Hi,
I was recently reading an article in Woodturning Designs Issue #48 page 15 by Kurt Hertzog on pen making and it covers a rather interesting observation about refills.
It seems that there can be a variation in length between the refills that come in kits and replacement "standard" refills. - I assume that this matters most with Cross style refills.
When we assemble a pen and position the mechanism so that the kit refill protrudes the "correct" distance when in the writing position, if we then replace that refill with a "standard" one that the customer may purchase, it may protrude more!!
I checked a couple that I have from different suppliers and sure enough the factory refills are shorter by about 1/16"; enough to make a major difference.
He thus suggests that we replace the kit refills with after-market ones to avoid this problem.
For a while, what I would do is to purchase extra refills and offer them as a free addon, but will now follow this advice, so that my customers do not run into this problem.
I was recently reading an article in Woodturning Designs Issue #48 page 15 by Kurt Hertzog on pen making and it covers a rather interesting observation about refills.
It seems that there can be a variation in length between the refills that come in kits and replacement "standard" refills. - I assume that this matters most with Cross style refills.
When we assemble a pen and position the mechanism so that the kit refill protrudes the "correct" distance when in the writing position, if we then replace that refill with a "standard" one that the customer may purchase, it may protrude more!!
I checked a couple that I have from different suppliers and sure enough the factory refills are shorter by about 1/16"; enough to make a major difference.
He thus suggests that we replace the kit refills with after-market ones to avoid this problem.
For a while, what I would do is to purchase extra refills and offer them as a free addon, but will now follow this advice, so that my customers do not run into this problem.
