Circuit boards and stylii - a cautionary tale

[Steve Busey]

I took part in a group buy a couple months ago involving circuit board kits (the blank bundled w/ Sierra Vista hardware). As part of the buy, I also got a couple standalone CB blanks and a couple Sierra Vistas with stylus tips. Finally got around to trying the stylus kits last night, and discovered they don't play well with the circuit board blanks!

The cap on the stylus kit is not as deep as the regular Sierra Vista cap, and the CB blank is a tad shorter than the brass tube included in the stylus kit. I don't know if the brass tube is longer than the regular Sierra Vista tube - don't have a regular kit to compare with.

End result: there's about a 1/16th inch gap when you push the pen together. :frown:

I put a non-stylus cap from a regular Sierra Vista kit on it and it's fine, but it looks like I cannot use the circuit board blank with the stylus kit - bummer - it seemed like a natural synergy, but I guess there's a reason they don't offer it bundled. Caveat emptor.

 

[Monty]

I too bought 10 CB blanks and stylus cap pens. So far I've made 5 of them and see no problem. The function perfectly for me.

 

[dennisg]

I built 5 and had no problems.

 

[Steve Busey]

I too bought 10 CB blanks and stylus cap pens. So far I've made 5 of them and see no problem. The function perfectly for me.

Hmmm. I had to walk away last night. I'll look again in the next couple of days and do some measurements. What I know for sure right now is that the regular cap fits, but the stylus cap leaves me 1/16th short of full closure.

 

[Monty]

Are you sure you are milling the excess PR on the ends of the CB blank down to the tubes?

 

[Steve Busey]

Are you sure you are milling the excess PR on the ends of the CB blank down to the tubes?

Absolutely. In fact, I just confirmed, I milled off TOO MUCH :redface: ; went about 1/32" into each end of the blank. I really need to get a shaft for my end trimmer that fits a 10.5mm tube...

My takeaway here is that there's not a lot of margin for error in trimming these blanks for the S.V. kit, especially with the stylus caps.

OK, false alarm, false alarm, move along folks, nothing to see here, move along...

 

[GoatRider]

Good to hear, I just bought 2 of those blanks and kits, but haven't turned them yet. I'm really careful milling those, when I first made a CB kit it shattered as soon as I touched it with the pen mill.

 

[Monty]

Are you sure you are milling the excess PR on the ends of the CB blank down to the tubes?

Absolutely. In fact, I just confirmed, I milled off TOO MUCH :redface: ; went about 1/32" into each end of the blank. I really need to get a shaft for my end trimmer that fits a 10.5mm tube...

My takeaway here is that there's not a lot of margin for error in trimming these blanks for the S.V. kit, especially with the stylus caps.

OK, false alarm, false alarm, move along folks, nothing to see here, move along...

I actually stated my question wrong. It should have been "Are you milling too much off" which you state you did. That could account for the gap.

 

[dow]

Absolutely. In fact, I just confirmed, I milled off TOO MUCH :redface: ; went about 1/32" into each end of the blank.

Well, thankfully, nobody else has ever done that. :biggrin:

I really need to get a shaft for my end trimmer that fits a 10.5mm tube...

Here's what I do. Take a blank that you don't like. Drill a 7mm hole and tube it. Now turn the blank to the diameter that you need for your trimmer (I use the brass tube in question to test the size). Once it fits, take a sharpie and write the diameter on the side. If it's wood, then apply a CA finish to it (doesn' t have to be pretty, but the CA will keep humidity from messing with the size or diameter of the sleeve. I've got a bunch of them... at least one for each size tube that I use. Now you don't have to change trimmer shafts. Just use the proper sleeve for the size blank that you're trimming.

HTH.

 

[Steve Busey]

Here's what I do.

Great idea. Yea, that's what I need to do, just need to get a "round tuit" before I do my next Sierra blank. And while I'm at it, I should make inserts for the other 50 pen kits laying around in various boxes... <sigh...>

Thanks Dow