Disassembly of Sierra click pen

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Jans husband

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Can I please ask if there is a way of disassembling a Sierra click pen. I know there has been a lot of confusion over the lengths of the Sierra Twist and the Sierra click, and I have read threads about that particularly from Magpens, which explain a lot. It seems to me that there is a difference dependant on the manufacturer/supplier
However, the tube on my click pen is too long, and the nib won't appear when the pen is clicked. I need to disassemble and reduce the length of the tube and reassemble.
Sorry, but this is the first Sierra click I have made. The tube is 61mm (2.4"), wishers the tube on my Sierra Twist (different supplier) is 56mm (2.2")

Many thanks in advance!

Mike
 
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magpens

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@Jans husband @Curly

Hi Mike ... me again !! :D

Firstly ... with regard to different manufacturers ... most that I have used stick to very closely the same brass tube lengths ... 2.21 for the twist and 2.42 for the click. . Kit names differ with manufacturer, but the name "Sierra" (which is the Berea product name) sometimes gets applied to all.

Next ... disassembly is not easy.
You say that your pen is too long for the refill ? . So let's clarify which kit did you actually use .... is it a Berea kit ? . What Berea part number ?

The thing is ... even within the Berea "family" the kits have changed over the years and the Berea documentation itself has not adequately kept track of the changes. . Also, the documentation for some of the older kits is no longer available on the Berea website.

If you have an original Berea Sierra Click, ( if memory serves the part number begins with 7502 but I could be wrong ) you need the supplied refill extender in order to use a standard Parker refill. . However, the Uniball 207 refill will fit without the extender.

The extender is not hard to make from a brass or aluminum rod or even from a scrap piece of acrylic blank material.
It is just a cylinder of length 0.50" and diameter 0.23". . The cylinder can be solid.
One end of the cylinder has a protruding "nipple" which is 0.18" long and 0.075" diameter, but these dimensions are not critical.
The purpose of the nipple is to fit into the hole at the top end of the Parker refill ... a snug fit is better than a loose fit but doesn't matter from a purely functional perspective. . A loose fit will allow the extender to fall out and get lost at the time of the refill replacement.

So ... BEFORE you try to disassemble, make sure whether or not you are missing the refill extender. . You can easily make the extender on lathe.
It does not take long. . You cannot buy the extender as a spare part.

And how do you know if you are missing the extender or not ? . You will need to make some measurements on the fully assembled pen.
To make these measurements you will need a vernier caliper. . Do you have ?

Let me know if you need instructions regarding the measurements and I will then try to put some detailed instructions together for you.

To repeat ... DO NOT ATTEMPT DISASSEMBLY YET !

Cheers,
Mal
 
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Curly

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Once you have explored all the options Mal mentioned it shouldn't be too hard to take apart. I dug around Marla's pens she made ages ago and found a couple Sierra clicks. Also found a couple Sierra click pencils too but that's another thing. Unscrew the front end and put the largest transfer punch that will fit through that will still let you push it to the side of the tube to engage the edges of the upper stuff, a very technical pen term, that contains the click mechanism. Grip the barrel and at the same time push the punch to the side with your thumb and hit it with a hammer. rubber gloves will help with gripping. Hit lightly at first and increasing the force and the part will start coming out turn and relocate the punch as you go to prevent the brass inside from deforming. Don't hit your thumb because it hurts. Once the piece is out, get the largest punch that will fit in the tube to knock out the front piece. Now you can trim the tube and reassemble.
 

Jans husband

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Thanks for your speedy response Mal.

The length of the Click pen is 5.338" (135.59mm) with nib retracted and excluding the button.

I made a Sierra Twist recently, and the length of that is 5.255" (133.45mm)

I tried to send a photo to compare the two, but for some reason the site wouldn't accept it

Any further thoughts?

Cheers
 

Jans husband

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Thanks Curly,
Nearly time for bed here in the UK but will give that a try very soon.

Just concerned not to damage the clicking mechanism!!

I have a set of padded disassembly jaws -mole grips with a plastic covering on the jaws-, so hopefully no thumbs involved!!

Mike
 

magpens

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@Jans husband

Hi Mike,

I brought Pete (Curly) into this because of his expertise. . I know him and his wife, Marla, personally and hold them both in very high regard.

My recommendation would be to avoid disassembly, which carries a VERY high risk of damaging the click mechanism. . DAMHIKT !!

Since you are heading for bed, let's pursue this tomorrow.

Mal
 

magpens

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Instead of disassembly, I recommend that you make (if necessary) an extension piece of the right length to give your refill the appropriate protrusion from the nib of the pen.

This will possibly be a time-consuming trial-and-error procedure, but the best way to go in my opinion.

Well ... it needn't be time-consuming if we can figure out beforehand what length of extension is needed .... chances are it will be 0.50".
 
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magpens

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If you absolutely HAVE TO modify the length of the pen barrel, then you might consider ways to mount the existing pen (after unscrewing nib portion) in your lathe head-stock chuck, accurately centered and coaxial with the lathe axis, and carefully trimming down the length.

A metal-working lathe would be best for doing this, IMO, but it might be possible that your head-stock chuck would accommodate the pen .

The pen clip could be a problem. . Also, there is a high risk of damaging the existing finish on the pen barrel.

Oh .... a problem just occurred to me. . The pen nib portion screws into a pressed-in internally threaded ring at the lower end of the barrel.
Trimming the length as I have suggested would necessarily shorten this ring unless you can find a way to remove the ring first (v. difficult IMO).

That ring is less than half-an-inch long so, if not first removed, it could totally disappear in the trimming operation. . A replacement would then be necessary.

Also, unless the barrel sides are dead parallel to the pen axis, the shape of the pen would be altered by the trimming.

So, as I said, best to avoid these problems and go with making a refill extender.

EDIT: I believe that Pete (Curly) is referring to the ring as the "front piece" when he writes this sentence ....

"Once the piece is out, get the largest punch that will fit in the tube to knock out the front piece."
 
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magpens

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The problem with trying to "bash" out the click mechanism using a punch inserted from the lower end, is that there could be a totally plastic portion to the click mechanism which extends up to 0.7" beyond any metal part of the click mechanism part of the pen. . That plastic portion would get totally destroyed by any punch-and-hammer technique.

There was more than one version of the older "original" Sierra click mechanism ... I have no way of knowing which version you have.

It's possible that I still have examples to photograph, but I cannot be sure, and even if I did have some examples, there is no guarantee that I would be covering all possibilities.

So .... make a refill extender ! . :D

An example of the "original" refill extender is pictured in my recent thread "How to make a Glacia pen longer".

 

Curly

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Good thing we have a house with high ceilings Mal. You are making my head swell. ;)

Mike if you do as I said and press the punch to the side of the tube it will catch a piece of the housing and not touch the clickity stuff (sorry about all the technical terms) unless you let it slip past and into the housing and mash it.

In the end it is just a pen and if it gets wrecked you learned something, so not a total loss.
 

magpens

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Unfortunately, I have to say that in spite of Pete's statement ....

" ... if you do as I said and press the punch to the side of the tube it will catch a piece of the housing and not touch the clickity stuff ..."

there is at least one version of the Sierra Click for which you cannot avoid destroying the click mechanism by the punch-and-hammer.
 

Jans husband

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I recall a recent post from Ed in which he suggested sliding a tube with a slightly less diameter than the pen tube in towards the click mechanism, so it would not damage the click mechanism., and then giving it a hit with a hammer to push the click out.
I do not have a tube at the right size for that at the moment, but I could give that a try if I have some support from the experts!!
Mike
 

magpens

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That could be a workable idea, provided you have the right size of insertion tube to slide in. . It has to be straight and strong and have a thin wall (say about 15 or 20 thou thick ? - to be determined)

One problem is that you first have to remove the internally threaded brass ring at the lower end of the barrel. . That's hard.

Without doing that first, you cannot get your insertion tube close enough to the brass tube interior surface to avoid the plastic mechanism.

Of course, the right size insertion tube has to be steel so that you can hammer it; this thin-walled steel tube would need internal support over a portion of its length near the hammer end.

Definitely this would be a handy tool to make up and keep on hand. . I would support constructing such a tool !! :D
 
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Jans husband

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Thanks for all your help re the disassembly of my Sierra Click pen.

I gave a lot of thought to this over the weekend, and I thought in for a penny in for a pound. As Curly said "its just a pen"

So I set about it!

My method -which I thought may ruin everything- was as follows.

1. Unscrew the click mechanism button from the finial

2. Get on hands and knees with my wife on the kitchen floor to locate the click mechanism spring, which I did not expect would fly out in an uncontrolled way when I removed the button. The kitchen floor is the same colour as the spring! I always knew my wife would come in useful one day-she found it after 10 minutes!!
(for those without a sense of humour,- apologies)

3. Remove the 2 loose pieces of the click mechanism from the tube.

4. Unscrew the nib assembly, remove refill and spring -carefully-I don't think Janice would have helped me this time!! and insert the largest diameter disassembly rod possible into the end. Knock very gently on the rod until the finial click assembly loosens and can be removed.

The remaining part of the click assembly came already attached within the finial, and was "robust plastic" and not therefore as vulnerable as the other smaller and more fragile 2 pieces to the disassembly rod being used.

After shortening the tube length I reassembled the pen.

Success!!

Once again, many thanks

Mike
 

magpens

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@Jans husband

Good to hear that you had success in disassembly, shortening, and reassembly !! :D

Thanks for letting us know.

Just wondering ... The disassembly rod that you used ... was it a solid rod or cylinder ? ... what diameter rod ? .... Thanks ! :D

Also ... can you please comment on the appearance of the part (finial) that you knocked out with the rod and hammer ....
... does it have a white plastic portion that extends about 3/4" towards the nib end ?

I am trying to ascertain what version of the Sierra Click that you are working with, just for my future reference.
 

Jans husband

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Thanks Mal.

The solid rod was 7.62mm-0.300 "

The more solid plastic insert part of the mechanism is 7.30 mm-0.287" just enough to cover the tube mechanism and not enter it when bashed!!

Sorry, I am a Lawyer not an Engineer, but I hope that makes sense.

Anyway a few £££s saved!! And something else learned!! I would be interested to know which version it is, so I don't buy it again.

Now, about that Kitless pen!! Is there no end to the problems?

Mike
 

magpens

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Hi Mike,

I don't know what you mean about "that Kitless pen" ... Sorry ... If I knew what you are referring to, I might be able to help.

As for "which version" of the Sierra Click .... I'll have to research that and get back to you. . If you can provide any further identifying features of that kit that would help. . Berea has made several changes over the years that the Sierra products have been on the market and they have neglected to provide adequate documentation when changes were made. . A few vendors still sell some older stock, and they don't make it clear what they sell sometimes.
It is always a case of "buyer beware" !

Thanks for the other details, which will help me track it down.

With regard to future purchases of Sierra Click pen kits, I would recommend that you go with the new one .... the "Super Button Click".
That one makes use of what we call the Schmidt SKM-88 click mechanism, which is all metal, very quiet, and VERY reliable.
It is made in Germany ... not particularly new, but seems to have been recognized only fairly recently by the pen kit design/vending companies.
The Berea Sierra Super Button Click is, in my opinion, the best of the products currently on the market making use of the SKM-88.
Be sure to check the Berea website and read the instructions for making and assembly before you buy so that you know what you are getting.

But, beware of your tube length because it has changed AGAIN !!!!! .... Keep your calipers handy and always check before you glue !! ... :D 😁;)

Keep in touch !

Mal
 

Jans husband

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Thanks Mal.

The kit described as "Cerra click pen-gold & black chrome" was from UK Pen Blanks

Sorry- the reference to the kitless pen was my way of saying that there is where my likely next problem where I need expert help will arise. I have been trying them out, and slowly improving my technique, but the perfect internal thread so that the nib housing actually screws in correctly is eluding me!
Between you and me;);) is it acceptable to glue the nib housing into the section or do I need to persist?

Mike
 
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