Help needed with Pencil Lead

[Titanium15]

I am new to this site, and to the world of pen turning. I have a daughter with a type of Cerebral Palsy, and the first pen, or in this case, pencil, that I ever made was made for her. I used the Comfort Pencil kit from Pen State, it went together fine, but now I cannot get the lead to load. No matter what I have tried, I cannot get it to work.
Did I do something wrong, or is this a problem with this type of kit? Any suggestions would be very welcome, as I would really like to have this work for my daughter.
Thanks for your help, Stephen

 

[its_virgil]

Does the push button operate? Slimline pencil mechanisms are known for their unreliable performance. Reread the assembly instructions and make sure the pencil is assembled correctly. Maybe lead is broken and stuck inside. Is there lead inside to load?

You may want to consider a pencil kit using the Schmidt pencil mechanism such as a cigar, perfect fit or another. Look at the sketch and toolbox pencils. The vertex uses a 2mm lead and seems to be an excellent choice.

Do a good turn daily!
Don

I am new to this site, and to the world of pen turning. I have a daughter with a type of Cerebral Palsy, and the first pen, or in this case, pencil, that I ever made was made for her. I used the Comfort Pencil kit from Pen State, it went together fine, but now I cannot get the lead to load. No matter what I have tried, I cannot get it to work.
Did I do something wrong, or is this a problem with this type of kit? Any suggestions would be very welcome, as I would really like to have this work for my daughter.
Thanks for your help, Stephen

 

[Titanium15]

Don, thank you for the reply. The push button operates fine, just no lead coming out. The instructions say that this loads from the top, remove the eraser and put the new lead in there. I have several more of these, and if this is how they all work, I am going to have to return the rest of them. Bummer, but I don't want to make something for a gift that is not going to work.
Do you have a suppler for the Schmidt units? As I said, I am new to this, and I know I have seen or read about these, but I don't know where to get them.
I did make my daughter a mini sketch pencil, and that works great.
Thanks, Stephen

 

[turncrazy43]

Try Exotic Blanks.com. They have them on their website.
Wayne

 

[txbob]

Could it be as simple as 0.7mm lead and a 0.5mm pencil?
txbob

 

[Titanium15]

The only lead I have used is the one that came in the pen kit, so I really hope it is not the wrong size.
Wayne, thank you for the suggestion. I don't know all the different suppliers yet, so far I just use the links on the site to see what is out there. I will drop by their site.
Stephen