Assembly steps for Fountain Pens

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jskeen

Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2007
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1,754
Location
Crosby, Texas, USA.
I started this in a reply, and it got a little off topic, so I decided to post it and get some others to comment on it, add to it, point out my obvious mistakes for me, ect.

So, here's my process for assembling a screw cap pen (90 percent of the pens I do are either gents or jr's, btw)

Spend at least 10 minutes figuring out which end of the body lines up with which end of the cap, because I sanded off my marks. Mark them again. Try to decided which end of the custom centerband is up and where it matches. Mark it too. assemble the nib coupler and trim ring (make sure it's the right trim ring and coupler they are different) and screw onto fp section. Line up the best part of the body blank with the top of the nib. Remove section and press coupler into place (remember to look at your alignment mark before you cover it up) Assemble the centerband, custom trim ring, top ring, and black delrin insert (if insert is not good and tight, put a drop of locktight or ca to hold it, don't want it to move at all). Screw onto nib coupler. Align custom trim ring and use thick CA to completely backfill it (if there is any play between trim ring and the body of the CB, it can crack, which is a huge PITA, and the custom CB is usually irreplaceable) DAMHIKT. clean any ca off of metal cb assy (without messing up finish on trim ring). Lightly place cap blank onto black section and align with body and cb. remove cap assy. from body without moving the cap blank, and press cap onto cb, which presses top ring down onto custom trim ring. Now put bottom trim ring onto coupler, and screw into cap just till it touches the trim ring (trim ring is still loose at this point, you don't want to move it. holding cap upside down with coupler pointing up, figure out where best visual alignment of the cap and the Non-matching end of the body are, and press body down onto coupler just tightly enough to hold, and then unscrew from cap and press home. put cap back on and see how far off your mark you ended up. shrug and move on. Remove finial button from endcap, assemble clip and end cap. install fp section and align clip with top of nib in posted position. remove cap and press endcap (without moving clip). Figure out how custom finial aligns with cap blank, and superglue into place. DO NOT put cap on pen body until CA holding finial has completely cured. Remove chinese nib from fp section, and replace with good nib from one of the guys on the forum. Ink pen, try out. Adjust a little more and get ink all over fingers. Get nib tuned just the way you like it, write out description of pen, blank material, nib and ink used on back of business card to include with pen. Redo at least once unless you can spell better than I can. remove converter, flush out nib with windex, then warm water using syringe, then blow out with compressed air. reassemble pen. Leave cap off so nib can dry and ca can cure in cap without leaving nasty white residue on nib. Crack open cold Lone Star Beer, and bask in warmth of accomplishment.

At some point you still have to take pictures to post on IAP and sales website, but that can wait till you get the photo tent set back up....someday!
 
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