Baron finial cap

[tdibiasio]

I have tuned many barons in the past, however last night I encountered a weird problem. During final assembly of the cap end, I slid the clip ring and finial into the tube and without using the press, I was able to seat the finial all the way in the tube. Usually I would have to use the press to get a good tight fit. I immediatly noticed that I was able to just pull the finial and clip out of the tube. [:0] I tried a finial from another kit and had the same results. I turn my pens between centers and use the bushings offered by Johnny CNC here on IAP. I can not remember if this is the first pen turned with set of bushings, and I am wondering if the bushings were such a tight fit that they expanded the tube ever so slightly.

Has this ever happened to anyone else, and if so is there a way to save the pen as I really like the way it turned out.

Thanks - Tom

 

[PTJeff]

Tom,
Once in a while this will happen. My experience is that the finial has missed the quality check at the factory. If the finial has no slop and the fit looks good then I use epoxy. I have had no returns due to failure. One other thing to consider is to take the finial from the other kit and check it on your turned cap tube. More often than not the finial will fit.

Good luck

 

[woody0207]

This is not an uncommon problem. Sometimes on the Barons the part fit into the tubes turns out to be a bit loose. You can rectify this with a drop of CA in the tube prior to the press on. Obviously, there is a time factor involved here -- you need to press the cap on in a timely manner. I think if you search the forum you will find other minor fit issues with the Baron that can be solved with a bit of glue. Its not an ideal solution and it has caused me to consider switching to Jr. Gents in the future since they are a similiar style and IMHO do not seem to suffer the same fit problems.

 

[its_virgil]

CA squeezing out onto the finish of the completed pen can be a problem to remove and ruin a pen. A small drop of two part epoxy can be removed easily and works better for me.
Do a good turn daily!
Don

Originally posted by woody0207

This is not an uncommon problem. Sometimes on the Barons the part fit into the tubes turns out to be a bit loose. You can rectify this with a drop of CA in the tube prior to the press on.

 

[Rudy Vey]

This is a very common problem lately with the Barons, a pen that I personally like very much. It happened to me with Chrome, Black Ti and TiGold plated pens and I had several returned by upset customers to fix or return for refund of money. Believe me, CA or Epoxy will not fix this - I use now Loctite Red and hope this lasts. Just last night I finished two Chrome for an order and in both cases the finial came out easily, I just pulled it right out. These pen parts should be a decent press fit.
One pen, a snake skin in Black Ti, I glued the finial in twice with CA and twice with Epoxy, but it came loose nearly immediately after very brief handling by potential customer. I am not sure if the problem is the pen part per se, or it is the brass tubes have more slop than normal - I tend to believe it is the tubes! This is also indicated by the fact that the threaded part on the other side of the cap can be also just pressed in by hand, and I had to use the arbor press in the past. One reason that this has happened to me on several platings might be that I normally unpack all the kits when they arrive to check for missing parts and then sort them by platings and parts in large tackle boxes, and I have one that just holds the tubes and bushings etc (the refills go straight to the garbage can). So this means, if there was a bad lot of tubes, it is intermingled with all the others. But the good thing is, it never has happened (at least so far) with the smaller tube. Tonight after work, I might go to my shop and measure the brass tubes and see if there is a lot of difference between them.

The problems with the sloppy fit on the Barons has me lately move away from them towards the Retro and the Jr Statesman and the Jr Gent.

 

[Ligget]

I use a small flat file, and take some of the plating off where the harware is going into the barrel.

This gives the glue either CA thick or epoxy something to grab hold of, never has a pen part unglued itself (as far as I know).

I have done this with every part that goes into tubes for years, a lot more time consuming but better in the long run.

If I need to remove a part later, each part comes awey with a transfer punch and hammer blow.

 

[johnnycnc]

Tom,
I have had a lot of barons that the finial has to be
glued in.
I'm very doubtful my bushings expanded your tubes.
Try a new,deburred tube and see how the finial fits,that should tell the story.

 

[Rudy Vey]

Originally posted by johnnycnc

Tom,
I have had a lot of barons that the finial has to be
glued in.
I'm very doubtful my bushings expanded your tubes.
Try a new,deburred tube and see how the finial fits,that should tell the story.

John, your bushings have nothing to do with it, I still believe it is the tube dimensions.

 

[Rudy Vey]

Last night I checked all my tubes for the Baron cap. I used a finial cap in Cr, TiAu, BlkTi and SatNi. The Chrome and BlackTi caps slipped easily in about 50 or so caps, i.e. I could put them in and pull out easily. The TiAu followed the two and the tighest fit was with the SatNi. It was not possible to put any of the caps in on about 10 other tubes. So I conclude the tube is the issue, and of the 60 or so cap tubes I tested, I have to glue in the caps of 50 to be safe!!

 

[Rudy Vey]

Originally posted by ligget

I use a small flat file, and take some of the plating off where the harware is going into the barrel.

This gives the glue either CA thick or epoxy something to grab hold of, never has a pen part unglued itself (as far as I know).

I have done this with every part that goes into tubes for years, a lot more time consuming but better in the long run.

If I need to remove a part later, each part comes awey with a transfer punch and hammer blow.

On the one pen I mentioned I have done this, both sides, i.e. cap as well as tube, and it did not last. I believe the dimensions of tube/cap in not longer ok.

 

[Buzz]

Like a lot of people here, I routinely use a small drop of CA on all press fit parts and in all kits. I can't remember any kit where, at one time or another, one or more parts were looser than they should have been.