Liberty pen assembly problem

[tool-man]

I am assembling my first Liberty pen kit. The first pic below shows my barrel with the front section and clip assembly pressed into place. And beside the barrel is the twist mechanism ready to be installed.


Then I screw the twist mechanism into place. And when I have it very finger tight, the mechanism protrudes about 12 mm as shown below.


Then when I press on the Finial cap it does not go completely down against the clip. I sense a pretty firm stop, and there is about a 1 mm gap between the bottom edge of the finial finial and the clip assembly. I am pretty sure the finial will not seat further. Looking inside I see what appears to be a stop groove inside the finial and my measurements seem to confirm I am up against that stop.

Is 12 mm the correct distance for the twist mechanism to stick out? I think either (a) the twist mechanism is not fully screwed into place, or (b) I am not pushing the finial all the way on. Or ??? I hope someone with Liberty kit experience can offer some advice. Thanks.

 

[MarkD]

I just measured a couple liberty pens that I recently assembled.
For the distance from the end of the transmission to the top shoulder of the clip assembly I am measuring .471" ( 11.938mm). The distance from the end of the finial to the step inside I am measuring .482" (12.2428mm). The finials press all the way to the clip assembly on the ones I have assembled.
Not sure if it would cause problems or not but the liberty transmissions typically have a very stick substance on the outside of them. I wipe that off before I screw the transmission in.

 

[tool-man]

Nice to know that your twist mechanism and mine are protruding about the same (12 mm vs. 11.938mm).

It looks like my finial is the problem. I just measured my finial and the distance from the finial bottom to the inside step is 11.38 mm. Whereas yours measured 12.24 mm.

I thought I had another Liberty pen kit, but at the moment I can not place my hands on it. I will now have to look more carefully for it and measure its finial.

Thanks for your help.

 

[jcm71]

Andy,
I've had the same thing happen to me on a couple of Libertys. I just put them my pen press and gently pressed them home with no ill effects. I'm assuming here that you first installed the finial by hand.

 

[tool-man]

Yes, the finial was hand installed, but pretty forcefully. I thought about going to a press, but I first wanted to check with others. I also entered a help request on Lazerlinez web site, but do not have an answer yet.

There is very definitely a ridge or step of some sort on the inside of the finial. If it is intended to be a stop then I would create a mess if I used a press. On the other hand it could be a design element intended to more securely affix the finial in place.

I would hate to have the finial jammed on but still not fully seated.

I did find 3 other unused Liberty kits that I had stashed in another drawer. All three of the finials have the step or stop or whatever it is, at a depth of 11.2 to 11.3 mm. I will probably wait another day or so and see if I hear anything else, and then just try to press it on.

Andy,
I've had the same thing happen to me on a couple of Libertys. I just put them my pen press and gently pressed them home with no ill effects. I'm assuming here that you first installed the finial by hand.

 

[MarkD]

I suggest you give Lazerlinez a call. I have found them to be more responsive to calls then emails.

 

[magpens]

I am interested in your assembly problem, Andy. I hope you get some help from calling Laserlinez. I have found Constant quite responsive when I have called him.

For what it's worth, I measured the distance from bottom of finial to the internal step on 14 Liberty kits today and found it to be 12.26mm +/- 0.04mm. The distance on yours definitely seems too small. I noticed that the transmission is a rather tight fit into the clip assembly. In one case I had to put the finial on and twist the finial quite hard to get the transmission to screw all the way in. In another case, the transmission would not go in at all ... I suspect it is too large in diameter, but did not measure ... I'll have to sand the outside surface to get it to fit. Just my 2 cents.

Hope you find a solution to your problem.