I have been wondering myself for a long time why there is no slimline clicker.
I have come to the conclusion that it might be a matter of patent infringement.
I have taken apart a number of those giveaway pens that you get from real estate agents and others, and even in the mail from charitable organizations asking for donations. Those pens are incredibly cheap to produce, extremely simple in their design, and usually extremely reliable (except perhaps for the refill life).
I even substituted a Parker refill for the cheap refill in one giveaway pen and the mechanism works, with no modifications except a minor enlargement of the end hole where the refill tip exits and retracts.
There is no reason why a pen kit maker such as Dayacom could not adapt such a design to a 7 mm kit format, with minimal parts size change only.
The makers of those cheap giveaway pens have obviously done some clever design engineering and are making a lot of money in selling their cheap pens by the billions. The Dayacoms have to know all about those designs. The designs must be protected by patents.
There is another factor too. The kit pen industry seems to be driven by manufacturer push and not by market pull. Take a look at all the "different" new pen kits that have appeared in the last few years. There is really nothing new in them conceptually. A skull on top; a different bullet design on the bottom; a differently-shaped center band - but the same (marginally functional) old mechanism inside. And we all have to buy a couple to try them out. They know we'll buy their kits whatever they produce.
If we all stood up and demanded a re-engineering of the mechanisms, including a 7 mm clicker design do you think they would listen ?
But no .... we buy whatever they put on the market. Pen turners are at the mercy of the pen kit manufacturers. We're wimps.
Good points Mal. I know I have to try out the new designs to see if one might be what I'm looking for. And the designs seem to all have at least one thing about them that I don't really like. It seems like they have someone designing their pens who does not know much about making pens and what makes them appealing. I've tried giving my input but it seems to be ignored so they must have some people they rely on for input but not the average pen turner.
One great example is the new American Patriot roller ball pen from PSI. I absolutely love the smoothness of the threading, but I cannot find a comparable capped pen with less of the bling that would allow me to make a nice functional roller ball pen at a reasonable price. Now granted, I have not tried out all of the various roller ball pens that are available on the market, but that would take a lot of time and expense just to find one that is acceptable as far as both appealing in looks and dependable in function. There probably is one out there but I'm still searching for the perfect combination and have not found it yet.
And the lack of a good clicker slimline pen kit is still just baffling to me.
Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.