PenWorks
Member
I saw PSI has come out with some new pen kits. I have seen and read some reviews on other models. I was still skeptical on ordering anything from them given the quality issue with some of their kits. But the Guardian pen intrigue me a little so I ordered a few kits.
Clearly this pen is a knock off of Michael's Fat boy line of pens. Penturners have been screaming in the past for a good quality click pen, so I thought this could be an answer.
Here is a picture of the original Fat Boy from Michael's Pens.
Very simple straight forward design, with a minimum of parts.
I sell this pen in my store. and although they don't fly off the shelf, I do sell a few as some folks like the size and the click aspect of the pen. Also, it is very well made.
Note that there are only 4 parts to this pen.
Tip, body, clicker, clip. Plus your refill & spring.
Now here is the pen kit of the Guardian.
Count em.... 20 parts! How can someone engineer a 4 part pen to 20 parts [:0] Sticking 10 lbs of crap into a 5 lb bag, comes to mind.
The parts themself are not of good quality either. The tip and front cap are metal, but the ribbed tube is plastic which clearly has the plated plastic look. The rubber washers are not ribbed as shown in the instructions and a little chincy. The 3 part clicker is plastic and has the feel of plastic. They did make the clip metal.
I would have glady traded 15 of these cheap parts for one good click mechanism.
The pen making is really straight forward. You need one blank. If you cut it right, you can get one Guardian blank & one Sierra blank out of a Woodcraft resin. The final diamiter of the turned blank is .623 so you need a larger blank to make this pen. Simply drill a 8mm hole, glue your tube and turn to the required dimension of your pen parts. Now comes the tuff part....... READ THE INSTRUCTIONS ! [)] Clearly, you need to read where all these parts go. They are clearly marked in the instructions and go together well. Here is a picture of the instructions.
I did not like the look of this pen do to the plastic front section, so I took another kit and made a single body pen out of it. I debated wether to use the rubber washers, but in the end decided not to, becuase that would be just one more part to ware out and need replaced. These are not the quality of washers used in the Fat Boy. Some "O" ring style washers ala Ed Davidson desings from the past would look good and could easly be replaced if worn out. But I chose just to ribbed the end. I knew Playing around with trying to make this a one piece design I would manage to loose and ruin some parts. Well the only thing I lost was the white plastic clicker fell out along the line and is somewhere on the floor in the shop. So I tore into another bag for parts. I like the look of the one piece design, but still can not get past the cheap clicker and will not sell these pens to the public. Here is a photo of the original Fat boy, the kit pen and my bashed kit.
My final thoughts on this kit is, yes, penturners need another click style pen, as there is a small market for it. No, this is not the click pen we wanted. I wonder who designs these pens? Why copy someone's work? Why not try to be original in your thinking? Why so many parts? I feel like they expected me to get value out of so many parts instead of offering 4 good parts. So there you have, the Guardian Pen kit. Coming to a local supply store near you
Clearly this pen is a knock off of Michael's Fat boy line of pens. Penturners have been screaming in the past for a good quality click pen, so I thought this could be an answer.
Here is a picture of the original Fat Boy from Michael's Pens.
Very simple straight forward design, with a minimum of parts.
I sell this pen in my store. and although they don't fly off the shelf, I do sell a few as some folks like the size and the click aspect of the pen. Also, it is very well made.
Note that there are only 4 parts to this pen.
Tip, body, clicker, clip. Plus your refill & spring.
Now here is the pen kit of the Guardian.
Count em.... 20 parts! How can someone engineer a 4 part pen to 20 parts [:0] Sticking 10 lbs of crap into a 5 lb bag, comes to mind.
The parts themself are not of good quality either. The tip and front cap are metal, but the ribbed tube is plastic which clearly has the plated plastic look. The rubber washers are not ribbed as shown in the instructions and a little chincy. The 3 part clicker is plastic and has the feel of plastic. They did make the clip metal.I would have glady traded 15 of these cheap parts for one good click mechanism.
The pen making is really straight forward. You need one blank. If you cut it right, you can get one Guardian blank & one Sierra blank out of a Woodcraft resin. The final diamiter of the turned blank is .623 so you need a larger blank to make this pen. Simply drill a 8mm hole, glue your tube and turn to the required dimension of your pen parts. Now comes the tuff part....... READ THE INSTRUCTIONS ! [
)] Clearly, you need to read where all these parts go. They are clearly marked in the instructions and go together well. Here is a picture of the instructions.I did not like the look of this pen do to the plastic front section, so I took another kit and made a single body pen out of it. I debated wether to use the rubber washers, but in the end decided not to, becuase that would be just one more part to ware out and need replaced. These are not the quality of washers used in the Fat Boy. Some "O" ring style washers ala Ed Davidson desings from the past would look good and could easly be replaced if worn out. But I chose just to ribbed the end. I knew Playing around with trying to make this a one piece design I would manage to loose and ruin some parts. Well the only thing I lost was the white plastic clicker fell out along the line and is somewhere on the floor in the shop. So I tore into another bag for parts. I like the look of the one piece design, but still can not get past the cheap clicker and will not sell these pens to the public. Here is a photo of the original Fat boy, the kit pen and my bashed kit.
My final thoughts on this kit is, yes, penturners need another click style pen, as there is a small market for it. No, this is not the click pen we wanted. I wonder who designs these pens? Why copy someone's work? Why not try to be original in your thinking? Why so many parts? I feel like they expected me to get value out of so many parts instead of offering 4 good parts. So there you have, the Guardian Pen kit. Coming to a local supply store near you
