Having a little trouble...

[Marc Phillips]

I have done 3 Americanas... and all 3, once I assembled the pen halves, won't come apart. I checked a couple of more kits I have left, and tried inserting the transmission into the bare tube and it won't go in.

What am I missing here? ... I mean, if the halves are supposed to be permanently pressed together... how do you change the refill?

The other problem is acrylester... but I will just keep working on it... I seem to cause a small crack in every one I do, but I am pretty sure it happening when drilling...

Thanks for any and all help...

 

[holmqer]

When attempting to seperate the two halves are you trying to pull them apart like a Slimline or a Euro or are you unscrewing them?

The Americana ball pens unscrew to seperate the two halves. I am not yet used to this and tend to unscrew the pen when retracting the nib.

 

[Marc Phillips]

Originally posted by holmqer

When attempting to seperate the two halves are you trying to pull them apart like a Slimline or a Euro or are you unscrewing them?

The Americana ball pens unscrew to seperate the two halves. I am not yet used to this and tend to unscrew the pen when retracting the nib.

Unscrewing them....

I think I got it... I placed the pen on the table so that the point of the refill was prevented from coming out of the nib and unscrewed and now they work... for some reason the pens were just spinning, with the refill projecting and contracting over and over...

No clue what the problem was... they all seem to be working now...

Thanks...

 

[Monty]

Marc, The acrylesters can be very difficult. I drill on my DP at the slowest speed and let the drill do the work, don't try to speed up the drilling by exerting undue pressure. And I still can get chip out on the end when the bit exits. One way to avoid this is to make sure you keep the blank long don't drill completely through the blank, and cut the end off with your BS.
When turning, take to slow and use a very sharp skew. I will still sometimes hit an area that tends to "give" and I end up with chips coming off. This can be turned off if the blank is not close to the finished size. When I get close to the final size, I'll use my skew as a scraper and very lightly smoothe the surface.

 

[Marc Phillips]

Originally posted by Monty

Marc, The acrylesters can be very difficult. I drill on my DP at the slowest speed and let the drill do the work, don't try to speed up the drilling by exerting undue pressure. And I still can get chip out on the end when the bit exits. One way to avoid this is to make sure you keep the blank long don't drill completely through the blank, and cut the end off with your BS.
When turning, take to slow and use a very sharp skew. I will still sometimes hit an area that tends to "give" and I end up with chips coming off. This can be turned off if the blank is not close to the finished size. When I get close to the final size, I'll use my skew as a scraper and very lightly smooth the surface.

Thanks Mannie.... I use the skew as a scraper usually at the very end of the turning to just even out the shape the way I want it... I will try and figure out the drilling... I am pretty sure that is where I screw up...

 

[Monty]

Marc
Just take it slow drilling and make sure your bit is sharp. And don't let the blank get hot either.

 

[redfishsc]

Monty is dead on right about the acrylester-- it's the most brittle stuff I've ever use personally.

The Americana (I assume this is the CSA kit) is a pretty pen and the CSA version has a better reputation as far as transmission reliability than Berea's and PSI's. I do not make the Berea version.


The Silver Bullet in black Ti is a real winner.