Help with Cigar Kits

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Roos85

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Nov 1, 2011
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129
Location
MoCo, MD
Alright so pretty much what my problem is I will get the pen all turned out looking pretty and when I assemble it, it seems like half of the cigar kits I have are defective. I guess what I have been buying are what some sites call apprentice kits.

I have gotten a bunch from wooden whimsies, some from wood pen pro and a few others here and there but when I put it all together a lot of the times it will not feel good opening and closing the pen. It will either be to loose or way to tight. Any idea whats going on?

My buddy said were just getting unlucky with these cheap made in taiwan kits... Is that what it is? Thanks
 
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Roos85

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Nov 1, 2011
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129
Location
MoCo, MD
Well, we actually have tried both. The one that comes with it and also have gel refills that we sometimes use. Seems to happen on both. If I pull the top barrel of you can see where its rubbing on the twist mechanism.
 

soligen

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May 11, 2010
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1,085
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Sterling Heights, Michigan
Do you mean that top does not grip the tranmission strongly enough so that it continues to turn quite easily after the refill is "out"?

I had this issue with apprentice cigar kits. CS USA sent me some trasmissions from the artisan line to fix the issue. Now I stick to the Artisan line.
 

Sylvanite

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Jul 18, 2006
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3,090
Location
Hillsborough, North Carolina, USA.
WPP had a run of cigar kits that have a tight centerband (the black piece at the base of the upper barrel). It can bind on the transmission. A solution is to ream it out slightly. I've done that with a (if I recall correctly) letter "P" drill bit. Another problem is that the 8mm tube (attached to the finial) might be too long and contact the base of the transmission when pressed on. That will make it hard to assemble and difficult to operate. That tube only needs to drive the transmission and can be shortened quite a bit without problem.

I hope that helps,
Eric
 

Roos85

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Joined
Nov 1, 2011
Messages
129
Location
MoCo, MD
I will try and take some pictures of the area I beleive I am talking about. The kits I got from wooden whimsies seem to be all good except 1 I had to sand the the transmission part a little bit, the peice closest to the bottom barrel, it screws over top the refill. This seem to make it better but not fix it 100%. It works though. The ones I got from WPP seem to be strait crap, 4 or 5 out of 20 kits had problems and we contacts him several times but was only willing to get us replacements if I took the pens apart and set him the shotty peices so he could verify they were not right. Would have cost just as much to ship all the prices back to hawaii as it would be to order new kits from Wooden Whimsies so thats what I did.
 

Smitty37

Passed Away Mar 29, 2018
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Milford, Delaware 19963
Hmmmmm

I will try and take some pictures of the area I beleive I am talking about. The kits I got from wooden whimsies seem to be all good except 1 I had to sand the the transmission part a little bit, the peice closest to the bottom barrel, it screws over top the refill. This seem to make it better but not fix it 100%. It works though. The ones I got from WPP seem to be strait crap, 4 or 5 out of 20 kits had problems and we contacts him several times but was only willing to get us replacements if I took the pens apart and set him the shotty peices so he could verify they were not right. Would have cost just as much to ship all the prices back to hawaii as it would be to order new kits from Wooden Whimsies so thats what I did.
4 or 5 cigar transmissions - you must have planned on sending them by bonded courier.:biggrin:
 

Roos85

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Joined
Nov 1, 2011
Messages
129
Location
MoCo, MD
I will try and take some pictures of the area I beleive I am talking about. The kits I got from wooden whimsies seem to be all good except 1 I had to sand the the transmission part a little bit, the peice closest to the bottom barrel, it screws over top the refill. This seem to make it better but not fix it 100%. It works though. The ones I got from WPP seem to be strait crap, 4 or 5 out of 20 kits had problems and we contacts him several times but was only willing to get us replacements if I took the pens apart and set him the shotty peices so he could verify they were not right. Would have cost just as much to ship all the prices back to hawaii as it would be to order new kits from Wooden Whimsies so thats what I did.
4 or 5 cigar transmissions - you must have planned on sending them by bonded courier.:biggrin:

Its not just the transmissions, there were some other faulty parts but thats not the point.

The point is, we were questioned from day one and Jimmy from WPP told us in 20 years of pen making he had never seen this many bad cigar kits in one order and basically didn't believe me and wanted the parts back for "quality control" and I would have sent him parts back had he provided me with replacements. I am not just going to ship him parts hoping he will say he found them defective and then not send me new ones. Played that game with other merchandise before. He also is the first one who ever requested parts back.

PSI sent refills for free and a whole new pen kit no charge for anything because we reported a problem.

A guy I buy blanks from advertised no air bubbles or holes, I reported this wasn't the case and there was a huge crack in the middle of the blanks. He immediately responded with an apology and replaced it and sent me 2 extra blanks. They were burl/acrylic fusion blanks. Not cheap blanks.

Jimmy never once apologized that the pen kits he buys from taiwan may have had a few bad ones and offered a solution besides his.

Whatever it cost to send the parts back is not the problem, I mean I have had several orders with WPP, totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-$400 bucks. I feel I have gone a little off topic here but its not the money of sending them back, its the principal behind the point.
 

chris63

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Joined
Feb 4, 2009
Messages
53
Location
Bloomington,IL
the last one i done from wood n whimsies had problems the pen would not open up .. finally figured out the Hole in the tip needed to be reemed out a little bigger to facilitate the pen refill never had any problems since then........
 

Smitty37

Passed Away Mar 29, 2018
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Nov 23, 2009
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Location
Milford, Delaware 19963
Might not be as it seems

I will try and take some pictures of the area I beleive I am talking about. The kits I got from wooden whimsies seem to be all good except 1 I had to sand the the transmission part a little bit, the peice closest to the bottom barrel, it screws over top the refill. This seem to make it better but not fix it 100%. It works though. The ones I got from WPP seem to be strait crap, 4 or 5 out of 20 kits had problems and we contacts him several times but was only willing to get us replacements if I took the pens apart and set him the shotty peices so he could verify they were not right. Would have cost just as much to ship all the prices back to hawaii as it would be to order new kits from Wooden Whimsies so thats what I did.
4 or 5 cigar transmissions - you must have planned on sending them by bonded courier.:biggrin:

Its not just the transmissions, there were some other faulty parts but thats not the point.

The point is, we were questioned from day one and Jimmy from WPP told us in 20 years of pen making he had never seen this many bad cigar kits in one order and basically didn't believe me and wanted the parts back for "quality control" and I would have sent him parts back had he provided me with replacements. I am not just going to ship him parts hoping he will say he found them defective and then not send me new ones. Played that game with other merchandise before. He also is the first one who ever requested parts back.

PSI sent refills for free and a whole new pen kit no charge for anything because we reported a problem.

A guy I buy blanks from advertised no air bubbles or holes, I reported this wasn't the case and there was a huge crack in the middle of the blanks. He immediately responded with an apology and replaced it and sent me 2 extra blanks. They were burl/acrylic fusion blanks. Not cheap blanks.

Jimmy never once apologized that the pen kits he buys from taiwan may have had a few bad ones and offered a solution besides his.

Whatever it cost to send the parts back is not the problem, I mean I have had several orders with WPP, totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-$400 bucks. I feel I have gone a little off topic here but its not the money of sending them back, its the principal behind the point.

I was pulling your chain a little....but that being said, while I don't always ask for parts to be sent back in order to replace them, sometimes I do. Usually when it is the first time I have run into the problem described or as has happened twice -- an unusually large number of failures in a single order. Both of those failure resulted in me pulling my whole inventory and inspecting before I shipped any more. I wanted to see what I should be looking for so I asked for the parts back.
 

sbell111

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Jan 16, 2008
Messages
3,465
Location
Franklin, TN
I don't think that it's unreasonable to ask for the parts back in such situations. As a vendor, I would want to know exactly what the problem is (and whether it is simply 'pilot error'). I would need to know this information to determine whether I need to pull inventory and/or contact my supplier regarding the problem so others aren't similarly inconvenienced.
 
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