Dayacom "Diana" Pen Kit, aka R&B "Zoe", aka William Wood-Write "Regal"

[magpens]

This pen kit has been excellently reviewed by Edstreet:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f96/zoe-r-b-crafts-140293/

I bought some of these kits from William Wood-Write (in Canada); they are sold under the name "Regal".

I really like the results, but there is one concern with assembly.

If anyone else has tried this kit I would appreciate your approach to this concern.
I know that Edstreet has made this kit, and I believe that SteveG has also.

The concern is about the double-twist style transmission for the Parker-style refill.

This transmission gets inserted into the shorter (upper) brass tube. . The fit seems to be extremely tight, so much so that I have to ream the brass tube in order to get the transmission in. . I ream it out from the end that points towards the nib. . If I were to ream it out from the finial end, then the finial would be a very sloppy fit, so that's not the way to go.

My reason for reaming is that I am assuming that the preferred way to do refill replacement is by pulling the upper barrel off the transmission and then unscrewing the transmission. . Cigar style pen kits work beautifully in that way.

There is an alternative, though; the upper barrel could simply be unscrewed, leaving the transmission still tightly inside. . In that case, it wouldn't matter that you can't pull the upper barrel off the transmission (due to the extremely tight fit inside the brass tube).

But, if I don't ream and just force the transmission into the upper barrel, my fear is that the upper barrel blank might crack ... yes, it's that tight of a fit and I don't want to risk cracking the blank.

I am thinking that instead of reaming out the brass tube, I could file down the three "bumps" on the transmission so that it goes in easier, being careful to leave enough material on the "bumps" so that there is still enough friction to do the twisting for extension/retraction of the refill.

If anyone else has made this pen kit and can comment on this problem during assembly, I would greatly appreciate that. Thanks.

Edit: I nearly forgot to mention that there is a disadvantage to the reaming. . After assembly, the upper barrel has a slight "wiggle" due to the slightly enlarged I.D. of the brass tube. . This "wiggle" is not as significant as you routinely find in the case of slimline pen kits. . But I would like to avoid the "wiggle" if I can.

 

[darrin1200]

I have made a few of these. I disassemble the pen by unscrewing the upper barrel, not pulling it off. I actually add a drop of loctite.

My logic, is that the upper barrel needs a tight grip on those transmission bumps to operate. If they get too worn, they will not have enough grip to extend the refill.

You should not have to ream the tube. Double check, that there isn't a thin layer of glue in the tube, it doesn't take much. A trick I use is to breath into the end of the tube, like you are trying to fog up a window. I find that any glue takes the moisture differently than the clean brass and will visibly stand out for a second or two.

 

[ed4copies]

One way to tell if it is glue, try a brass tube right out of the parts bag, see how tight it is. If there is a difference between the fit of the transmission with a new one and the fit you are fighting with, the answer IS glue.

FWIW,
Ed

 

[magpens]

Thanks for reading and commenting, guys.

Darrin and Ed: I know there is no glue. . I adjust the reamer down to the I.D. size of a fresh/clean tube and run it through before attempting to fit the transmission.

Darrin: If you use glue (loctite), how can you be sure that the glue does not foul the lower part of the transmission which screws onto the lower barrel? . I had previously thought of using glue but couldn't think my way around this potential problem.

Ed: A fresh tube right out of the parts bag is an equally tight fit. . Perhaps I got a batch of kits with undersize tube I.D. . I have now built 8 of these kits and they are all the same ... extremely overly tight.

 

[edstreet]

A few things of note on this kit.

No you do not have a bad batch.
Yes the upper tube is rather tight.

Yes you can ream it.
Yes you can glue it and use the tranny screw threads.

Above all of this which would be the better solution. POLISH the inside of the upper tube. If you do ream the tube (over kill) you will have to polish anyways.

Step 1) put the tube inside a drill chuck on the headstock as shown.

Step 2) take some novus #3 and a paper towl and POLISH the inside of the tube where it makes contact, you want 1/2 to 3/4 of the inside done.

Step 3) test fit the lower to the upper, if it goes in smoothly then your done, if it's still tight then do more polishing.

The tubes are extruded with no cleanup work done. The design of this kit dictates you have some cleanup work to do so do that.

As for the glue option, that's not that good advise to use. Try this. Take the transmission off, unscrew it. Note there are ridged tabs on the sides. This is to grip to the tube for support. You can also search in the archives for bad transmissions and yes you will have to change them over time and if you glue it in then that's not coming out easy. Overall it's best NOT to glue.

 

[SteveG]

This pen kit has been excellently reviewed by Edstreet:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f96/zoe-r-b-crafts-140293/

I bought some of these kits from William Wood-Write (in Canada); they are sold under the name "Regal".

I really like the results, but there is one concern with assembly.

If anyone else has tried this kit I would appreciate your approach to this concern.
I know that Edstreet has made this kit, and I believe that SteveG has also.

The concern is about the double-twist style transmission for the Parker-style refill.

This transmission gets inserted into the shorter (upper) brass tube. . The fit seems to be extremely tight, so much so that I have to ream the brass tube in order to get the transmission in. . I ream it out from the end that points towards the nib. . If I were to ream it out from the finial end, then the finial would be a very sloppy fit, so that's not the way to go.

My reason for reaming is that I am assuming that the preferred way to do refill replacement is by pulling the upper barrel off the transmission and then unscrewing the transmission. . Cigar style pen kits work beautifully in that way.

There is an alternative, though; the upper barrel could simply be unscrewed, leaving the transmission still tightly inside. . In that case, it wouldn't matter that you can't pull the upper barrel off the transmission (due to the extremely tight fit inside the brass tube).

But, if I don't ream and just force the transmission into the upper barrel, my fear is that the upper barrel blank might crack ... yes, it's that tight of a fit and I don't want to risk cracking the blank.

I am thinking that instead of reaming out the brass tube, I could file down the three "bumps" on the transmission so that it goes in easier, being careful to leave enough material on the "bumps" so that there is still enough friction to do the twisting for extension/retraction of the refill.

If anyone else has made this pen kit and can comment on this problem during assembly, I would greatly appreciate that. Thanks.

Edit: I nearly forgot to mention that there is a disadvantage to the reaming. . After assembly, the upper barrel has a slight "wiggle" due to the slightly enlarged I.D. of the brass tube. . This "wiggle" is not as significant as you routinely find in the case of slimline pen kits. . But I would like to avoid the "wiggle" if I can.

Here is my solution for this particular kit, and many others where I find a need to adjust the friction fit between tranny and cap:

I find that there are a number of kits that have what I consider to be a "Too Tight" fit when pulling the cap off the pen. The fit is a friction fit between the cap tube and the transmission (those three 'bumps' formed into the tranny case). On some kits, the refill process involves removing the nose cone...in that case a tight friction fit between the cap and tranny is fine, as the end user will not be pulling off the cap. But where you want a nice smooth pull to remove the cap to expose the tranny (IOT unscrew the tranny to replace the refill) I need to adjust the friction fit.

This is what I do to decrease the friction of the friction fit:
1. Screw the tranny into the lower barrel. (The lower barrel gives you a place to grip for step 3.)
2. Mark the three 'bumps'; 1,2,3. Also, be sure inside of cap tube is clean, has no burr at open end, and do polish the inner tube surface briefly.
3. Hold the lower barrel/tranny assembly so the tranny is laying flat on a hard surface,. (I lay/hold it so it lies flat on a square pen blank laying on the bench.)
4. Using a steel rod, forcefully rub across bump #1, causing the bump to flatten somewhat. Test the friction fit by inserting into cap tube. If good, you are done. If still too tight, repeat process for bump #2, and test the fit. If still too tight, repeat for bump #3. IMPORTANT: the idea is to work toward a smooth feeling fit, without going too far. The friction fit must remain strong enough to grip the tranny when extending/retracting the tip. IF you go too far with this process, there will be slippage when extending the tip. It will only marginally function to extend the tip...it will just feel "wrong". You can reverse the process slightly by gripping the tranny with pliers to cause a little distortion. This will restore the friction, and surprisingly not affect to function of the tranny (within reason). Be ready to replace the tranny with a spare, just in case you overdo the adjustment.

This process take only a few minutes. It work nearly every time that I have used it. If you try this, there is a slight learning curve to get it 'Just Right', but then it becomes a simple and repeatable process. I have an old CROSS twist pen. The tranny on it works very smoothly, and I can pull the cap off with very little effort. It just feels "Right". I want my pens to have that same, good feel. So I will frequently do this adjustment process to get it feeling 'Just Right'.

 

[magpens]

Thanks to you both, Ed Street and Steve Guzy, for your detailed advice directly above.

I now know to polish the inside of the upper tube, and I know how to adjust the "bumps" on the tranny ... two tweaks I had not thought of.

Thanks again