Screwed up Assembly of my first Gatsby

[pgfitzgerald]

I assembled it per the instructions, but it doesn't twist and I can't get the pen apart to put the refill in. It's completely locked up. I've obviously messed something up, but I don't know how to fix it.

Tips anyone?

Paul

 

[Munsterlander]

most common thing is not having the barrel completely clear of glue residue... that kit has a pretty small tolerance where the barrel goes over the lower part of the kit, so anything in the barrel can make it stick.

 

[pgfitzgerald]

most common thing is not having the barrel completely clear of glue residue... that kit has a pretty small tolerance where the barrel goes over the lower part of the kit, so anything in the barrel can make it stick.

Is it possible to get it apart?

Paul

 

[Munsterlander]

should be - on a gatsby (or sierra) i usually can pull the upper half of the pen (barrel and cap) apart from the lower by using two of those rubbery things you use to get a stuck jar lid loose. you can use an exacto knife to clean it out. best thing to avoid this is when you glue your tubes into your blanks, plug the ends of the tube with a little playdoh - after the glue drys, clean out the playdoy using an exacto - it comes out easily. (btw, you don't need a lot to "plug the ends" - flatten a little ball of it out in your hand so that it's only about 1/8" or a little less thick, hold it so that your forefinger or thumb is under the playdoh, and just push the tube through it til it hits your finger or thumb.)

i have also had a couple (out of maybe 10?) gatsbys where i completely cleaned out the barrel (or didn't get anything in it in the first place) and it still didn't turn smoothly (but didn't just stick completely). I don't know for sure but think sometimes when the lower assembly is pushed in a the upper tip of it seats itself near the cap something just doesn't line up right. but the majority of the time, no problem.

 

[Stephen]

most common thing is not having the barrel completely clear of glue residue... that kit has a pretty small tolerance where the barrel goes over the lower part of the kit, so anything in the barrel can make it stick.

I agree glue residue. I have done about 100 of these kits in the last 8 months and have the same problem with a few. Sometimes the twist mechanism has been a problem.
I try for fit with the Nib assembly before inserting the twist mechanism in. If it is smooth and not binding, that tells me the barrel is free of glue that was not visible with my aging eyes.. Found the hard way!!
To disassemble the tough ones I use a small drift through the mechanism and knock out the cap - then from the cap end, knock out the mechanism. This was a last resort when unable to use the nib assy. to pull the mechanism out.

 

[pgfitzgerald]

It took a lot of effort, but I managed to get it apart. Sure enough, glue residue in the tube is what caused the problem. Huge lesson learned. :redface:

I may be able to save the kit, but the finish on the blank is badly scratched from the clip spinning around while trying to get it apart. I'll try to refinish it.

So I should be able to use my transfer punches to disassemble the kit by inserting a punch through the mechanism and knocking the clip assembly out of the tube? Then insert a larger punch from the clip end of the tube to knock out the mechanism?

Thanks for the help! I won't be making that mistake again. :biggrin:

Paul

 

[jimbob91577]

I did the Playdoh thing, only I used plumbers putty - don't use the plumbers putty. It made a gooey mess inside my tubes when I tried to clean it out.

The other recommendation was to use a bit of potato to plug the tubes - I'll probably try the Playdoh first.

Just my 2 bits...

 

[ribanett]

I stopped using the Play-Doh about a year ago, too messy. What I do is take a que-tip with a dab of mineral oil and coat the inside of the tube. After the glue sets-up, I take a transfer punch and knock the glue plug out.

To remove any residue left, I made a ream from an old "D" drill glued to a handle. I just run it in and out afew times and its done. I think using a drill instead of a file is better because the flutes will remove the glue without damaging the brass.

Just my nickles worth (everything is going uo you know)

 

[wdcav1952]

Consider dental base plate wax (the flat pink wax sheets) I seal both ends with the wax.

Also, rifle and/or shotgun wire brushes work great to clean out residue.

 

[Druid]

Consider dental base plate wax (the flat pink wax sheets) I seal both ends with the wax.

Ughhh.. I hope that's not recycled dental base plate wax your using!:biggrin::wink::biggrin:

 

[leehljp]

NEWS FLASH: On the Gatsby/Sierra I would be willing to bet that it is NOT the glue. Residual glue residue in the "tube" does will not affect operation of a Gatsby. The _only_ way glue could affect the Gatsby/Sierra is if someone deliberately placed glue INSIDE the receiver of the clip end, which has little to do the the tube. Or, someone were to put glue on the transmission end that fits into the clip. Please look at the kit and the way it is constructed.

The Gatsby/Sierra is getting the "glue residue blame" based on "association" with other pens that _do_ have this problem. The Gatsby/Sierra is not constructed or operate in the same manner.

On the Gatsby, the tube is inserted onto a thick machined part of the clip end that will _not_ distort from the tube, no matter how much glue is in the tube. Again - Residual glue residue in the "tube" does will not affect operation of a Gatsby.

I had the assembly problem last month. I still have the pen somewhere in my shop. Basically the transmission and the machined clip end do not match properly. The clip end hole seemed to be something (estimating here) like .05mm too small. I did not measure it at the time due to trying to get a pen finished. But I did try 2 or 3 other clips in it and it had the same problem. I tried the transmission in another end and it worked OK.

For me: The conclusion was that there is an occasional Sierra clip end that is miss-machined.

 

[Munsterlander]

NEWS FLASH: On the Gatsby/Sierra I would be willing to bet that it is NOT the glue. Residual glue residue in the "tube" does will not affect operation of a Gatsby. The _only_ way glue could affect the Gatsby/Sierra is if someone deliberately placed glue INSIDE the receiver of the clip end, which has little to do the the tube. Or, someone were to put glue on the transmission end that fits into the clip. Please look at the kit and the way it is constructed.

The Gatsby/Sierra is getting the "glue residue blame" based on "association" with other pens that _do_ have this problem. The Gatsby/Sierra is not constructed or operate in the same manner.

On the Gatsby, the tube is inserted onto a thick machined part of the clip end that will _not_ distort from the tube, no matter how much glue is in the tube. Again - Residual glue residue in the "tube" does will not affect operation of a Gatsby.

I had the assembly problem last month. I still have the pen somewhere in my shop. Basically the transmission and the machined clip end do not match properly. The clip end hole seemed to be something (estimating here) like .05mm too small. I did not measure it at the time due to trying to get a pen finished. But I did try 2 or 3 other clips in it and it had the same problem. I tried the transmission in another end and it worked OK.

For me: The conclusion was that there is an occasional Sierra clip end that is miss-machined.

Hank - maybe we're talking degrees of residue here... or which end of the tube has the glue residue? I'm talking about glue residue on the lower end of the barrel, the part that doesn't have anything actually pressed into it and is supposed to just glide around the nib assembly. I think your explanation of transmission and machined clip end not matching probably describes the problem I mentioned that I've had on a small percentage of kits - although this discussion does make me wonder if some residue in the upper end of the barrel could cause a slight canting of the clip, in turn causing a slight misalignment of the transmission to the clip? Regardless, I know for sure early on I had so much residue inside the lower end of the barrel that had I been smart enough to try to slide it over the lower nib assembly before I started pressing things together (like Stephen suggested) I would have found the barrel wouldn't go all the way on, let alone turn smoothly... us newbies can really go to town with the glue you know...

For Paul's and other newer folks' benefit it's worth stressing generally that it is very important to keep glue residue out of tubes for any kit. I know several of the first pens I made (slimlines, comforts) got cracks in the barrel particularly when I pressed the nib in. The glue takes space needed by the pressed in pieces - the pressed in pieces are not going to get smaller because the glue is in the way - you can get displacement/distortion and your nicely finished wood is the loser. All these problems went away for me when I started using the playdoh (or potato, or dental wax, your choice). If you really want to see me in a panic, you should see me when I realize I forgot to put in my playdoh and I'm sitting there with a tubed covered in glue... Actually it's not that big a deal, you just have to be diligent about cleaning the tube - but it's just so much easier when it's plugged.

 

[pgfitzgerald]

I have to agree with Mike. My problem was directly related to the glue residue inside the nib end of the tube. I'd probably also argue that residual glue inside the clip end attributed to my secondary problem, which I'll explain in just a minute.

The instructions said to screw the transmission into the nib, then press the entire pen together. Once I did that, I could not unscrew the nib from the transmission because the residual glue made the fit too tight.

It took three people and a couple of those rubber jar openers to completely unscrew the pen. Once apart I cleaned all the residual glue from inside the nib end of the tube. At that point, I could thread the parts together and apart without issue, but the twisting action was rough and retracting the tip resulted in unscrewing the pen.

Initially, I thought I just hadn't properly tightened the threads, but it turned out that this was not the case. I completely disassembled the pen and cleaned the residual glue from the clip end of the tube. Once reassembled the kit worked as expected. Twisting was smooth in both directions and the pen no longer came apart when retracting the pen.

I don't know all the technical stuff, but I believe (in my case) that residual glue in both ends of the tube resulted in two different problems.

Sometimes I just get excited and forget to clean the glue out of the tubes or forget to square the ends of the blank to remove finish residue prior to assembly. I probably won't be forgetting these steps in the future.

Paul