Broken Churchill

[cdcarter]

My uncapped Churchill (my day-to-day pen!) rolled off my desk onto the carpeted floor, but apparently hit at an angle that broke the threads holding the nib. Now the point falls out.

OK, I can make a new one, but if it's that fragile, I'm concerned about the ones my customers have. Anybody else having this problem? It was only a 2 1/2 foot drop.

Hoping I can get the threads out with damaging it and salvage the wood, because it's a really special marblewood grain that I can't replace.

Grr.

 

[Draken]

Several have had that issue, including me (on the El Grande). This is why I'm hoping the new Cambridge from BH is truly metal in this area as the web page suggests.

Make sure you use a press block that takes the pressure off the threads when you press that component in. In many cases, pressing it in is what cracks the plastic, and a minor fall or over tightening the cap causes it to finish cracking and come apart.

 

[pmpartain]

I made an order of about 50 Churchills. I've had at least a dozen fail in just the way you wrote. Some have been dropped on carpet. Some were twisted in half. by 60 year old ladies none the less. I don't plan to ever make another one. Many stories from customers about just screwing on the cap and the thing falls in half.

 

[cdcarter]

Who makes these? Berea? Has anybody contacted them about it directly or maybe through Bill or Ernie? I have 3-4 kits left. I probably won't make any more of them after that. It's a shame, because the look and feel is one of my favorites.

 

[DCBluesman]

I still have to say that this is NOT a universal problem. If you look at recent threads, many of us make the El Grande and/or Churchill and have never had one break. By all means, check with the suppliers, but in this case I'm not sure the problem is the "arrows."

 

[jtate]

I had a Churchill brak at this point too. I CA glued it back in place and it hasn't given me any trouble since then. I have to say it's a beauty and I would have liked to have sold it but Idecided ot to because this break might be unstable and come apart again.

It's on the first page of the website I'm working on:
http://woodenwritingwonders.com/default.aspx

 

[Ligget]

I had two Churchill`s break at the same point. []

 

[cdcarter]

May not be universal, but this is an awful lot of failures from a fairly small population, so I'd say it's a big enough issue to justify not continuing to order them. At least for me. I work hard to make a good product. I don't want my reputation hurt because they use cheap threads.

I feel confident that if you had a nib supplier and found more than 2-3 percent of them were duds, you'd find a new source.

Originally posted by DCBluesman
<br />I still have to say that this is NOT a universal problem.

 

[Firefyter-emt]

You may very well be able to save the pen without replacing the coupler. If it broke in the middle, with about 2mm of thread being able to slip back into the coupler, a light coat of CA inside the coupler followed by pressing the broken threads back in by hand may be more than enough to keep it togather. I have fixed a couple like this and they have held far longer than they did before they broke.

However, it's been well docuumented that this kit does not have a failure problem.

 

[Rudy Vey]

I have made several EG and EGS and never had one fail, even used them for daily pens for quite some time (a colleague of mine uses a EG for some years now daily - no problem). Could someone post pictures here and show what the failure is. I cannot imagine that a pen breaks when it falls from a table onto carpet.

 

[Ligget]

Rudy my wife broke her Churchill when it was in her handbag, she put her purse/wallet on top of it when out shopping.

And no she isn`t rich! lol

 

[Buzz]

Had the same issue myself with the Churchill as a result of dropping them. No problems otherwise.

 

[kirkfranks]

I asked about this problem when I visited BHW last month.
The answer I got (paraphrase) was the there may have been a problem on the early shipments since the inside threading and the outside threading was so close together.
They have made an design improvement to fix the problem, but there may still be old kits out there from some of the resellers. I was also told that they see a lot of posting on the forum (yes they do read here) but they don't get calls and don't get pens back (which I took meant they would fix if they did). Now I don't know if this was just a line or not, but sounded to me like we need to make sure that when there is a problem we go back to the suppler and let them stand up and fix the problem. I see way too many posts here that complain about a problem or "warn others" of a problem before going back to the supplier whoever that may be.

Sorry I did not start this to be a rant.[B)]

 

[Ligget]

If I got two pens back broken, I repair them or make new from scratch.

I certainly wouldn`t think of complaining to the reseller or the manufacturer, just too time consuming and a lot of hassle, not worth it.

Just my personal process.[]