Help with Triton Fountain Pen Assembly

[Jmaxcy]

Hi all

I am getting ready to assemble a triton fountain pen from exotic blanks. I've never put this kit together. Reading the instructions, I have two questions / clarifications for anyone who has put this together.

The first picture is of the center band. The gold piece is suppose to go all the way down, but I'm getting a bit of resistance when trying. Is this common? Should I try to muscle it or should I let the pen press do this when I assemble onto the blank?

The second picture is of a plastic piece that is suppose to go inside the center band. I'm assuming this is supposed to be inserted all the way to the notch? Again getting a bit of resistance and the instructions aren't super clear on this part.

Anything else to watch out for? Thanks!

 

[Mr Vic]

First answer: Gold then chrome ring and the gold is tight. Press in during assembly will work fine.
Second answer: Your assumption is correct. Press it in.

 

[Jmaxcy]

First answer: Gold then chrome ring and the gold is tight. Press in during assembly will work fine.
Second answer: Your assumption is correct. Press it in.

Thanks so much. Didn't want to force something I shouldn't. When you say press it in for the second answer, I assume this is by hand?

 

[magpens]

@Jmaxcy
When assembling a kit pen, I like to read more than one set of instructions. . Sometimes the Berea instructions are not as clear as they could be.

Here is another set of instructions from the William Wood-Write website . . ( ... penblanks . ca ... )

https://www.penblanks.ca/instructions/english/Triton.pdf

 

[jrista]

With Tritons, I highly recommend two things.

1: Put the plastic insert on the lathe (just directly between two 60 deg centers), and turn it down a little bit. You just need to shrink the diameter a bit, to avoid a common problem: Pressing that piece into your cap tube can often cause cracking in your then turned and finished blank, as it is often a very, very tight fit!!

2: Thin out your tubes a bit from the inside with a rasp. Tritons, for some reason, seem to all too often have too-large a diameter for the parts that are compressed into the tubes. This, too, often causes cracking.

I LOVE the look of the Triton kits, but I lost a good deal of money making one pen for a customer due to a trustone blank cracking every time, until I finally thinned out the tubes (probably too much, even), turned down the black plastic insert, and then finally glued the parts in place. I also had cracking on two other resin/fauxstone versions of the pen, as well as a few wood versions. After the first couple cases, I became extremely meticulous and careful about assembly, making sure not to insert the parts at any angles, or with too much pressure, etc....and still experienced cracking.

It was only after thinning the tubes (which I did after turning and finishing and before inserting the parts) and turning down the black plastic insert, that I finally stopped having problems with Triton kits.

You aren't necessarily guaranteed to run into cracking...but, i thought I'd offer the warning.

 

[Jmaxcy]

With Tritons, I highly recommend two things.

1: Put the plastic insert on the lathe (just directly between two 60 deg centers), and turn it down a little bit. You just need to shrink the diameter a bit, to avoid a common problem: Pressing that piece into your cap tube can often cause cracking in your then turned and finished blank, as it is often a very, very tight fit!!

2: Thin out your tubes a bit from the inside with a rasp. Tritons, for some reason, seem to all too often have too-large a diameter for the parts that are compressed into the tubes. This, too, often causes cracking.

I LOVE the look of the Triton kits, but I lost a good deal of money making one pen for a customer due to a trustone blank cracking every time, until I finally thinned out the tubes (probably too much, even), turned down the black plastic insert, and then finally glued the parts in place. I also had cracking on two other resin/fauxstone versions of the pen, as well as a few wood versions. After the first couple cases, I became extremely meticulous and careful about assembly, making sure not to insert the parts at any angles, or with too much pressure, etc....and still experienced cracking.

It was only after thinning the tubes (which I did after turning and finishing and before inserting the parts) and turning down the black plastic insert, that I finally stopped having problems with Triton kits.

You aren't necessarily guaranteed to run into cracking...but, i thought I'd offer the warning.

well this makes me nervous haha.

 

[jrista]

well this makes me nervous haha.

Just take it careful, dont' over-compress the parts in, and you should be ok. Tritons are beautiful pens!

 

[Jmaxcy]

Just take it careful, dont' over-compress the parts in, and you should be ok. Tritons are beautiful pens!

Success! Sanded the inside of the larger tube a bit but not much. I was very nervous pressing it together, it was pretty tough to get the plastic piece in. I can definitely see how it could cause blanks to crack. I was really sweating it because this was a commissioned pen someone wanted for a Christmas gift, with a request to use redwood as she's from California. Was my only kit of this kind and only piece of redwood so there was a lottt riding on this not cracking. Glad it's off my plate, and thanks for your help!

Pic below (taken by my wife, can't stake claim to those beautiful nails)

 

[jrista]

Success! Sanded the inside of the larger tube a bit but not much. I was very nervous pressing it together, it was pretty tough to get the plastic piece in. I can definitely see how it could cause blanks to crack. I was really sweating it because this was a commissioned pen someone wanted for a Christmas gift, with a request to use redwood as she's from California. Was my only kit of this kind and only piece of redwood so there was a lottt riding on this not cracking. Glad it's off my plate, and thanks for your help!

Pic below (taken by my wife, can't stake claim to those beautiful nails)

Glad it worked out. Looks great! Sounds like the imparted paranoia helped you take it slow and very carefully, which is the best way to approach the Triton kits.