Problem Polaris kits

[rich gubbin]

Hi all,
thought i,d try my new lathe out today, lovely to use, no vibration and everything is running true on it. So i decided to do a Honduran rosewood sierra which turned out well. Then a polaris in blue and black inlace. The barrel when turned looked stunning when polished. Gunmetal hardware i thought, i proceeded to install the hardware, oh no faulty transmission it was spinning. what a pain to remove.
New transmission installed, checked prior to fitting. Ink cartridge in, spring on, screwed tip in, arghhh the tip isnt lining up right, its sitting slightly of centre.
Now this has happened on several polaris kits i,ve made, but i put this down to my old lathe being very very slightly outta true. Im now wondering if this is because these are chinese manufactured kits and maybe lacking in quality. It hasnt happened on other types of kits just the chunkier polaris.
Any one else had this problem????
rgrds
Rich

 

[Pens By Scott]

have you checked your bushings? Are the holes for the mandrel centered? sometimes the bushings can be "off center".

 

[rich gubbin]

I assumed the bushings were good as the pen barrel looks to be true as it has an equal amount of the turned blank around the tube.
rgrds
Rich

 

[weasel1219]

I assumed the bushings were good as the pen barrel looks to be true as it has an equal amount of the turned blank around the tube.
rgrds
Rich

agree with writeitdown, it looks like a bushing problem, bushings tend to deform after a while of using them. Some will start mushrooming on you from the tightening. Another thing is that your mandrel may be deflecting (or bowing), thus causing a slight arc in your tube that is barely noticeable, but apparent when putting the pen together.
Hope this helps.
PS: Chinese parts do come in faulty more often than they should...

 

[JRay8]

i have had a similar problem but mine was caused by excess glue left inside the tube. because of the glue in the brass tube my parts didnt line up straight. now i make sure i clean the inside of my tubes with a wire brush before assembly.

 

[rich gubbin]

Checked the bushings today and they seemed ok. So i checked the threaded insert that goes in the brass tube and screwed it into the tip, very slightly out of alignment. My guess is they havent been threaded squarely as some are worse than others.
Just to be on the safe side, im going to order some new bushings and go for higher quality kits.
rgrds
Rich

 

[rich gubbin]

sorted the problem with the tips not aligning with the barrel, it actually turned out to be the barrel trimmer used wasnt trimming square. so when the tip was tightened down because of a small amount of play in the threads it was slipping to one side, and it was the amount of play which made them appear out in my previous post