Jr statesman and jr retro too springy?

[Nickfff]

Hello, I had a customer mention that a jr statesman and jr retro that he got was too springy. In other words he says he writes hard and the refills moves up and down slightly. I have noticed this myself on some pens...

How have others resolved this problem?

-Does anyone have longer, harder springs to replace the kit version springs?

I thought of using a dowel spacer but that seems kind of cheap to put on a nice pen.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Nick

 

[Randy_]

Nick: I know the problem. Use an expensive piece of wood to make the spacer.

Just kidding, of course.

You could try to find a stiffer spring; but that might take a while and you still not find one.

I think the spacer is a perfectly fine solution to the problem. Once you have determined the correct dimensions for the spacer, get yourself a crochet hook a or a dental pick and pull out the spring. Stick a drop of epoxy on the end of the spacer and glue it into the pen body. Then put a drop of epoxy on the end of the spring and glue it in the pen, too. That way, no one will ever see the spacer and you won't have to worry about the spring falling out and getting lost.

There are probably other solutions to the problem; but why make things more complicated than they need to be??

P.S. You could probably extract the spring from the pen and just stretch it a little to make it exert more pressure on the refill; but I'm not sure that would work for an extended period of time.

 

[redfishsc]

Same here, had the problem a time or two.

Honestly, I just tightly ball up a couple of slivers of paper and use a transfer punch to jam the paper down into the part that holds the spring. Put the spring in over the paper, and check for fit. If you jam the paper in there good enough, it won't come out.

 

[pipeyeti]

I had the same problem. Take the spring out and actually strech it some, put it back in, no more problem.

 

[Dario]

How about trimming the barrel a tad shorter? This way, the spring will exert more pressure to the refill.

 

[Nickfff]

All,
Thank you for the replies. They all look like good ideas to help resolve the problem...

Nick

 

[gerryr]

Teach the customer how to use a roller ball. A roller ball requires only a hair more pressure than a fountain pen, nothing at all like the pressure needed for a ballpoint. If that fails, DO NOT ever sell him a fountain pen because he will ruin the nib in one sentence.

 

[Dan_F]

Originally posted by gerryr

Teach the customer how to use a roller ball. A roller ball requires only a hair more pressure than a fountain pen, nothing at all like the pressure needed for a ballpoint. If that fails, DO NOT ever sell him a fountain pen because he will ruin the nib in one sentence.

That's pretty much what I was thinking too.

Dan