Roy, The pen looks great, keep up the good work.
When things like that happen you just have to accept the fact that education costs money. You could have taken pen turning classes someplace and paid them $50-75 to teach you how to make that pen. But you would not have had the experiance you had with the errors and the dammage taking them apart. Sure it cost you a little but you learned some things that will stick in your head for a looonnngggg time.
It does sound like you need a little guidance in how to take a pen back apart when you make a mistake in assembly. Why don't you post here what you did, step by step. I think you will find a number of people that will give you some guidance, should you need it again. I have made the same errors you discribe but had no trouble correcting them. You are missing something in your education.