Twist Pen Blues

[Penhecked]

Is there a kit that uses a different type transmission than what is currently
sold. In my short time of pen turning I have had many problems with
the twist mechanisms. Mainly they are loose and do not "lock' in when
extended and close while writing. I would hate to sell these and have
them fail and need replacing frequently.
I am thinking of just not buying anymore twist kits in the future.

 

[ldb2000]

Is there a kit that uses a different type transmission than what is currently
sold. In my short time of pen turning I have had many problems with
the twist mechanisms. Mainly they are loose and do not "lock' in when
extended and close while writing. I would hate to sell these and have
them fail and need replacing frequently.
I am thinking of just not buying anymore twist kits in the future.

Twist transmissions all have a lock position at the very end of the twist but if the refill jams in the nib/nosecone before it is fully extended it won't lock . This is caused because either the transmission is pushed in too far or the barrel is too short , most likely due to over cutting during barrel trimming .
As for failures , better quality kits use transmissions that are much more robust . Cheap kits have very poor quality control and very often fail .
If you buy a slimline kit for under or around $2.00 , be expecting a 50% or worse failure rate . You get what you pay for !!!

 

[Penhecked]

Thanks for the info. Never thought about the refill bottoming
out on the nib before the lock in point could be reached, I will
definitely watch out for that.

 

[nava1uni]

I agree with the Butch. The better quality kits have less failure. I have moved up to paying a bit more for the better quality because then I don't have to replace it, which comes up to the same if not more in cost. And I don't have a disgruntled customer.

 

[Smitty37]

Twist transmissions all have a lock position at the very end of the twist but if the refill jams in the nib/nosecone before it is fully extended it won't lock . This is caused because either the transmission is pushed in too far or the barrel is too short , most likely due to over cutting during barrel trimming .
As for failures , better quality kits use transmissions that are much more robust . Cheap kits have very poor quality control and very often fail .
If you buy a slimline kit for under or around $2.00 , be expecting a 50% or worse failure rate . You get what you pay for !!!

If my customers are having a 50% failure rate they sure aren't telling me about it and I sell and resell slimline kits to buyer after buyer(as well as turning quite a few myself) for less than $2.00....maybe I should raise my prices.

 

[bitshird]

Butch I haven't done any slim lines in quite a while but I used to use a lot of the fancy slimline kits from Woodnwhimsies I think they were about 1.75 if I bought 20 or so of them, and the only failures I've known about were from seating the transmission too far or trying to make them work easier by cleaning the grease out of them, but I guess I've done way over 200 of them and only had a few come back, I'm not getting into the whole China Syndrome, but I still have a bunch of the kits in the lasting plating like Chrome!!! and I need to do more pens and less tools, I do agree though you get what you pay for, slim line or Juniors, Juniors or Emperors, kits or kit less???

 

[ldb2000]

If my customers are having a 50% failure rate they sure aren't telling me about it and I sell and resell slimline kits to buyer after buyer(as well as turning quite a few myself) for less than $2.00....maybe I should raise my prices.

Don't be so defensive Smitty , I was not talking about your product , just the cheap kits in general . When I was still making slimlines I had purchased 100 slimlines for an order I had just gotten . Out of the 100 , 46 kits had such a lousy fit that the parts had to be glued in place , 23 transmissions were bad and another 12 collapsed as they were being pressed in (the tubes were clean and had been deburred and were pushed in straight) , the plating on ALL of the gunmetal kits were so poorly plated that the plating was peeling off .
The total was 56 bad kits out of 100 . I don't know about you but I think that's a very high failure rate and after hearing about other peoples problems (here and on a couple of other sites) I know that I'm not alone .
I'm not saying that you don't get bad kits in the higher quality kits but the low line kits are just not worth the trouble .

 

[Smitty37]

Don't be so defensive Smitty , I was not talking about your product , just the cheap kits in general . When I was still making slimlines I had purchased 100 slimlines for an order I had just gotten . Out of the 100 , 46 kits had such a lousy fit that the parts had to be glued in place , 23 transmissions were bad and another 12 collapsed as they were being pressed in (the tubes were clean and had been deburred and were pushed in straight) , the plating on ALL of the gunmetal kits were so poorly plated that the plating was peeling off .
The total was 56 bad kits out of 100 . I don't know about you but I think that's a very high failure rate and after hearing about other peoples problems (here and on a couple of other sites) I know that I'm not alone .
I'm not saying that you don't get bad kits in the higher quality kits but the low line kits are just not worth the trouble .

I was joking a little, I apologize if it seemed otherwise.

I think I know where you got those kits I bought some of them thinking I'd auction them at eBay but I didn't dare. I later found out a little more about them and they were part of a large shipment from a "new" supplier they had replaced the transmissions by the time I got them but the "fit and finish" problem still existed. The seller that I got them from represented them as Taiwan made though.