Schmidt Refills in Cigar Pens

[bjbear76]

I ran into an issue today at the craft show with replacing the kit refill with the upgrade Schmidt. It seems to fit just fine and it extends fine but it won't retract. It acts like the refill is catching somewhere. I tried another cigar pen with the same problem. Both pens operated great with the kit refill. The guy wants the pen and agreed to let me see if I could fix it. After getting home I filed the hole in the nib slightly to make sure it wasn't sticking there. No luck. I then took a rat tail file through the center portion of the lower blank and tried to smooth out any possible rough edges inside the blank. Still no luck. Filed the center a little more and it would retract about half way. I "think" I finally got it working good, but I'm wondering if anybody else has had this problem. I'd hate to have this guy buy it and have it mess up in the future. Any ideas or suggestions on solving this? Thanks.

 

[Mack C.]

I found taking the label off the upgrade cartridge on the Cigar was necessary to make the cartridge work more smoothly!

 

[ed4copies]

Stretch the spring.

 

[SteveG]

Removing the label is more of a one-time fix, and you cannot expect your customer to do that every time the refill is replaced. Sometimes the label will turn up an edge and cause the problem. Stretching the spring as suggested by Ed is a good fix, works most of the time. It is a good idea to smooth out the potential contact edges on the coupler on the barrel also. You might need to file or re-drill the coupler to a slightly larger inside diameter. It would not be unreasonable to suggest that the customer look for a turned up edge on the label, and just tear that part off if there is a problem. I remember the Schmidt refills had a 'painted on' label for a brief period, but unfortunately went back to the stick on labels.

Steve

 

[Boz]

Is it sticking on the narrow end in the tip? Try putting the caliper on the kit refill and the replacement. Are they the same size? Or is it sticking on the thick end? Like Ed said play with the spring. I have found that the springs in most kits are junk. I collect springs from cheap give away click pens. For some reason they are stronger and work better than the ones in the kits.

 

[jsolie]

I haven't had any major problems with the Schmidt refills in cigar pens. On one of the kits I built, it was having a problem but that was due to the spring. It seems like the diameter of the spring on one end is smaller than the other end. I had the smaller end towards the nib. After switching so the larger end was towards the nib, the pen functioned correctly.

Hope this helps!

 

[keithlong]

Stretch the spring will work.

 

[Smitty37]

Also - make sure the larger diameter end of the spring is aimed at the tip and not the refill body, otherwise sometimes the spring catches - if both ends of the spring are the same diameter get a new spring.

 

[bjbear76]

The spring is on correctly, but I did notice the label does have a slight turned up edge. Thanks for all the input.