Another Cigarillo fail

[qquake]

My second Woodcraft Cigarillo pen. Like the first, this one doesn't work either. It binds somewhere, somehow, so you can't twist it to extend or retract the refill. It's a shame, I like the style of the pen, including the roller clip. I was thinking the length of the tenon was the problem, so I made this one longer. That wasn't it. It's obviously a design flaw somewhere. I noticed that the Cigarillo kits are on clearance now on Woodcraft's website. The wood is bubinga, and the finish is Pens Plus.

 

[qquake]

There is another Cigarillo kit, from CSUSA. But it's a 7mm with a Cross style refill, and doesn't have a roller clip.

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[qquake]

I took a twist mechanism from another kit, just to see what happens. The refill doesn't fully retract. So even if it did twist, the pen still wouldn't be usable. So I thought maybe I trimmed the lower body too much. But nope, it's the same length as the tube. This is one jacked up kit.

 

[Stubach]

I found with several of the cigar kits I have gotten (mine come from Rockler) they sometimes daily to drill out the tip hole fully. Can't recall the but size off hand but if you run a drill bit through it that just cleans out the hole than they should work. Mine were just a hair too tight to allow retracting.

 

[qquake]

This is much different than a Cigar kit. Rockler doesn't sell these. But I know what you mean, the hole in the tip being too small so that the refill binds in it. That isn't the problem in this case, when I remove the twist mechanism the refill retracts completely. Without the mechanism in place, you can push the refill in and out with no binding.

 

[egnald]

I looked at the Woodcraft instruction sheet but unfortunately it doesn't have dimensions on the lower tube. It certainly looks like the lower tube might be too short for the kit to work properly. Maybe you could measure the tube lengths in a few kits to see if it is consistent and perhaps experiment by using an 8mm tube that is 1/8 inch longer than the ones in the kit. Just a thought - Dave

 

[jrista]

What a bummer... I was just at woodcraft today, and was looking at pen kits. I bought a few Wall Streets, and was going to buy some Cigarillo, but then I remembered your first thread and decided against it. I wonder if they had a bad batch, all with a consistent manufacturing defect?

 

[qquake]

I emailed Woodcraft, be interesting to hear what they have to say.

 

[keithbyrd]

I have made several Cigarillo kits from CSUSA and have had Zero problems.

 

[KenB259]

I have only made the CSUSA version and I never had any issues.no realize they are slightly different but if you like the kit, I'd go with the CSUSA one.

 

[qquake]

The CSUSA version doesn't appeal to me like the Woodcraft version does.

 

[qquake]

The tech guy at Woodcraft sent this to me. An unturned, assembled Cigarillo pen. The twist mechanism does operate, the refill extends and retracts. If you look, you'll see that the center band is even with the end of the brass tube. When the upper body is attached to the lower body, there is a very slight gap, maybe a thousandth or less, between the bottom of the center band and the twist adapter. So that tells me the problem is the center band binding against the twist adapter. But the length of the tenon would be absolutely critical. Something apparently I didn't achieve in either pen I turned.

I found something interesting in one of the reviews on Woodcraft's website. BH stated in 2018, "However the directions are not the best way to assemble the pen. If you put the pen transmission in the cap as the directions state the depth is extremely critical and it is very likely that the pen won't twist easily. It is far better to assemble the body first with the screwed on transmission then press the assembled cap over leaving a very small gap between the cap and body." I would like to try it, but I don't know if I want to turn another one to try. Maybe I'll see if I can disassemble one of the caps I've already turned. It will likely damage the twist mechanism inside, but Woodcraft sent me another.

 

[qquake]

Well, BH was right. I disassembled one of the Cigarillo pens I had turned, and reassembled like he suggested. I left a very small gap between the center band and twist adapter. It works! I must admit, I feel a measure of satisfaction from finally getting one of the pens assembled and functional. I'm still not in love with the kit, though. But I do like the pen now that it works.

 

[Stubach]

Maybe I'm just a newb at this so please forgive me but that seems more like a design flaw than feature. I personally like my pens to have nice tight fits with as little to no gapping as possible. If that mechanism binds when they are fit together tight (and according to instructions) than that's not right.
Glad you were able to get it together properly not and pen does look nice otherwise. Thanks for the warning/learnings on these kits though.

 

[qquake]

Maybe I'm just a newb at this so please forgive me but that seems more like a design flaw than feature. I personally like my pens to have nice tight fits with as little to no gapping as possible. If that mechanism binds when they are fit together tight (and according to instructions) than that's not right.
Glad you were able to get it together properly not and pen does look nice otherwise. Thanks for the warning/learnings on these kits though.

I agree, I think it's a design flaw, too. In all my years turning pens, I've never seen another kit like it. I don't know why they didn't make it like the Cigar kits, where the cap just pushes onto the twist mechanism.