dcameraman
Member
I was surprised and a little bit interested when I laid the DuraClick EDC ballpoint refill and extension next to one of my rollerball refills. They are almost exactly the same length. I guess I shouldn't be surprised though. That little plastic extension is designed to allow the use of a ballpoint refill in a rollerball pen!
Naturally, I tried using one of my rollerball refills in the DuraClick EDC . . . no go. It was too big in diameter, and the nose had a different profile. That caused other difficulties, which you'll hear about later.
I eventually figured out what steps needed to be done to make a rollerball refill fit in and work in the DuraClick EDC. Whether or not it's good practice to use a rollerball in a click pen is another topic entirely.
So . . . what modifications are required to use a rollerball in the DuraClick EDC?
1. Drill out the two knurled pieces all the way through with a 1/4" drill. This allows the refill to fit into these pieces. I didn't want to damage the pieces and I didn't have a collet the right size, so I made an adapter to go between a collet size that I do have, and the size I need for these parts.
Not required for the rollerball conversion, but something I do on all my pens . . . I trim off about .003" from the step where the knurled pieces insert into the brass tube. Remove just enough material to allow the brass tube to slide on smoothly, without any play. I epoxy all my fittings onto my pens. I learned the hard way that a press fit doesn't work for stone pens.
2. Drill out the nose cone partway through with a 1/4" drill. Drill until you meet the first 'lip'. This allows the body of the refill to fit into the nose cone. The difficulty here, is that it's rather difficult to hold onto the nose cone and drill it. If you attach it to the knurled finger grip section and drill it out with a normal right hand bit, the nose cone will try to unscrew. I used a left hand drill bit so that the nose cone wouldn't unscrew. I then had to use a 3/8" ID piece of tubing and a pair of pliers to get the nose cone unscrewed from the knurled section.
3. Drill out the nose cone partway through with a 3/16" drill. You only have to drill an extra .1" in from where you stopped with the 1/4" bit. This allows the refill to extend farther out the tip. Without this the click action won't work.
4. Chamfer the knurled piece on the clip end. This allows the refill to retract all the way. Sometimes the refill will catch on this edge when retracting. Chamfering this lip helps.
5. Make and insert a plug in the end of the rollerball refill. The click mechanism is rather narrow and fits nicely into the hole on the end of the rollerball refill. This plug makes it so that the click mechanism has something to push against. Also, the rollerball refill is slightly shorter than the ballpoint. An extra .020" helps push the rollerball refill out the tip about the same as the ballpoint. I cheated and spent some time making a cutter that would cut each part in one pass, and then cut off the part in the next pass after I moved the cutter .245".
6. Order new springs. The stock spring is long. When fully compressed, it doesn't allow the rollerball refill to extend far enough out the tip for the click mechanism to cycle. I purchased these from www.thespringstore.com Part # PC013-156-8000-MW-0630-C-N-IN Price was $1.10 / spring. Minimum order of $40
Possible? Yes.
Practical? Not really.
On my last batch of ten pens, it took me about an hour and 40 minutes to do the conversion. Roughly 10 minutes per pen.
Doing this conversion allows me to offer my DuraClick EDC pens in either ballpoint OR rollerball!
Hope you enjoyed this.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Naturally, I tried using one of my rollerball refills in the DuraClick EDC . . . no go. It was too big in diameter, and the nose had a different profile. That caused other difficulties, which you'll hear about later.
I eventually figured out what steps needed to be done to make a rollerball refill fit in and work in the DuraClick EDC. Whether or not it's good practice to use a rollerball in a click pen is another topic entirely.
So . . . what modifications are required to use a rollerball in the DuraClick EDC?
1. Drill out the two knurled pieces all the way through with a 1/4" drill. This allows the refill to fit into these pieces. I didn't want to damage the pieces and I didn't have a collet the right size, so I made an adapter to go between a collet size that I do have, and the size I need for these parts.
Not required for the rollerball conversion, but something I do on all my pens . . . I trim off about .003" from the step where the knurled pieces insert into the brass tube. Remove just enough material to allow the brass tube to slide on smoothly, without any play. I epoxy all my fittings onto my pens. I learned the hard way that a press fit doesn't work for stone pens.
2. Drill out the nose cone partway through with a 1/4" drill. Drill until you meet the first 'lip'. This allows the body of the refill to fit into the nose cone. The difficulty here, is that it's rather difficult to hold onto the nose cone and drill it. If you attach it to the knurled finger grip section and drill it out with a normal right hand bit, the nose cone will try to unscrew. I used a left hand drill bit so that the nose cone wouldn't unscrew. I then had to use a 3/8" ID piece of tubing and a pair of pliers to get the nose cone unscrewed from the knurled section.
3. Drill out the nose cone partway through with a 3/16" drill. You only have to drill an extra .1" in from where you stopped with the 1/4" bit. This allows the refill to extend farther out the tip. Without this the click action won't work.
4. Chamfer the knurled piece on the clip end. This allows the refill to retract all the way. Sometimes the refill will catch on this edge when retracting. Chamfering this lip helps.
5. Make and insert a plug in the end of the rollerball refill. The click mechanism is rather narrow and fits nicely into the hole on the end of the rollerball refill. This plug makes it so that the click mechanism has something to push against. Also, the rollerball refill is slightly shorter than the ballpoint. An extra .020" helps push the rollerball refill out the tip about the same as the ballpoint. I cheated and spent some time making a cutter that would cut each part in one pass, and then cut off the part in the next pass after I moved the cutter .245".
6. Order new springs. The stock spring is long. When fully compressed, it doesn't allow the rollerball refill to extend far enough out the tip for the click mechanism to cycle. I purchased these from www.thespringstore.com Part # PC013-156-8000-MW-0630-C-N-IN Price was $1.10 / spring. Minimum order of $40
Possible? Yes.
Practical? Not really.
On my last batch of ten pens, it took me about an hour and 40 minutes to do the conversion. Roughly 10 minutes per pen.
Doing this conversion allows me to offer my DuraClick EDC pens in either ballpoint OR rollerball!
Hope you enjoyed this.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
