Pen Blank a Skosh too Short

[mblatz]

Hello. I read the couple of threads here that a search on "short" yielded on this, but I am still not sure how to proceed...or if I even can/should:

I bought some cast acrylic pen blanks with tubes pre-inserted for 30-caliber bullet-style pens. To avoid blowout I don't use a barrel trimmer for acrylic blanks but use a disk sander instead. In this case, I lost a little focus/attention and went about .07 - 0.9 inches shorter than the instructions call for. So my main question is, is this a recoverable situation? Can I adjust anything at the point of assembly for these? Worth noting: two of the kits are twist style, and two others are bolt action (i.e. effectively a click) style.

If more info is needed for answering this questions, please let me know.

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(edit to correct typo in shortage amount)

 

[KenB259]

Hello. I read the couple of threads here that a search on "short" yielded on this, but I am still not sure how to proceed...or if I even can/should:

I bought some cast acrylic pen blanks with tubes pre-inserted for 30-caliber bullet-style pens. To avoid blowout I don't use a barrel trimmer for acrylic blanks but use a disk sander instead. In this case, I lost a little focus/attention and went about .7 - .9 shorter than the instructions call for. So my main question is, is this a recoverable situation? Can I adjust anything at the point of assembly for these? Worth noting: two of the kits are twist style, and two others are bolt action (i.e. effectively a click) style.

If more info is needed for answering this questions, please let me know.

If you are close to 3/4 of an inch short, or more, with tubes already in them you're only option would be to add end caps, but you'd need to cut short pieces of tube to glue into them.

 

[mblatz]

If you are close to 3/4 of an inch short, or more, with tubes already in them you're only option would be to add end caps, but you'd need to cut short pieces of tube to glue into them.

Interesting thought for future! But in this case shortage is very small, and blanks are clear acrylic with decal embedded, i.e. a bit "custom", so it would be a little too obvious/attention drawing for my current SNAFU. (assuming I understood your suggestion correctly.)

 

[ed4copies]

More info is needed! .7 to .9 what? If that is tenths of an inch, it IS 3/4 as stated above--NOTHING is going to make up that difference.
If you actually mean 7-9 THOUSANDTHS, the answer will depend on the actual pen design--the bolt action you will need to lengthen, but could do so with an "oops ring" at each end and it would look fine. Twist pens vary--body twist or finial twist makes a huge difference.

A body twist "sierra style" can be off by a quarter inch with no real difficulties. Finial twist is much more demanding.

 

[KenB259]

Maybe

Interesting thought for future! But in this case shortage is very small, and blanks are clear acrylic with decal embedded, i.e. a bit "custom", so it would be a little too obvious/attention drawing for my current SNAFU. (assuming I understood your suggestion correctly.)

you meant .070 - .090 ?

 

[mblatz]

Maybe

you meant .070 - .090 ?

I did! Thanks for noticing...it's been corrected in OP.

 

[mblatz]

More info is needed! .7 to .9 what? If that is tenths of an inch, it IS 3/4 as stated above--NOTHING is going to make up that difference.
If you actually mean 7-9 THOUSANDTHS, the answer will depend on the actual pen design--the bolt action you will need to lengthen, but could do so with an "oops ring" at each end and it would look fine. Twist pens vary--body twist or finial twist makes a huge difference.

A body twist "sierra style" can be off by a quarter inch with no real difficulties. Finial twist is much more demanding.

lol...that's a great idea. Frickin' amazingly, I actually have some 3/4 diameter white acrylic disks, aka "oops rings" I can maybe use, although they would not be seated on the brass tube but just glued to the end of blank. But I guess it doesn't hurt to try as the blanks are probably worthless without.

And as noted, shortage is ~.08 inches, give or take.

And it sounds like if I allocate these to two of the twist style kits I have, I may be able to "get away" with no modifications/corrections to the blank? Originally I guess I was have been worried the ink cartridge may have stuck out too much...

 

[ed4copies]

With a body twist design, the turned body is an "add-on". All the mechanism is in the nib and transmission, the body is "just for pretty".

 

[RunnerVince]

lol...that's a great idea. Frickin' amazingly, I actually have some 3/4 diameter white acrylic disks, aka "oops rings" I can maybe use, although they would not be seated on the brass tube but just glued to the end of blank. But I guess it doesn't hurt to try as the blanks are probably worthless without.

And as noted, shortage is ~.08 inches, give or take.

And it sounds like if I allocate these to two of the twist style kits I have, I may be able to "get away" with no modifications/corrections to the blank? Originally I guess I was have been worried the ink cartridge may have stuck out too much...

I know with anything that resembles a slimline in design (transmission pressed into the center-facing end of the lower body), there's a ton of leeway. You can press the transmission in more or less to get the nib reveal that you want. The upper body only has to be long enough to accommodate the top of the ink refill.

I've also "fixed" a few pens for personal use by simply sanding down the back end of the ink refill. Not a good solution for gift/sale because it's something that has to be done each time you replace the refill. I oversanded a cigar-style kit, and on examinging the transmission, realized that it had no interaction with the indexing grooves on the end of the refill. Maybe that's different on higher-end kits, but it's been true for all the $8-$15 cigars I've used.