I have made quite a few of these from Woodcraft and CSUSA, and have never heard of any problems with any of them, and people love them. I have several I use for a variety of purposes, and have had a single issue with the first one I made for myself. The internal mechanism fell apart (the center tube separated from the collet where the spring acts on it.) but it pressed back together just fine. And while this may sound like an issue, this is my garage pencil, who's main purpose for the past 2 years has been marking tiles, wood, and drywall for cutting, and spends a fair amount of it's time in mid air between where it was sitting and the floor (I hate the clips, so it rolls by nature. It also spent a significant amount of last summer "Lost" outside under my picnic table, so while it can be said that this failure is possible, based on the way this pencil has been treated, I have to say I was asking for it...
As a side note, I did also purchase some of the PSI ones, but they are a bit different (the clip is built into the top end, and the tubes are threaded rather than having a press in insert...) I do most of my turning between centers, and haven't had a chance to try and turn these without trashing the threads on the tubes when they are put between centers. I'm probably going to make my own bushings for them just to get these done, but honestly haven't taken the time. PSI does also sell (I beleive) a 3mm or so version of these, if you aren't crazy about the big led but want something bigger than the 2mm...