Brass Tube Length

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dcameraman

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I'm working with a very unpredictable material. I've cut and drilled the material and epoxied the brass tubes into the material.

While shaping the blank I had a small section on the end of the tube chip out. About 1/8" to 3/16".

My question is this. How forgiving is the kit when it comes to brass tube length?

Can I trim the blank/tube down 3/16" or 1/4"? Will it still work in the kit?

The current kit is the Artisan Jr Gent/Statesman series.

Thanks,
Josh
 
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Edgar

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I've built a few of these, but I don't remember all the details offhand. I think the answer to your question might depend on which tube you are talking about and whether it is a fountain pen or rollerball kit. A little more info might help folks to better answer your question.
 

dcameraman

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At this point it's just the pen cap, but I think it's likely that it will happen on the body as well.

The kits that I have are the rollerball, not the fountain pen.
 

skiprat

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You may be lucky, but I would just put little 'ooops' bands on all the ends.
I think you may struggle with the back spring having enough space.
You really don't want the roller nib touching the inside end of the cap either, or you will have ink everywhere....:wink:
 

Edgar

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I agree with Stephan, particularly if you are concerned about the same thing happening on the other blank and if you want to stay with a roller ball.

If you aren't comfortable with doing the ooops bands, one alternative might be to buy another kit in fountain pen form & use the fountain pen parts for this one and use the rollerball parts on the next one. The pen would be a little shorter than normal, but I don't think that should be a problem. Fountain pen experts can correct me if I'm mistaken.
 

duncsuss

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... one alternative might be to buy another kit in fountain pen form & use the fountain pen parts for this one and use the rollerball parts on the next one. The pen would be a little shorter than normal, but I don't think that should be a problem. Fountain pen experts can correct me if I'm mistaken.

Could destroy the fountain pen nib, depending on the original clearance when the cap is screwed onto the barrel and how much barrel is removed.

DAMHIKT
 

dcameraman

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It looks like I have quite a bit of leeway on this kit. I can hold the turned blank up against the cap finials. Then I screwed the pen into the cap. This way I can "see" when the rollerball touches the cap and exactly how much clearance I have. On the cap, with a rollerball kit, I can go about a 1/4" shorter than what the tube started out as.

Will boldly experiment further with judicious cautiousness . . .

Josh
 

Edgar

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... one alternative might be to buy another kit in fountain pen form & use the fountain pen parts for this one and use the rollerball parts on the next one. The pen would be a little shorter than normal, but I don't think that should be a problem. Fountain pen experts can correct me if I'm mistaken.

Could destroy the fountain pen nib, depending on the original clearance when the cap is screwed onto the barrel and how much barrel is removed.

DAMHIKT

Thanks Duncan, I have only made a very few fountain pens, so I really wasn't totally confident with my suggestion.
 
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