Cigar/Big Ben .... room for error?

[G1Pens]

How much room for error do I have on a cigar lower barrel? How much can I shorten the barrel and still have the pen operate properly. I know some pens have very little tollerance and other have a big margin.

I need to shorten the long/lower barrel. How much can I take off?

 

[ed4copies]

When you retract the refill on a cigar, you can still write on your hand, if you have faced the blank just a "wee bit" too much.

If you decide to shorten that barrel, prepare for a major "redesign" of the kit.

Talk with Butch (LDB2000), he has worked with that kit extensively. And we haven't seen him lately, call him out of retirement!!

 

[Smitty37]

Not much

How much room for error do I have on a cigar lower barrel? How much can I shorten the barrel and still have the pen operate properly. I know some pens have very little tollerance and other have a big margin.

I need to shorten the long/lower barrel. How much can I take off?

Not much - on the cigar the bottom tube seems to be very critical in both directions. There is a black ring above the tip remove that from a cigar and screw the tip all the way in and you'll see what I mean. I just had a customer shorten it too much by just taking away a little tube while squaring the blank.

 

[DurocShark]

If you need to stretch the lower tube you can cut it in half, and insert the tube from either end, leaving a gap in the middle.

Note that this will really only work with sturdy materials such as straight grained wood or resin or something. I wouldn't do it with a burl or softwood.

 

[hunter-27]

Basically zero tolerance for shortening it, without going into a full blown modification. Ed already stated why.

 

[randyrls]

I'll take a contrary view. You can shorten the lower blank by about 1/8" or so. Assemble the lower barrel as normal, then unscrew the tranny until the tip extends and retracts properly. Now put a drop of super glue or Locktite on the tranny threads.

Make sure the instructions for the pen say to unscrew the nib tip to change the ink cartridge!!

PS. I do this for ALL double twist Cigar pens. The glue on the tranny threads prevents unscrewing the tranny when retracting the ink tip.

 

[ldb2000]

Thanks Ed .
Gary , there is very little room on the lower barrel to play with but there are several modifications that can be made if you over cut the barrel . You can trim a little plastic off the end the refill but I always advise against that because when it comes time to change the refill the new one will have to be modified for the pen to operate properly .
You can use a Fisher Space pen refill without the plastic Parker adapter if you absolutely have to have a shorter barrel but the pen will only work with those refills , again I don't advise it .
If you trimmed the lower barrel too short by mistake you could add "Oops Bands" to lengthen the barrel . It would be best if you replaced the shortened tube with one of the right length but the flanges that press into the tubes on the hardware are long enough that you could carefully press them into the brass tubes even if the oops bands hang past the ends of the tube by a couple of thousandths , just don't press too hard or you could break the oops bands .
In the end , there are always ways to modify the cigar lower barrel to make them work properly , it all depends on what happened or what you are trying to do . If you need help , feel free to PM me and I will give you some alternatives .

 

[MarkD]

Gary, as previously stated the length of the lower barrel is pretty much fixed but depending on what your trying to accomplish there may be other options. For example, I have made a single barrel cigar pen by turning down the coupler so the the blank slides over it. You could always use a technique like this and use a shorter lower blank and a longer upper blank and make a custom centerband or no centerband. Cigar pens are highly modifiable.

I have some extra cigar pen parts I can send you if you want to play around without destroying a kit.

 

[sbell111]

I second Randy's approach. I also secure the transmission in all cigar pens (using locktite). If the lower barrel was faced a bit too much, just unscrew the transmission just a bit to compensate and then secure it.

 

[G1Pens]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I may opt for the Randy/Steve approach. Basically the end of the blank blew out when drilling. I thought I could save it, but it just doesnt look right. If I shorten it by a little less than an eigth and then adjust in the transmission. It may work. An oops band just would not work on this pen.

 

[Smitty37]

lot of adjustment there

Thanks for all the replies. I think I may opt for the Randy/Steve approach. Basically the end of the blank blew out when drilling. I thought I could save it, but it just doesnt look right. If I shorten it by a little less than an eigth and then adjust in the transmission. It may work. An oops band just would not work on this pen.

Backing the transmission out that much seems like a lot, but I do wish you the best.