Duraclick blank length?

[MPVic]

I have a blank with the tube glued in but when I trimmed the blank, I somehow shortened it from 2.769" to 2.71. Is the length very critical? If some of you have run into the same problem, what suggestions might you have to fix this? I had thought that just shortening the refill extender might compensate for the short blank.

Thanks in advance,
Mark

 

[magpens]

You have over-shortened by 2.769 - 2.71 = 0.059", which is very close to 1.5 mm

To me, that seems like a significant amount.

You would certainly notice that in the amount that the refill extends.
There could be a teeny weeny bit of extension even when the refill is in the un-extended position, and I would not like that at all.
But I don't know the architecture of the Duraclick well enough to say that for sure.

Now, having said that, it may not bother you if that were the case because personal preferences for the use of pens are different.

One way to compensate would be to add a thin ring of material to one or, preferrably, both ends of your "shortie" blank.
A thin piece of aluminum from a pop can or a beer can on each end could do the trick. (I don't know the thickness of such material.)
Or you could use a thin piece of colored plastic material, or even wood veneer, on each end.
If you use plastic/wood, you might have to thin it back (to the same thickness on both ends) with your skew chisel on the lathe.
And, of course, you would have to carefully drill the "shim piece" to have the proper diameter hole, matching the brass tube hole.

Shortening the "refill extender" is certainly a possible way to effect a "fix".
Be careful how you go about that operation because it will be possible to "overdo" it on that soft plastic material.

I enclose a screenshot of the Duraclick assembly diagram. Thickening the small tab on the pen clip is another possible "fix".

 

[penicillin]

I have a blank with the tube glued in but when I trimmed the blank, I somehow shortened it from 2.769" to 2.71. Is the length very critical? If some of you have run into the same problem, what suggestions might you have to fix this? I had thought that just shortening the refill extender might compensate for the short blank. (Image of pen blank with pen tube issues)
Thanks in advance,
Mark

Shortening the refill extender will work perfectly.

The same thing happened to me. The next mistake I made was sanding or grinding the plastic insert too much - be careful, it is easy to do with the soft plastic.

I made my own shortened insert from a piece of dowel. I drilled a small hole in the center, glued in a nail, and then cut the nail off with a heavy wire cutter and smoothed it with a grinder.

I use that pen all the time, and it works perfectly. I made it three years ago.

 

[David350]

Another option to consider if you are keeping the pen for your self is to take a razor blade and trim off a bit of the protruding tip on the end of the parker refill. This way, you are not permanently changing the kit's parts and if you are like a lot of us and substitute Schmidt refills for the standard kit refills, you may have many extra refills lying around to experiment with. I have done this myself and it is an easy fix.

However, if you are going to place this pen with someone else, you probably don't want to burden them with this procedure when they replace a refill, so I would then go with the above mentioned shortening of the refill extender.

Finally, were you using a barrel trimmer? If so, you should check out Rick Herrell's jig for sanding / squaring the ends of the blanks. When I used a blank trimmer, sometimes it would grab and chip out both wood and resin blanks. It was also easy to over trim, but with the jig, I have not had a single issue since...

 

[MPVic]

You have over-shortened by 2.769 - 2.71 = 0.059", which is very close to 1.5 mm

To me, that seems like a significant amount.

You would certainly notice that in the amount that the refill extends.
There could be a teeny weeny bit of extension even when the refill is in the un-extended position, and I would not like that at all.
But I don't know the architecture of the Duraclick well enough to say that for sure.

Now, having said that, it may not bother you if that were the case because personal preferences for the use of pens are different.

One way to compensate would be to add a thin ring of material to one or, preferrably, both ends of your "shortie" blank.
A thin piece of aluminum from a pop can or a beer can on each end could do the trick. (I don't know the thickness of such material.)
Or you could use a thin piece of colored plastic material, or even wood veneer, on each end.
If you use plastic/wood, you might have to thin it back (to the same thickness on both ends) with your skew chisel on the lathe.
And, of course, you would have to carefully drill the "shim piece" to have the proper diameter hole, matching the brass tube hole.

Shortening the "refill extender" is certainly a possible way to effect a "fix".
Be careful how you go about that operation because it will be possible to "overdo" it on that soft plastic material.

I enclose a screenshot of the Duraclick assembly diagram. Thickening the small tab on the pen clip is another possible "fix".

View attachment 345096

Mal, thank you for the suggestions, much appreciated.

 

[MPVic]

Shortening the refill extender will work perfectly.

The same thing happened to me. The next mistake I made was sanding or grinding the plastic insert too much - be careful, it is easy to do with the soft plastic.

I made my own shortened insert from a piece of dowel. I drilled a small hole in the center, glued in a nail, and then cut the nail off with a heavy wire cutter and smoothed it with a grinder.

I use that pen all the time, and it works perfectly. I made it three years ago.

View attachment 345093

Much appreciated

Another option to consider if you are keeping the pen for your self is to take a razor blade and trim off a bit of the protruding tip on the end of the parker refill. This way, you are not permanently changing the kit's parts and if you are like a lot of us and substitute Schmidt refills for the standard kit refills, you may have many extra refills lying around to experiment with. I have done this myself and it is an easy fix.

However, if you are going to place this pen with someone else, you probably don't want to burden them with this procedure when they replace a refill, so I would then go with the above mentioned shortening of the refill extender.

Finally, were you using a barrel trimmer? If so, you should check out Rick Herrell's jig for sanding / squaring the ends of the blanks. When I used a blank trimmer, sometimes it would grab and chip out both wood and resin blanks. It was also easy to over trim, but with the jig, I have not had a single issue since...

Thanks for the tip. No I wasn't using a barrel trimer. I thought I had more wood to trim so I just used my small handsaw. Should have known better - I have Rick Herrell's sanding jig & shame on me for not using it!!!!

 

[Woodchipper]

We live and learn. I have the Whiteside barrel trimmer. I use the drill press and take down the blank very carefully and slowly. When the brass shows as bright, I quit. The last part has very light touches.

 

[SteveJ]

It may be that you could replace the refill with a Pilot G2 refill and not use the extender. The Pilot refill is longer than the Parker but I'm not sure how much longer. I adapted a Blade kit to accept the Pilot refill and had to shorten the click mechanism. If the Pilot still extends too far you can either shorten the refill extender or shorten the click mechanism.