Latex Tubing for pen disassembly?

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jrista

jrista

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I seem to have used the last piece of the 3/4" ID latex tubing that came with my pen assembly/disassembly system. I purchased it years ago, and the small length of latex tubing they included has certainly lasted a while (over four years), but the last piece is drying out and looking pretty worn.

I've been trying to find some locally, however it seems all anyone carries anymore is a 1/4" ID or thereabouts, small, too small for use with pens for disassembly. I looked online, and the largest I seem to generally find at places like Amazon (where I could generally have it delivered tomorrow or the next day, which I need if I can get it that fast) max out at about 1/2" ID. I think I saw a 5/9ths ID, which is just slightly over half an inch. That seems like a pretty tight fit for some of the pens I work on, and I'd like to get the 3/4" ID tubing if its at all possible.

Just wondering if anyone knows where to buy 3/4" ID latex tubing (the yellowish-orange stuff)...where I could order a length of say, just a foot, or two, or three? I have found a couple places that sell it in big bulk, but, a 6" (not even, 5"?) long piece lasted me for years, so, a foot or the 3.3 feet that is often sold on Amazon, would last me till the our sun baloons into a red giant, I think..... A 50 foot roll...would certainly last until the heat death of the universe.

Oh, I guess another factor is wall thickness. I did find a couple places that sell 3/4" but the wall thickness is 1/8" which is thick. The stuff that came with the assembly station was 1/6" thick, which I haven't been able to find anywhere.
 
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Thank you. That's what I am looking for. Seems you can't buy this stuff outside of bulk orders which are $50 or more, and won't be here till mid month next month... Largest 3' lengths I have been able to find are 1/2" or in one case 5/9" IDs.

I actually even checked the PSI site...they themselves don't even carry replacement tubing. Glad EB is here to save the day! :D
 
Although I advocate to support members whenever possible. There are other sources should the members not have it in stock. McMaster-Carr per foot $2.94
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Mortalis said:
Although I advocate to support members whenever possible. There are other sources should the members not have it in stock. McMaster-Carr per foot $2.94
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Hmm, I browsed around their site, and they did show tubing, but none of it was latex. I also checked grainger, and they were selling 5 feet of 3/4"IDx1/8"W for $73.90!! I figured McMaster Carr, if they had any, might be about the same price. I don't know why Grainger has it for such an exorbitant price, but...
 
I've been to every local hardware store we have, and a few other places. The only thing anyone stocks locally, is 3/8" or 1/4" ID latex. Also, every store will only stock ONE type of latex tubing, so its either or of those two. No one has the larger diameter 3/4" locally. No one even has 5/8" or 1/2" either.

@Woodchipper Regarding the last bit of your post...do you mean to say you disassemble your pens by hand? I don't think I can do that...aside from not really having any grip (its 90% the darn cap finials...I am always putting them on while forgetting the clip!!!), the friction fit is usually quite tight...
 
Woodchipper said:
jrisita, I disassemble by hand. Can only think of one that was a problem. As they say in the military...Don't force it. Use a bigger hammer.
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Hmm, I don't quite understand that. How?

The friction fit of ALL parts with 90% or more of my pens, is way too tight for me to disassemble by hand. I've tried on occasion, but the fit is too tight and friction too much. The only times I've been able to do that, are when I accidentally over-thinned the brass tube with a rasp and over-reduced the diameter of the fittings. I tend to do that with Triton kits, which almost always result in cracked blanks if you don't thin both the tube a bit, and then try and thin the ridges on the fittings that go inside the tube. I try not to do that on other kits, sometimes when I'm cleaning junk out of the tube it takes more effort and I might over-thin a bit, and then the fittings might not require as much friction. But most of the time, the fit is very tight, and there is no chance of hand disassembly. Even pressing the parts together, requires a bit of force with the pen press during assembly.

Also, I guess maybe I need to state, I CANNOT destroy any of the parts. I need to pop off the finials for the caps, which is most often my problem, so I can put the clip on then reassemble. I tried to remove the finial by hand on this particular pen, but no way...not a chance. I can't even rotate it a smidge. It is IN there, and is not coming out without the right tools and some non-trivial force... FWIW, this is a Jr Independence pen, that I made with some patriotic themed blanks I purchased. I just cannot destroy any part of it to get the finial out, and I am not sure I can find these blanks again (bought them a while ago, haven't found them again yet.)

Another factor here, is in some cases I can remove some fittings, by drilling a right-sized hole in a piece of wood, putting the fitting in that hole, and pressing it out with my drill press. That only works, though, when the blank offers a lip to counter the force. That is pretty rare. The only other time I've done that is when I'm customizing some part of a kit, say forcing out any existing cap on a finial (i.e. Barons, I do that with some times), to be replaced with my own turned cap. But in the case of a blank-diameter fitting, this isn't an option, since there is no lip to work with.
 
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