Gel refill peoblem

[mick]

I had a call from a customer the other day. He had bought a cigar pen as a gift for his MIL. He recalled me saying it would take Gel refills and bought some. Called me when they wouldn't fit. We talked back and forth and determined that the gels are several hundreths larger at the tip than the ball point PARKER refills. As we talked I recalled another cigar I had this same problem with, but never pursued it just put the ballpoint back in. To make a long story short I tried several while we talked and they all worked! I've about decided that there's a burr inside the nib of the pen and it's not letting the gel tip go through. I'm meeting him next week to fix or replace the nib. Anyone else ever have this problem?
He say with his pen you can force the refill through but it won't go through with ease as it should .

 

[mrcook4570]

I've had that problem with some cigars. I use an x-acto knife to ream out the inside of the nib and that does the trick.

 

[DCBluesman]

Gel nibs are not the same size as ballpoint refills. You will need to mic the gel refill and then ream out the nib with an appropriately sized drill bit--or an exacto knife, as mrcook4570 indicates. It's not necessarily a burr, but the actual size differences in most cases.

 

[slincoln]

We've had this problem before. I use the "leather punch" on my pocket knife to ream the nib and it works great.

Scott

 

[woodscavenger]

Small rat tail file does great.

 

[Pen Man]

I only use the gel ink refils, some time when you put the pens together the nib gets pushed on and will make it hard for the gel refill to work, but the ball point still works. I use a small drill bit about the same size as the hole in the nib and hand spin till it works.

 

[ed4copies]

Originally posted by DCBluesman
<br />Gel nibs are not the same size as ballpoint refills. You will need to mic the gel refill and then ream out the nib with an appropriately sized drill bit--or an exacto knife, as mrcook4570 indicates. It's not necessarily a burr, but the actual size differences in most cases.

Ditto!! (almost)
I think its the thickness of the plating. Some nibs seem to have a little "extra" gold-I use drill bit (undersized) and rotate INTO the pen nib. Takes off enough, doesn't mess up outside of the nib. FWIW

 

[Randy_]

Quote......We talked back and forth and determined that the gels are several <b>hundreths</b> larger at the tip than the ball point PARKER refills.

I think most pen tips are not going to vary by more than a few thousandths of an inch in diameter??

This question came up a while ago and I gathered up all of my refills and my micrometer and spent an hour or so making measurements. I found that the Parker tips on the refills I had were the same size whether they were the ball point or the gel. I also discovered that the generic Parker-style refills that came with the kits were generally a few thousandths smaller than the name brand product. It has been reported a number of times that even Parker BP refills won't work in the kit pens without some work on the pen nib. I am in full agreement with the previous comments that the nibs are the problem and not the refills. Everyone who makes kits that use the Parker-style refill would be wise to have "REAL" Parker refill in house to check that the nibs on their pens will will function properly with the Parker refill as well as the generic Parker-style refills!!

P.S. I looked for the original post with all of the specific measurements but couldn't find it??