-bullet is a standard refill, or can you only get it from PSI?
 
G

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It's funny you mention that.
Both my wife and I have remarked the pens write first time as soon as they are asemmbled, and are nice writing pens.
She's the official "tester"
THis goes for Woodturningz, Woodcraft and the few that I have gotten from Arizona Silouhette.
I was going to ask where you have been getting your kits but I had better not.
Would you go into further detail about CA and shelac?
I haven't heard of that.
 

rjenkins

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eaglesc,
the kits are from both Woodcraft and woodturningz (Made in Taiwan). The CA/Shellac regimen consists of turning & sanding, apply a combo of 1/3 ea. of clear varnish/BLO/mineral spirits (or finish of your choice), give this ~20-30 minutes to soak in, wipe off excess, apply thin CA with the lathe off, immediately start the lathe and buff w/<u>polyester</u> cloth (no cotton or cellulose material as it will bond immediately; also be careful for CA spray). Then apply shellac with lathe off and immediately buff it in with lathe at high speed using a cloth and light pressure at first, then strong pressure as it dries.
This is where you need to be careful not to wrap the cloth around your finger, as it tends to want to grab the cloth, especially when first buffing the shellac. Looks great - instant gratification. Alas, it has not proven to be durable for me, as the shellac apparently reacts with the oil on the fingers and dulls within a couple of weeks.
 

C_Ludwigsen

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Memphis, TN, USA.
You've brought up a great topic, Rodney. After turning my first dozen pens and being so proud of the fit and finish, I started getting questions about the business end of pen. Sadly, I didn't know a rollerball from PowerBall. I knew my kits used a Cross style refill, but couldn't tell you if a Parker would beat it, or if it took an inside straight of gel refills to beat a rollerball flush.

I found the best source of information about the actual writing mechanisms were a couple of the guys at work who collect pens. They each bought some of mine so they could add a "custome pen" to their collection, but they were disappointed that my designer pens had Cross refills.

So I started ordering a couple of the Parker and Rollerball kits and testing the mechanisms. I still have a hard time differentiating a standard Parker from a Cross. The Rollerballs are CLEARLY cleaner lines. I've not tried the gels yet, and you can only get them to replace Parkers and Rollerballs. I too, like John (Doghouse) am left-handed, and heavy handed at that, so I have heard that the gels might dry too slowly.

And just to cover the obvious... Many of the designer style pen kits I've gotten have a bit of a protective coating on the tip. Have you looked to be sure that isn't the problem? Not trying to insult you or anything. I have overlooked PLENTY of the obvious at times.

Good luck with the CA finish. But where a carbon-filtered protective mask and long sleeves and shower afterwards. Do not let yourself build up a toxicity to it.

Take care and good luck. Keep us updated on your progress.

Chuck
 

DCBluesman

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Rodney... Don't leave shellac as your top coat. At a minimum, put some Renaissance Wax on top of it to keep the oil from your fingers from contaminating the shellac and ruining the gloss.
 
G

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Rjenkins
Without picking apart your CA fininshing too much my initial reaction was not enough CA.You clearly state a thin coat of CA.
I use pretty much all CA/blo or straight CA.
As suggested earlier don't leave shelac as your top coat,
Frankily if you are using CA I see no reason to use shelac at all.
There are a couple of articles about using CA andCA/BLO on the home page and neither includes shelac as a top coat.
One more thing.this is jsut a personal observation.If a cloth gets "grabbed" after the final finish you are going to need to do it over.
The CA after being sanded to final MM(9).It should feel like glass.
 

jwoodwright

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Anchorage, Alaska, USA.
That is what I noticed too. There is a small blob on the end of the refill. I figured it was there to prevent ink from leaking out. I srape it off with a fingernail and test it. Assemble the pen and then the wife writes with it and gives the seal of approval.[:D]
 

Rudy Vey

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South Plainfield, NJ, USA.
Originally posted by Kim
<br />I toss the Parker style refills that comes with kits into the bucket and replace them with a genuine Parker Gel or ball point refills. I go to the local office mega-store and clean them out of Parkers. It doesn't add much to the cost of the pen and some folks prefer the black fine point or a nice blue gel instead of the standard medium black. From a marketing point, folks who buy red, blue, and especially teal pens often prefer blue ink with them and it just sounds good to tell a customer that the pen is "powered by genuine Parker ink".

I've had some probs with the kit refills drying up or skipping after a very short while.

The genuine Parkers are also a tad shorter than the refills that come in the kits.

Peace;

Kim


Interesting!! I have made the experience that the refill coming with the kits are quite good and very usable. As a matter of fact, I have bought some original Cross and Parker refills (in blue and black) and offered these to my customers. Personally, I do not think they are very good, or much better as the kit supplied ones. Also, I bought the gel refills from Parker and the no-names from my supplier to offer instead of the ball point refills (the no-mane is better!!). I have had several of my customers calling me and asking if they can buy some of the refills that were like the ones when they bought the pen. They all complained about the refills, either Cross or Parker, they bought and did not hold up to the one that came with the pen.

Has anyone made similar observations about the Cross and/or Parker refills?

Rudy
 
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