Srewed up longwood pen

[Joe G]

I just had a friend over and he wanted to turn a pen so I gave him a psi longwood kit to try. We cut, glued and turned the blanks, pressed everything together and was joining the upper barrel to the lower assembly and could only get it half way on. Shined light in upper barrel and saw no obstructions. Tried again and same thing. Lightly sanded the lower tube and was able to fit the upper barrel to the pen but then could not budge the twist mechanism. had a heck of time getting upper barrel off again but when I did the twist mechanism worked fine. Put it back together and still to tight to budge. Any body run into this before or have any idea what's going on?

I have made about a dozen and they were all working great till this mess.

 

[Vince_Hoffmann]

When this happens, I check the inside for glue residue that dripped down the inside of the tube. Some kits are very sensitive to even the slightest reduction in diameter of the inside of the tube.

Also, try lightly reaming the ends of the tube to remove small burrs caused by the end mill.

It's also possible the kit has excessively thick plating. If you have more than one kit of that pen, try using parts from another kit to see if you have the same problem.